Column By: TOBY LAGRANGE / RPW – GLOVERSVILLE, NY – As you get older one thing that you cherish are those childhood memories.
For some, its time spent with your family or maybe with your friends but for those of us who grew up in the short track racing world, it generally means both.
For many of us the friends that we meet at the race track become family members, even if not by blood or marriage.
This past weekend I was looking for something to watch after my wife and kids retired for the night. With most of the racing that I would be interested in watching mostly complete, I went searching the archives of DIRTVision.
Once there I struck gold…a slew of broadcasts from the days of Rush Hour on DIRT.
For those who either were too young to remember or were not born yet, Rush Hour on DIRT was a production of D.I.R.T. Motorsports that broadcasted a live D.I.R.T. Modified event each week. These events were either Super D.I.R.T. Series (today called Super DIRTcar Series) or non-point events. The events were broadcasted on a long-gone network called Sports Channel.
They were the forerunners to what we see today on a variety of streaming networks.
As I started watching the first event, I was immediately flooded with memories of my teenage years. It did not take long before I was back in 1996, sitting in the grandstands for the first race of what would be a long Saturday night of reminiscing.
That first race took place one day before my 17th birthday – June 27th, 1996. It happened to be the Thunder V event from the Fonda Speedway. I was there that night, as I had been for every race at the track since 1983, a streak that would continue…except for my high school graduation almost exactly one year later, for another 19 years.
It was a 75-lap event that featured an overflowing pit area of race cars. While the car count was not mentioned and my records from back then did not survive the test of time, they did mention that six heat races were contested which means there were likely 60 cars or more.
The race itself was a great one. Fonda regulars and young guns Dave Camara and Bobby Varin put on a show. You could see how the nearly standing room only crowd was very much into the event. While Camara was relatively not known for his big block exploits circuit wide (yet) Varin certainly was. He had shocked the D.I.R.T. Modified world by winning Thunder IV one year earlier.
Jimmy Horton led most of the event to bring home the win just a couple of years removed from his nasty ARCA wreck at Talladega. It was not easy as Camara charged through the field and using the extreme low groove was right on Horton’s back bumper until lap 73 or so when he changed lanes and Horton pulled away amidst a hard drizzle.
Horton would meet Paul Szmal in victory lane as to say that he was a happy guy would be an understatement.
“This Dutchess team did one heck of a job on the car, you just had to drive it around,” Horton said. “It was a pretty smooth race and we had to worry about the rain a little bit. What can I say, the Olsen Chassis, Feil motor, what else can you ask for.”
Horton picked up the win behind the wheel of the potent Dutchess Overhead Doors #87. Camara finished second with the family owned Camara Slate #26, Kenny Tremont, Jr. was third with the familiar #115, Varin was fourth with his own white and red #18 and Brett Hearn finished fifth after starting 18th with the Budweiser #3.
Tremont was in the midst of his Cal Ripken like ironman streak. At the time the West Sand Lake, New York driver had started every Super D.I.R.T. Series event since 1985…that equates to 201 events at the time.
The 1996 season would also be the final for track promoter Ralph Compani as Ric Lucia and Marty Beberwyk would take over in 1997.
One week later the second episode would take place, this time at the Rolling Wheels Raceway for the Firecracker 75. If the Fonda event flooded me with memories, the Rolling Wheels event brought a tear to my eye as the famed fast track sits idle amongst weeds as of this writing.
In preliminary action the late Maynard Forrette would flip his popular #78m and fellow future Hall of Famer Alan Johnson would wreck pretty hard exiting turn four.
The race went to green with arguably one of the most talented front rows in history…Jack Johnson in the Bobar’s #12b and Bob McCreadie with his three year old Troyer machine. McCreadie took the early lead over Johnson. The track was fast on this night and a bit on the rough side and that played a role in the four-car wreck on lap eight that collected Steve Paine, Chuck McKee, Dave Axton and Doug Hoffman. Hoffman would return minus most of the rear end sheet metal on the Billy Taylor #1.
McCreadie led on the restart with Brett Hearn moving into second. The remainder of the race was plagued by cautions and attrition. In the end McCreadie would dominate the race and bring home the win over Hearn, Joe Plazek with the familiar Maple Leaf #1, Jimmy Horton and Alan Johnson.
“We just had to run flat out all night,” McCreadie told Szmal. “We set the car up real loose to run up on the cushion. It’s a lift, any win is a lift. We were in a slump and maybe this will turn things around a little bit. We are used to winning a few more races than we have been but maybe that is reality, sometimes you cannot win them all but we are going to keep swinging at them.”
The trip down memory lane ended at the Cayuga County Fair Speedway, today known as the Weedsport Speedway. The track looked very different back then as this was well before the renovations. This was the third of the Rush Hour on DIRT series events.
A young Todd Burley took the early lead with McCreadie running second. The first caution flag would wave on lap 20 of the 75-lap event for Jeff Heotzler who spun the Reclemation #33. McCreadie took over on the restart and led the event until the next caution period, which would occur on lap 25 for a slowing Bryan Turner. McCreadie held the top spot on the restart with Gary Tomkins moving into second. Bobby Varin would take over the second position soon after. The caution flag waved again on lap 44 when Frank Cozze came to a stop with a flat tire on the Smith Brothers #74.
McCreadie and Varin ran one-two on the restart with Danny Johnson in third with the Freightliner #6 Small Block. Johnson would take second from Varin soon after. McCreadie held on for the win over Johnson, Varin, Billy Decker and Heotzler.
“You are just foolish if you are not worried about Danny Johnson being behind you,” McCreadie told Szmal. “The guy is a pro and he doesn’t make mistakes and we had just a little bit better car tonight.”
With the three races in the books and the clock pushing 2am, I headed to bed. As I waited to fall asleep, I thought to myself something that really hit home…racing today is nothing like it was two and a half decades ago. We as a region wide racing family need to fix that so our kids can experience the same fun and excitement as we did growing up in the 1980’s and 1990’s and undoubtedly take a trip down memory lane when they are looking for something to do when their family is fast asleep.