RPW Exclusive: Thunder Mountain Speedway Celebrates 2025 Race Season with Annual Banquet

RPW Exclusive By: JOE PHILLIPS / RPW – MARATHON, NY – Drivers, crew, families and fans all gathered at the Marathon New York Civic Center this past Friday evening for the 2025 edition of the Thunder Mountain Speedway annual awards banquet.

This was the last official event of 2025 on the track’s calendar. A very nice dinner, DJ, door prizes and awards were all on tap for the evening.

Track announcer, Ric Ryder, played the emcee duties for the evening, and kept the show moving at a brisk pace. Ric became the track announcer at the facility this season, and he and his wife, Mary Jane, have quickly become like family to the Thunder Mountain regulars. Ric also handles track announcer duties at Accord Speedway, while also organizing lineups and scoring on an occasional basis at Orange County Fair Speedway.

Awards were given to drivers in the Open Modified, DIRTcar 358, DIRTcar Sportsman, IMCA Modified, 600cc Modified, 600cc Sprint, and the factory stock classes.

Many drivers took the time to reminisce on this year’s season and share laughs together.

DIRTcar Sportsman driver Matt Brewer even took a few minutes to discuss his plans for the 2026 season. Brewer stated that their team “wants to win races” and that they are not upgrading chassis and are happy with their current ride.

One member of Brewer’s team is Justin Welch. He was also pleased with the 2025 season, as he stated, “After we clipped the front end of car, in the midseason, it became a real race car!”

This is a very interesting comment. Modifieds are all jig-built and should consistently be the same after welding. But each chassis seems to have its own personality and sometimes a good tweak can wake the car up. And many drivers have a particular chassis that is near and dear to their heart!

Hustle the Highway Series Director and 600cc Modified driver Doug Windhausen shared some insight about plans for the HTH series in 2026.

Windhausen said that he is hoping to add a couple more tracks to the schedule. Doug stated, “It’s sometimes difficult to add tracks, because so few are suited for the size of the 600’s. Tracks such as OCFS are just simply too large. Outlaw Speedway is about the biggest size the cars can handle.”

Windhausen competes weekly for points at Thunder Mountain Speedway in the 600’s only competes in the Hustle the Highway Series events when they race at Thunder for the season-long point standings. Windhausen feels this keeps the series fair.

600cc Modified driver Tyler Talada is well known for his car that is decorated like a Holstein cow. This makes sense, as the Talada family are farmers. Tyler was gifted a Blazer jacket that featured the Holstein pattern of white with black spots. Tyler proudly wore his new attire for the duration of the evening. Racing is first and foremost about having fun!

Overall, the 2025 banquet was a fun and well attended event. Track Promoter Karl Spoonhower encouraged all in attendance to have a fun-filled evening.

“We work hard all week, and we race hard on the weekends. So let’s have fun, drink beers and party all night!” he stated.

The 2026 Thunder Mountain Speedway schedule is coming out soon. Word has it, that it is very similar to 2025’s schedule. All classes will remain, with the DIRTcar 358’s and IMCA Modifieds competing on alternating weekends. Hopefully, Mother Nature will be nice and calm the spring rains down so that we all can get back at “The Mountain” soon!

Be sure to support your local tracks in 2026!

FINAL 2025 TRACK POINT STANDINGS:

OPEN MODIFIEDS –

1st: Darren Smith; 2nd: Brandon Loucks; 3rd: Jimmy Zacharias; 4th: Tommy Collins; 5th: Brett Tonkin; 6th: Cody Higbie; 7th: Matt Smith; 8th: Will Shields; 9th: Ajay Potrzebowski II; 10th: Brian Malcolm

DIRTCAR 358 MODIFIEDS –

HUSTLE THE HIGHWAY 600CC MODIFIED SERIES –

1st: TJ Smith; 2nd: Anthony Desimone; 3rd: Ali Scutt; 4th: James Randall; 5th: Owen Mossow; 6th: Samuel Hubbard; 7th: Casey Doll; 8th: Chelsie Beebe; 9th: Tommy Paige; 10th: Kyle Percy