Welcome

Welcome to my blog that gives some personal opinions, stories, and experiences at my ten favorite dirt race tracks on the east coast. I've loved dirt racing since I was two years old, and have begun writing stories and covering dirt modified racing for multiple websites and publications. Some of my work can be found on the right.

Pictured above is legendary sprint car driver Doug Wolfgang in his one and only dirt modified appearance, driving the famed Ferrioulo Racing #73 big block modified in the early 80s at the New York State Fairgrounds during Super Dirt Week.

Fonda Speedway

Fonda Speedway is a very unique track, but has some of the most loyal fans anywhere. It may not be a good trait in the racing world, but many Fonda Speedway fans refuse to attend other races because they feel that their track is superior to all other race tracks. Fonda is a great track, but, there are lots of other great tracks around too.

Fonda experiences great car counts in the 40s. Fonda also has a great facility, the infield is very well maintained along with the bleachers. The racing at the track is fantastic, and track management usually has the races finished before 9:00 p.m., there really isn't much in those terms that Fonda can improve on.

My favorite place to sit at Fonda Speedway is under the covered grandstands. The grandstands are also my favorite part of the track. When watching the races under the covered stands, it gives the races a vintage feel. Not many tracks feature covered grandstands anymore, and even less are wooden. The coverage overhead also makes the sounds of the big block engines sound incredibly powerful as the sounds echo around. Fonda is probably the only track where my favorite place to sit is by the flag stand. The short straight aways make the entire track action packed, so, it really doesn't matter where you sit at the track.

While Fonda's race program is second to none, the management could use some major improvement that would better serve the race fans. Fonda Speedway has the dumbest rule in all of racing, the "no re-entry rule." This means that if you pay to get into the track, and forget your coat, and you leave the track to go to the parking lot, you have to pay to get back in. Other tracks offer a ticket stub and a hand stamp to people who go out to their cars during intermissions or support divisions. Furthermore, Fonda is one of the few tracks that doesn't allow coolers into the stands. This means, not only can you not bring your cooler into the stands, you can't go out to your car and grab a drink during intermission. Finally, Fonda uses the dollar bill system for concession items, meaning, you can't purchase any food unless you pay with all one dollar bills. So, not only are you forced to wait into long lines for food, first, you have to wait in a long line to trade in your cash for $1 bills.

My favorite Fonda Speedway memory is a bit different from my other memorable moments. A friend named Brett Graham drives a big block modified at Fonda every Saturday night. He doesn't have a big crew, and, on some nights, it's just him, his dad, and his brother crewing. Even though I know nothing about cars, one night when I was at Fonda and Brett didn't have much help, I ended up helping his brother and dad crew on the car. They did all the hard work, and I put wheel covers on the car, wiped mud off the side panels, and put tear-offs on Brett's helmet. Brett qualified for the feature event, and was having a decent run, but was involved in an accident. He had some major rear-end damage, and had also cut his left rear tire in the crash. Brett's dad tried surveying the damage, and noticed the damage to the rear. Realizing that he and Brett's brother needed to focus on the rear-end damage, he asked me to change the left rear tire. I was terrified, wiping mud of the car was more my speed, now, here I was, being forced to change the tire. Brett came in, and his brother jacked up the car, and he and his dad went to work under the rear of the car. I went to work at the world's slowest pace on the left rear. I started undoing the lug nuts with the air gun. When they were all off, I expected the tire to just slide off, it didn't. I ended up fighting with the tire for a good 45 seconds before it finally budged and slid off the axel. I picked up the fresh wheel, and attempted to place it onto the car. I struggled heavily trying to get it to fit back onto the car. Brett's brother saw me struggling and placed the wheel onto the car for me. Then, I began going back to work on the wheel. Forgetting to switch the setting of the gun, it took me a minute to figure out why the lug nuts weren't tightening. After I figured it out, I got the lug nuts on. The job that takes a normal person 30 seconds ended up taking me about 3 minutes, but, I finished! Brett ended up dropping out of the race later due to the damage from the crash, but, it wasn't because the left rear came off! I've changed tires on my own car before, but, it didn't compare at all to champing the tire on a big block modified.

