News Director 
Column By: BROOKE JOHNPIER / RPW – RANSOMVILLE, NY – Hi! I’m Brooke Johnpier and I’m the newest member of the RPW family!
You’re going to be seeing a lot of articles from me in the future, so I figured that I would introduce myself so that you can put a person with the name, and know what to expect from me.
How I came to be a race fan is pretty simple: I went one night, and got hooked. I was eight years old. Ten years later, I’m more obsessed with racing than ever before. Now, how I got the idea to become a motorsports/automotive journalist is pretty simple too.
When I was twelve years old, I knew I had a knack for writing, and I loved cars and racing more than anything. I started researching, and I realized that there’s a career for that. I decided on the spot that that was the field I wanted to go into, and now, I’m in that field, and I’m not even out of high school yet!
When I first got my career in mind, I had no idea that it would be so attainable. I’m working for Speedway Illustrated part-time, and now I’m working for Race Pro Weekly. My dreams are coming true, and I haven’t even gone to college yet!
But, I am going to college. I’m going to St. Bonaventure University for Sports Media in August. That means that I will miss the last few weeks of the race season at Ransomville, but I’ll be there for most of it, and that’s all that matters.
So, what can you expect from me about Ransomville Speedway? Well, I’ll be talking about the five classes that Ransomville has: Modified, Sportsman, Novice Sportsman, Street Stock, and Mini Stock.
To give you an idea of what these classes are like, I’m going to give you a brief introduction of them.
The Modified class is made up of 358 Modifieds, which are also known as small-blocks. Some of the biggest names in small-block Modified racing race at Ransomville on a weekly basis. You have Mat Williamson, Chad Brachmann, Ryan Susice, Greg Martin, and sometimes even Erick Rudolph!
The action is intense and crazy, and I plan to bring all that craziness to you.
The Sportsman class is just as exciting as the Mods. The only difference: they don’t go as fast. You have drivers like Cody McPherson, Cameron Tuttle, Brett Senek, Derek Wagner, and Dave DiPietro II racing weekly. You’ll see drivers like Dave come up from the rear of the field to claim a top five position within twenty laps.
It’s exciting, and again, I plan on bringing that excitement to you.
The Novice Sportsman class is for drivers who wish to enter the open-wheel ranks, but aren’t as experienced as the drivers who run regular Sportsman. On a typical Friday night, there’s about ten Novice Sportsman, and it’s a great mix.
You have drivers like Mike Kramarz who has been racing for years, and other drivers like Dillon Adamczak who haven’t been racing for that long.
It’s an amazing thing, and I can’t wait for you to learn more about it.
The Street Stock class is the smallest class at Ransomville, but nonetheless still exciting. Street Stocks are made out of old Camaro, Monte Carlo, and other 80’s car bodies. Street Stocks used to be those cars with everything smashed and ripped out of them, but now they’re modified with certain body panels, and parts.
The chassis’s are also modified as well. Drivers like Josh Pangrazio, Joey Zimmerman, and Brandon Sherwood race weekly. It’s a small class, but I can’t wait to tell you all about it.
And finally, the Mini Stock class at Ransomville is just as exciting as the others. Mini Stocks can be anything from a 2016 Kia Optima, to a tricked-out Ford Mustang. The only stipulation: it can only have four cylinders. Back in the day, the Mini Stock class used to be called the 4-Banger class.
Drivers could take their mom’s car, smash and rip everything on it, and they could race it as long as they had a roll cage. Now, you can still do that, but drivers now have the option to add different body panels, special parts, and other things to the car to make it more “stocky.”
The modified cars look almost like a squashed Late Model with all the parts they’ve added on. But, most drivers just run a normal four cylinder car that’s up to safety specifications. I can’t wait to tell you all about these guys as well.
Well, that’s all from me!…for now. You can expect articles from me soon, and I can’t wait to get to work on bringing Ransomville Speedway news to you all!
