NYSSCA Inducts 7 into their Prestigious Hall of Fame

COLUMN BY: Ron Szczerba – FONDA SPEEDWAY – FONDA, N.Y.  – On Sunday May 3 at the Fonda Speedway Hall of Fame & Museum, the New York State Stock Car Association (NYSSCA) inducted seven new members into their prestigious Hall of Fame. Inducted as the class of 2025 were Alan Johnson, John Stanley, Dan Martin, Don Ronca, Doug Rundell, Danny Johnson, and Billy VanPelt.

The ceremony was filled with memories and emotion from all of the inductees and the inductors who were influenced by the inductees in many different ways. For a complete video of the event stay tuned to Northeast Racing Videos as Big Jim was on hand videoing the event.

Shane Andrews was the emcee for the event, with the first up to the mic to speak being 2025 inductee Dan Martin who recognized all the former inductees (induction year in parenthesis) who were on hand at the event including Hertha Beberwyk (2010), Nick Ronca (1991), John Keegan (2022), JoAnn Flanigan (2021), Gail Riley (2015), Jay Castimore (2024), and Curt VanPelt (2018).

“One past inductee who is not on hand with us today is Dick Hicks (2017) who we sadly lost this past week,” Martin said to the crowd. “He was a man that greeted you with a smile and left you with a laugh.”

Marty Kelly III inducted John Stanley into the NYSSCA Hall of Fame saying this about his dear friend: “John has had an indescribable impact on me during my career in the sport. He always came into the pit area to say hello and offer his advice to me as a low buck racer along with helping me when I got into the announcing end of the sport.”

“I have to thank CJ Richards and Howard Commander for giving me a chance as I started out my announcing career,” Stanley said. “I need to thank my family for their support and Dan Martin for being my partner in the booth for all of these years. This is the first time that I have ever been to the Fonda Speedway Museum and that is the first car that I ever sat in (as he pointed to the #24 Kenny Shoemaker poster on the museum wall) as my father was long time friends with Kenny.”

Shane Andrews inducted Dan Martin and spoke about the many times they worked together in the booth as announcers including the final Super DIRT Week at Syracuse in 2015.

“At the end of the day, Dan and I grabbed a couple of beers, stole a golf cart and took a ride around the mile track, empty pits and empty grandstands,” Andrews said. “So many memories of working with Dan at that event especially the last one that we will never forget.”

“When I asked you to do the induction I didn’t ask you to make my eyes leak,” Martin said to Andrews. “Hertha (Beberwyk) showed me all the respect and support to get me involved at Lebanon Valley and my partner John (Stanley) and his wife helped me get through some tough times. It is not about us; it is about the people and the cars at the track.”

Rich Ronca inducted his brother Don looking back to when they were kids going to the races with their father Nick. “Starting out in the late 60’s it was five boys going to the races with their father,” Rich said. “My brother is now the oldest driver to ever win at Albany Saratoga after his victory last year and there were a lot of special memories along the way.”

“It was something I knew that I had to do,” Don said about racing. “Last year when we got the win at Albany Saratoga was a special night, I went for it and nothing bad happened. There are a lot of emotions, and I am proud to be here. My brother Mike passed in 2012, a big loss to racing and our family. But he is still here with his presence. My father put the racing bug in me and at ten years old I knew this is what I had to do; this is what I wanted.”

NYSSCA President Rick Hodge inducted his good friend Doug Rundell who at one time raced himself but then realized he would rather work and build race cars. “Doug used to race his Mini Cooper around the high school parking lot,” Hodge said. “But he also built a car for his son Bob who used it to get a big win at Oswego.”

“I hung around the garage with Fred DeCarr and car owner Dave McCredy who owned Bill Wimble’s #33,” Rundell said. “The garage was right in the middle of town, and we used to fire the car up at all times of the day and night. We never had scales, never checked the stagger, nothing like it is now. I would pick up tools and on Monday’s I would tear apart the axles, Magnaflux everything, and get the car ready to race again. This is a real pleasure, and I thank everyone for this honor.”

Tim Lakata inducted the “Doctor” Danny Johnson into the NYSSCA Hall of Fame telling the story of how he worked on Dan’s car for a couple of years and how they first met. “I was in school and had an internship at Troyer where Danny was working at the time,” Lakata said. “We gave each other a lot of crap while we were out on the road, but Danny was the only one that I know that could take a fourth or fifth place car to victory lane.”

“Determination, as a driver you are always looking for a fast line on the track,” Johnson said. “I enjoy my family and I left them more than I should have going racing. Now my son is into it, and I have fun doing it with him. I followed my brother into racing, I don’t know anything else.”

Curtis and Tony VanPelt inducted their brother Billy into the NYSSCA Hall of Fame with Curtis starting out by saying: “Billy got his chance in the car and became the wild child out on the track with many people complaining about it,” Curtis said. “I got to see all of this transpire,” Tony said next. Billy knew what we did to the race car without even seeing us do it. We used to kid Billy about walking around the pits kissing babies but no matter what we did to the car while he wasn’t there he was good enough to feel it and knew what we did.”

“I would be going through the pits kissing babies,” Billy said with a laugh. “But I always set out to help people to make them better and get them moving in the right direction. I wanted to work on my car during the week to make it faster not have to repair it just to get to the next race. I still help people to this day even though I am now retired.”

Shane Andrews inducted Alan Johnson who was unable to attend the event talking about Alan getting together with Tico Conley and all of his racing success.

Andrews closed the ceremony saying: “I love giving back to the sport that has given me so much. Let’s remember who we are, a racing family, an extended family, part of a culture that is second to none.”