Fulton Speedway

Fulton Speedway could end up becoming my favorite track as I frequent it more and more. It's one of the few tracks that doesn't have a crazy group of fans anywhere in the stands, but it doesn't need any extra entertainment. The track itself has some of the best racing available anywhere.

The facility is very nice, highlighted by a huge set of bleachers that stretch from turn 4 all the way to turn 1. The one thing they could do with the facility is re-painting a large wall outside of the track that keeps cheap fans from catching a free race. The wall could make the track look even tidier if it were properly maintained. Currently, it seems like it may fall down at any moment, and needs lots of paint.

Fulton Speedway also features, in my opinion, the best weekly field of drivers in 2010. The track also sees car counts in the mid 30s every week. The track itself also allows for drivers to win the races after starting in the back every week.

Fulton also has a very good track record of running shows through fast, and getting fans home at a reasonable hour. That's one of the most important things that a lot of tracks fail to do, even the biggest race fans in the world get bored when tracks take an hour to maintain the track during the night, getting the fans home early will only encourage them to return.

My favorite place to sit for the race is coming off of turn 4. It gives a good vantage point of the track without anything obstructing the view. I also enjoy sitting in the turns when I can, as the turns are where most of the passing takes place. Sitting in turn 4 at Fulton also gives you a great vantage point of seeing which cars are tiptoeing through the turn, and letting off really early, and which cars are throwing the car hard through the turns, and lifting very late.

Fulton Speedway's biggest race of the year is the SUNY Cantun 200. My first ever appearance at the track in 2008 was for the big race, and it was one of the best races I've ever seen. Danny Johnson ended up winning the race, but, Dave Camara, Paul Kinney, Brett Hearn, Billy Decker, Ronnie Johnson, Alan Johnson, Matt Sheppard, and Ryan Phelps all swapped the lead over the last 50 laps. Johnson ended up passing Camara will less than 10 laps to go. It wasn't the most thrilling finish, but, throughout the entire race, the entire track was being used, and passes throughout the track were being made left and right. Throughout the entire race I honestly had no idea who was going to win the race.

Orange County Fair Speedway

Orange County Fair Speedway is one of the most historic tracks on the east coast. It has the longest-running modified race in the world, as the Eastern States 200 is approaching its 50th anniversary of the annual event. It has a great fair atmosphere, highlighted by the fan-group called "Buzzie's Boys" which are found in the reserved section of the grandstands, and are usually decked out in memorabilia dating back to the 1970s when their idol, Buzzie Reutimann, was in his prime.

Being that Orange County is an old facility, it needs some work done to the track. The bleachers are in pretty good shape, but could use some fresh paint. Most of the concession stands are in good shape, as is the infamous "31st Lap" Bar. The main thing is that the track needs new walls put up around the speedway. The speedway's walls appear to be deteriorating which gives the track a run-down look. There are also some big holes in the pit area that could be filled. The current owners of the track have began performing some upgrades around the facility. All in all, I enjoy the facility, and especially the track food, as they have some of the best gyro sandwiches I've ever tasted. The fair-type set up with the concession stands and bar gives a great place for race fans to be hanging out all night and talking about racing. Orange County is one of the best tracks to socialize and make new friends.

The track features around 35 modifieds for a weekly event, but sees the car count soar to the 60s for some of their bigger events throughout the year. The best place to sit is in general admission session towards where the cars come off of turn four. The pits are also located in the infield, so sitting high in the bleachers is a necessity. As long as you sit high at the track, all the views are very cool. While it's not preferred for an entire race, be sure to check out the turn one bleachers for a qualifying race at some point during the night. You don't realize how fast the guys are going until you sit in those stands and the field of cars are heading right for you. You can also see the stress the cars are put through as the cars are thrown into the turn.

