Story By: RON SZCZERBA / NEW YORK STATE STOCK CAR ASSOCIATION – ALBANY, NY – On Sunday, May 5 at 10:30 a.m. at the Fonda Speedway Hall of Fame & Museum in Fonda, NY (located on the Montgomery County Fairgrounds the home of the Fonda Speedway), the New York State Stock Car Association (NYSSCA) will induct five members into their prestigious Hall of Fame.
The class of 2023 include Joe Plazek, Mitch Gibbs, Dale Planck, Joe Marotta, and Jack Burgess.
Special thanks to Jackie Lape, Jessica-Lape Schwab, Peter Schwab, and the rest of the museum staff for hosting the event.
Additional people will also be inducted into the NYSSCA Hall of Fame during the summer months during NYSSCA Nights at local NYSSCA member tracks.
JOE PLAZEK
During Joe Plazek’s racing career spanning from 1977 through 1999, he was fast on both sides of the border, but was proudest about his success at the Syracuse Mile. “Canada” Joe Plazek, as he was fondly referred to by many, had a total of 68 DIRT Car big block victories, including three straight New York State Fair Labor Day Championships in 1995-1997. Nolan Swift, Cliff Kotary, and Billy Osmun were the only other drivers to win three straight State Fair races in the history of the New York State Fairgrounds.
Plazek sat on the front row at Syracuse for the Super DIRT Week October Classic four times, in 1993 he was on the pole for the race while in 1994, 1996, & 1997 he qualified on the outside pole. He currently sits 17th in All-Time laps led in a big block on the Syracuse Mile and won races and championship up and down the Northeast corridor, including championships at Weedsport (1995), Canandaigua (1996 & 1997), and Ransomville (co-champion with Danny Johnson in 1996) with over 50 career victories to his credit.
MITCH GIBBS
Mitch Gibbs was born in 1963 in Norwich, NY. He grew up in North Norwich, NY with racing becoming a part of his life through his father Bob who started racing Late Models in 1956 at Brookfield, Five Mile Point, and Midstate Speedways. Mitch took over the wheel from his father in 1980, starting off in a Street Stock at Brookfield. Gibbs then raced a Late Model for a few years before moving into a Modified in 1983, racing weekly at the Fonda Speedway where he was the 320-Modified Track Champion in 1984 with nine career wins in the 320-Modified division along with one Big Block Modified win at Fonda coming on 4/8/2006.
Gibbs has a total of 179 feature wins at a total of 15 different racetracks, most notably holding the record for All-Time Modified feature wins at the Afton Motorsports Park with a total of 70. He also has a total of 14 Championships at six different tracks along with two series championships including the Race of Champions (RoC) Combined Series in 2005 and the RoC North Series in 2006. After 42 years of racing, Gibbs was forced to give up his first love in 2021 due to back issues.
DALE PLANCK
According to the Auto Racing Research Associates (ARRA) Planck has a total of 197 career victories after starting his career in 1985. Planck’s first career win came at Dundee on 8/9/1985 with the final win of his career coming at Brockville on 9/3/2016. His final time in a racecar was in 2019 when he competed in one lone event at the Fulton Speedway.
Planck was travelling a lot towards the end of his racing career, taking him away from his home and family a lot when he made the decision to give up racing. He always wanted to race but his dad wouldn’t let him until he knew the racecar 100%. That paid dividends now as he and his son Brandon own and operate DIG Racing Products with Dale’s racing experience and racecar experience coming in handy with the shock business which is a full family effort.
THE VOICES OF SUPER DIRT WEEK JOE MAROTTA & JACK BURGESS
Before DIRT Motorsports became a household name, Jack Burgess began his announcing career at the famed Oswego Speedway home of the Super Modifieds. Burgess had a distinctive voice which was perfect for auto racing, his low tones could even be heard while the cars were at speed on the track.
Burgess became friends with new racing promoter Glenn Donnelly in 1970, joining the team as the announcer at the Weedsport Speedway on Sunday evenings. This was perfect for Jack as Oswego ran on Saturday nights and he could continue to announce there as well. Burgess then expanded his announcing duties to include the historic Syracuse Mile and the Rolling Wheels Raceway.
During the 1974 racing season Joe Marotta joined the announcing team at Weedsport after starting his announcing career in 1966 at the Fulton Speedway and from then on Burgess & Marotta became quite a duo for years to come. In 1993, Burgess passed away after a long battle with diabetes after spending his final few years announcing from the concrete pad at Syracuse as climbing up to the “Eye in the Sky” became too difficult. In 1993 an empty stool sat on that stage at Syracuse in Burgess’ honor.
Marotta carried the ball for DIRT Motorsports for many years to come, working with announcers Doug Elkins, Paul Szmal, Tim Pitts, Brian Mulligan, John Burr, and Shane Andrews. Super DIRT Week was enriched greatly by Jack Burgess & Joe Marotta, they helped make the Syracuse Mile into the spectacle that it was. Burgess would always say during Super DIRT Week “You’ve gotta have a favorite out there” and it would bring the crowd to its feet cheering for their favorite driver.