Opening Night at Orange County Fair Speedway; Creeden, Labagh, & Tarantino all winners in 107th Opening Night
COLUMN BY: Joe Phillips / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – It was the season opener for the Big Series 3 at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, New York, with Falanga Trucking as the headline sponsor to kick-off the 107th season at the ‘Hard Clay’.
It was a full pit area at the ‘Hard Clay’ oval, with over 30 DIRTcar United Rentals Modifieds, over 40 Arkel Motors Sportsman, and 29 Interstate Batteries Street Stocks. Interstate Batteries of Goshen, NY, came on board as title sponsor for the street stocks early this spring. The fastest modifieds and sportsman drivers in time trials started their heat races on the pole.
The fastest 4 were Tyler Jashembowski, Billy VanInwegen, Craig Mitchell, and Tyler Dippel. For Sportsman’s the top 4 were Brayden Traver, Anthony Falanga , Joe Conklin, and Jake Bedell.
Sportsman Driver Austin Smith was on hand with his 14S car. Fans have noticed his car featuring “Frankie’s Sausage Bar” as a sponsor. The long gone restaurant was owned by Austin’s grandfather, Frankie. It is a nice tribute keeping the memory alive for the Middletown Faithful.
Prior to the program kickoff, announcer Tim Pitts did a quick interview with Big Series promoter Brett Hearn. Hearn reiterated his commitment to the speedway and to running an enjoyable racing program in an efficient manner.
Danny Creeden, son of Rusty Creeden, was the modified winner. Creeden jumped out to an early lead and quickly pulled away. The race itself was slowed by a couple of early cautions. In Victory lane, Creeden thanked Brett Hearn and Doug Dulgarian for keeping racing alive in
Middletown. Creeden stated “once a track is gone , it wont come back”.
Creeden also pointed out that the track was in very good condition for racing. A lot of effort is being put into track prep this year and the season is off to a good start.
For the Sportsman, it was Jared LaBagh, a longtime sportsman winner at Middletown. Jared’s car number is 38 Special like his dad, Gary LaBagh. Many times Jared has pointed out that he is proud he can follow in his dad’s footsteps, and keep the LaBagh name alive at Middletown.
Travis Green was an early leader and had strong starts. But a couple of early cautions slowed the action, enabling LaBagh to take the lead on a restart. For consecutive restarts, LaBagh chose the outside lane. At the end of the race, LaBagh had a commanding lead and was starting to lap the field.
After a runner-up finish for Green, he stated that he knew LaBagh was quicker in the outer groove and also mentioned that he was not comfortable with trying to race the outer groove, but he was going to work on using it more.
Ray Tarantino was the Street Stock winner., followed up by Tommy Cilurso, and Jimmy Maher rounded out the podium.
Next up for the Big Series 3 is the annual Nostalgia night program, which takes place on June 7th, courtesy of Escape Powersports. Support the local tracks in 2026!