My favorite memory of the race happened in the 2007 Eastern States 200. Jeff Heotzler has long been considered one of the top drivers at Orange County, and has won multiple track championships, but had never won the big end of the season race, the Eastern States 200. Heotzler actually failed to qualify for the event, but had received a guaranteed starting spot for winning the modified track championship in 2007 at Orange County. Heotzler was forced to use his guaranteed spot to even race in the event, which meant he was starting in 45th starting spot for the race. The race was also the finale for the big block modified premier touring series, the Super Dirt Series, and saw Tim Fuller leading points by a comfortable margin over Brett Hearn. Fuller just needed to finish in the top-24 to collect the series championship. With around 50 laps left, Fuller blew his engine, a large pile-up early in the race and attrition credited Fuller with a 29th place finish. Hearn had to finish in the top-6 to win the title. As the race approached the Jeff Heotzler found himself in contention to win the race for the first time in his career after starting in last place, he found himself in second place with three laps to go. Billy Decker was leading the race, but, as the field headed down the backstretch, Decker ran out of gas, giving Jeff Heotzler the lead and eventually the race win after not qualifying for the event. Brett Hearn ended up finishing third in the race and collected the Super Dirt Series championship.

New York State Fairgrounds

The New York State Fairgrounds is basically in Syracuse, New York, and there's one word to describe it; big. Everything is bigger at the New York State Fairgrounds, the track is the biggest modifieds run on, the crowd is the biggest seen at any modified race, the speeds are bigger by far than any other track around, the prize money is by far the biggest of the season. It's got a big history, a big event atmosphere, there's nothing like Super Dirt Week at the New York State Fairgrounds.

The facility is around 100 years old, so, it's not in the best shape. For Super Dirt Week, colorful banners make the facility look much more appealing than it really is. Realistically, the track could use some new walls around the outside of the speedway, and some fresh clay on the race track to make passing a little easier, and also make the track less abrasive on tires and equipment.

With the huge purse, Super Dirt Week usually sees fields of around 80 big block modifieds, and around 50-55 small block modifieds. The big block field for Super Dirt Week is by far the best field of drivers seen every year as all the best drivers show up for a shot at $100,000.

Super Dirt Week has the best atmosphere of any race all year long. When you have 40,000 modified fans in one place for a long period of time, it leads to some great parties every night at the track. Drivers, crews, fans, and media all celebrate being at Syracuse together. Many race fans have a tendency to complain about a lot of things, and as someone who sees dirt racing with rose-colored glasses, it's refreshing to see all those race fans smiling, laughing, and having a good time together.

The history at Syracuse makes it worth attending alone. Every year there's one dramatic moment that completely changes the race, and leads race fans talking all throughout the winter. Last year's moment took place when Jimmy Phelps made a move to put a car a lap down with just 10 laps remaining while leading the race and made contact with the lapped car, resulting in Phelps cutting a right rear tire. There's always drama late in the race in the Super Dirt Week main event, the Rite-Aid 200.

The infield is filled with campers and haulers, so try to sit as high as possible from the bleachers. My personal favorite place to the section closest to turn 1. It gives a great view of the track, and also gives you a perfect seat to view action in the pits. If you want to watch the race from the infield, try to watch the cars coming off of turn 2. It's amazing watching the drivers twist the chassis going sideways off the turns at such a high speed.

Every year creates new memories for Syracuse. My favorite moment came in 2004, in the small block modified Salute to the Troops 150. The small block race is the second biggest race of the weekend, and features a lot of the same drivers that run in Sunday's race, as many big block modified drivers also drive small block modifieds. The race is 150 laps, which means the drivers must pit at least once for fuel and tires. Pit strategy comes into play due to the fact that it is incredibly difficult to pass cars on the track. Top teams research fuel strategy all season long in hopes of winning at Syracuse. The popular strategy is to pit as early as possible, and try to be the first person off of pit road. The favorites of the race did this when an early caution took place. Some smaller teams, who don't have the funds or ability to research fuel mileage or pit strategy all season long stayed out. Later in the race, when a caution flag came out, those drivers pitted as well. This gave the lead back to the favorites to win the event. Drivers Brett Hearn, Pete Bicknell, Matt Sheppard, and Chad Brachmann continued to set the pace, playing a chess game of trying to outpace the other competitors without using up too much fuel or tires so they can last the entire race. Wayne Jelley, an unknown driver in his 40s was one of the drivers that pitted later in the race. He had no worries about tires or fuel since he pitted some 40 laps after the leaders, so, he was on a mission. He was passing cars on the outside and the inside. He came out of the pits in 31st place, and through some impressive driving, quietly found himself in the top 10 with less than 50 laps remaining. Jelley continued his charge into the top 5 with 25 laps to go. Slowly, the crowd began to notice. Knowing that I'm the crazy obsessed race fan that knows who every driver in the race is, people around me started asking, "who's in the #45?" Wayne Jelley had turned some heads in the race. The guy deserved it, and it was great to see him pick up a top 5 finish. Brett Hearn, who was running third, cut a tire while running third, this held up Brachmann and put Jelley into third place as the yellow flag waved for Hearn's disabled car. Tension built as everyone wondered is the top two drivers would last until the finish. They were unable to run a pace to conserve their tire-wear, as Jelley was now causing them to push the car to the limit. On the restart, with just 7 laps to go, Jelley swept around the outside of Sheppard and into second place and set sail after Bicknell. Bicknell, already a 5-time winner of the race, showed his talents as he began to open up ground over Jelley despite having badly worn tires. With just 4 laps to go, Bicknell's right rear tire gave in, and deflated, giving Wayne Jelley the lead. The crowd went crazy as Jelley cruised around the track for the final four laps and won the biggest race of his career, and became an instant household name.

Susquehanna Speedway Park

Susquehanna Speedway is where I grew up, I took tons of friends to this beautiful race track, saw some edge-of-your-seat racing, some terrifying crashes, I probably have more memories at Susquehanna than any other track. Unfortunately, the track has deteriorated from being my favorite track, to a track that struggles to survive. The track that used to feature the mighty, ground pounding, earth shaking modifieds every week is now stuck to running support divisions every week. The beautiful red clay that used to produce such great and exciting racing has been used up, and while it still covers the speedway, the racing it produces isn't nearly what it used to be.

"Susky" could use some major upgrades. The weeds under the bleachers are out of control and need to be cut down immediately. The grandstands have become warped and splintered. The scoring tower, announcers booth, and basically everything else could all use some fresh paint. But, still, for one day out of the year, when the modifieds return to the speedway, thousands of loyal modified fans return to the track and add more memories to their minds. It may not be the best race track around, but for a while it was, when the modifieds are on the track at Susquehanna, it's impossible to not think back and remember all the great battles between Richie Tobias, Kenny Brightbill, Jimmy Hauer, Scott Haus, Randy Fortna, Jeff Strunk, Davey Wenger, and Elvin Felty. I guess my opinion is biased, I grew up at the place, every Saturday night for quite a few years I was in those stands.

My brother, who never liked racing to begin with, would only go to two tracks, Penn National Speedway, because he enjoyed watching from the tailgate area in turns 3 and 4, and Susquehanna Speedway, because he loved their chicken patties, snow cones, and peanut butter cups.

While Susquehanna doesn't have the best racing anymore, last year's version of the race was fairly entertaining. The track takes a lot of rubber fairly quickly, which leads to a one-lane race track. One lane race tracks lead to follow the leader racing, but there was some passing throughout the entire night the last few years. For the track's lone modified race of the season they usually get around 30 small block modifieds, and it usually consists of a diverse field of talent.

My favorite Susquehanna Speedway memory of course is a Kenny Brightbill memory. Kenny has always been my favorite driver, he was my dad's favorite driver when he was growing up, so, really, I didn't have a choice. Kenny was the master at Susquehanna, he was so incredibly smooth it'd look like he was going into the turns so much slower than everyone, yet, he'd still end up passing a few cars. I saw Kenny win a lot, but, one night that stood out was when Kenny had started in the back. It was early in the race when the top two cars got together and caused a massive pile up. Brightbill had nowhere to go and piled into the wreckage, the car tipped over and ended up on his roof. They towed Kenny's car into the pits. The long clean up effort from the massive pile up gave the Brightbill Racing Team plenty of time to try to fix the damaged modified. The crew fixed the car and got Kenny back on the track. Brightbill charged from the back of the pack, and ended up battling for the lead late in the race. Randy Fortna was leading the race and looked to be headed to an easy win, but, it was still a valiant effort from the veteran driver after flipping his car early in the night. With just a few laps to go, Fortna cut down a tire, and Brightbill took the lead and went on to pick up the amazing win. Kenny's had his fair share of big wins, and even though this was just a weekly race, it was still an incredible accomplishment.

Delaware International Speedway

Delaware International Speedway is a different race track. Everything about it seems a little different than the other race tracks I frequent. First, when you go to Delaware, you pay to get into the race before you even park your car. Also, at Delaware, there aren't any engine rules, so the modified guys can run as big of a motor as they want, which leads to some pretty mean-sounding and looking engines. It's pretty cool heading there and seeing all the different stuff teams are trying.

Although the rules make the cars sound cool, and creates some impressive speeds, the car count takes a hit because of the costs to keep up with some of the bigger teams. The car count usually hangs between 20-24 cars on a weekly basis.

The racing at Delaware is very exciting. The soft surface allows for lots of side-by-side racing in every division. My main complaint about Delaware is that they run too many divisions. Most race fans just go to an event to see the main division, in this case, either the big block modifieds or the super late models, there's no reason to have 5 different classes of cars running on a night. It makes the races go way to late into the night, and it deters me from taking non-race fans to their first race there, because even I get bored sitting through the support divisions.

Delaware is another track that could benefit greatly from a new set of bleachers. The track is sitting on a fairly nice facility, but the bleachers look a little run down. The track's pit area is one of the nicest in dirt racing, as the entire thing is paved.

The go-kart track is my favorite part of Delaware International Speedway. I've always made it a point to go and race at the track at least once with whoever I was at the races with when I was younger. I haven't done it in probably 4 or 5 years. I attempted to do it last year when I was there, but the line was just too long. My friends and I would love when the track had poor attendance when we were there, because it meant we'd get lots of go-kart racing in. The guy that ran the track probably hated us because we beat those karts to hell when we drove.

Delaware is one 0f the few tracks that I don't have a normal sitting area at. During qualifying races, if I'm in the pits taking notes for a story, I usually sit in the bleachers between 3 & 4. For the feature events, depending on where I am when the race starts, I'll sit anywhere on the front stretch, there's no bad seat in the house.

While I'm not a huge fan of crashes, my most memorable moment at the track was in 2004 when there was a major accident on the front stretch during the annual Delaware State Championship race. Mike McAleer was in second place behind Jamie Mills on a restart of a last-chance race for the feature event. Mills spun the tires a bit on the restart, and McAleer attempted to make a move to the inside and clipped the inside wall. The contact with the wall sent McAleer back up across the track and into the path of Mark Byrum who clipped the right rear wheel of McAleer resulting in the front end of the car lifting off the ground. Byrum's car hit the wall hard and the car running directly behind him, John Keller, had nowhere to go. Keller slammed the side of Byrum's car and sent both cars flipping wildly down the front stretch. Keller's car launched about 10 feet into the air and into the catch fence, which protects the fans from the cars and flying debris. Keller knocked down the catch fence completely for a span of about 15 feet. Both cars flipped wildly, but nobody was hurt. It was probably the worst crash I've seen in 17 years of going to the races.

Big Diamond Raceway

Big Diamond is one of the best tracks to go for talking to fans. Big Diamond features a plethora of race fans who attend every week, and the large area directly behind the grand stands makes it a great place to catch up with old racing friends, and even make new ones. Big Diamond also features one of the most friendly staffs of any track around. Big Diamond also has one of the biggest weekly crowds of any tracks around, which leads to an awesome atmosphere of cheers, boos, and groans throughout the night. Big Diamond race fans are very passionate about their home track.

Despite Big Diamond's best efforts, they still need to do some major work to the track surface. The track is known to eat up tires, and that has led to car counts dwindling to between the high 20s to the low 30s on a weekly basis. The track has a tendency to peel up during warm ups, as the surface seems to be too soft for the weight and speed of the modifieds on the track. On good nights, the track smooths out by the end of the night and offers some pretty good racing.

The Big Diamond facility has come a long way over the last 5 years, new concession and souvenir stands have been erected, along with new bathrooms and upgrades all around. However, the bleachers could be updates, as they're still just wooden planks on a hill, and the track itself could use some color to make it a little easier on the eyes.

The best place to sit at Big Diamond is actually in the grass-section towards turn one. It's a great place to sit and view the cars really twisting sideways going into the turn. It's also the only place you can sit at the track and truly be able to hear when all the drivers jump back onto the throttle after entering the turn.

The fan group at Big Diamond is very tame during the races compared to the groups at other tracks, but, they tailgate like no other. The Diamond Dog's, as they call themselves, always set up at the very back of the parking lot, straight back from the entrance gate, and celebrate being at the races every Friday night with lots of food and beer, and really enjoy having everyone come over and having something to eat or drink with them. They're surely not the most entertaining group during the races, but are by far the friendliest and most approachable.

My favorite Big Diamond moment happened in 2000. A young driver named Rick Laubach, who now is one of the top drivers around, was battling for the lead in his qualifying race when he made contact with driver Mike Nicholas. Nicholas proceeded to spin out and the yellow flag came out. When the field came around, Laubach was shown the black flag and ordered to the back of the pack for rough riding. It was a questionable call, and half the crowd cheered and the decision, and half the crowd booed. Laubach was not happy, when he saw the black flag he immediately stopped the car at the flag stand and had the flag man come talk to him. He spent a few seconds pleading his case before the flagman had heard enough and ran back up to the flagstand. Laubach sat a few more seconds, and then shut his car off. The officials waved for him to move, but he continued to sit there, and even took the steering wheel off the car to show he wasn't going anywhere. After a few minutes of officials pleading with Laubach to move, a tow truck came to the aid to tow Laubach to the pits. When the tow truck was backing into position to get the idle modified, Laubach fired up the car and slowly backed away from the tow truck. Eventually, Laubach stopped, put the steering wheel, and sped around the tow truck and into the pit area. Laubach only ran about 6 competitive laps that night, but he sure was in everyone's conversations at the track that night.

Grandview Speedway

Look up short-track racing in the dictionary and they'll be a picture of Grandview Speedway next to it. Grandview proves that dirt racing is a contact sport, as the tight confides of the track offers for plenty of bumping and crashing every Saturday night. Despite being a track known for lots of crashes, since the track is so small, it isn't terribly hard on equipment. The small track also allows teams with less-powerful engines or older equipment to be more competitive, and the car count reflects that. The weekly car count for the modified division is between 50-60 cars, the highest of any track that runs modified every weekend.

With the high amount of crashes, tempers often flair, more so off the track than on. The crowd at Grandview has some of the most passionate race fans in all the country. Some are a little more, and also have some of the strangest characters. The big grandstand section in between turns 3 & 4 is the best place to sit, but, that's also where fight break out every once in a while. The "Beer Can Tree" crew sits at the top of that set of bleachers, and are the popular crew of Grandview. They got their name because there's a large tree that rises behind the back of those bleachers, and when they finish a beer, they throw the can into the branches of the tree. By the end of the night, the tree is usually at least 1/2 filled with beer cans.

The facility at Grandview Speedway could use some major upgrades. The walls around the track are uneven, the bleacher's and fences around the track could use fresh paint, as could some of the concession stands. However, the facility is one of few dirt tracks that feature bleachers more than just on the front stretch. A large section of grandstands is located down the front straight, but, a larger, much higher set of bleachers is located in the middle of turns 3 & 4, and another high section is located directly off of turn 4. A lower section of bleachers is located down the entire back stretch as well. The only place on the track that doesn't have stands is in turns 1 & 2, which is where the pits are located. I honestly think with a little tender loving care, Grandview could be one of the premier dirt tracks in the country.

The racing at Grandview truly gets a bad reputation for unwarranted reasons. The track could use some new clay, as the old clay doesn't have a whole lot of bite in it, but, the high banks the track features still make it one of the fastest tracks 1/3 mile tracks around. During qualifying races, the track often has below average racing, where all the drivers try to drive around the inside, and passing is at a premium. However, by the time feature time comes around the track slicks from all the racing that has already happened by that point and offers some great side-by-side racing. I went through a phase where I couldn't stand Grandview Speedway because of all the caution flags and the bumping, however, as I've matured, I've grown to fall in love with that style of racing as much as two guy running side-by-side for 30 laps without touching each other once. The fact that the guys at Grandview see cars three wide in front of them going over 100 mph, know that there physically isn't any room for another car, but attempt to make it 4-wide anyway blows my mind.

My personal favorite moment at Grandview had to be when the Super Dirt Series tour invaded Grandview Speedway in 1999. An obnoxious Billy Pauch fan was sitting behind us. He'd been knocking every driver all night long, was betting everyone he was sitting around that Pauch was going to win the race, and, since Pauch had been one of the fastest cars all night and was starting from the pole, it looked like that could very well happen. When the green flag dropped, instead of Pauch pulling away with the lead, when the pack reached turn 1, Pauch clipped the inside wall and barrel rolled in front of the field. The Pauch fan was pissed. The field was red flagged as they cleaned up the mess, and poor Brett Hearn stopped his car directly in front of where the Pauch fan was sitting. As the engines shut off, the Pauch fan started screaming profanities at Hearn. Brett Hearn is probably the most professional driver in dirt modified history, and probably the best driver ever to run a modified, always thinks about everything before he says it, and never seems to show negative emotions of say anything negative about anyone. Well, Hearn finally showed some emotion after hearing what this guy was yelling to him. Honestly, I don't remember what the fan said, but Hearn started unbuckling from his car, and crawled out with his helmet still on, Hearn was almost always booed because of how dominant he's been over his career, but for those of us who knew why he was getting out of the car, everyone cheered. Hearn looked up into the bleachers trying to find the man who had been screaming at him, who was now shut up. Hearn made waving signals for the man to keep talking, and the crowd started cheering more, Hearn continued to play up the crowd by waving his hand around and holding up to his ear (covered by his helmet). Before Hearn climbed back into his car he climbed up to the roof and pumped his fist as if he'd won the feature. It was awesome seeing a rare show of emotion from Hearn, and even better seeing how fast that obnoxious fan shut his mouth.

Bridgeport Speedway

Bridgeport is scary fast. That pretty much sums it up. It's huge, and real fast. If you're a race fan that loves speed, or secretly love huge wrecks, Bridgeport is for you. There's one major problem with how fast Bridgeport it, it kills race cars. There probably isn't a track that runs every week that is tougher on equipment than Bridgeport, and the car counts suffer because of it. Bridgeport's car count has dwindled down to car counts between 18 and 22 cars every weekend, which is a huge let down compared to the car counts in the 30s and even 40s it experienced just 5-6 years ago.

Bridgeport is a beautiful facility with great food, and a fan-friendly atmosphere. For bigger races, when the car count is higher than the weekly field, Bridgeport is one of my favorite tracks to take friends for their first race too. The facility and fans help diminish the "hillbilly" stereotype, which a lot of my friends associate racing with. The speed of the track makes even the most boring races somewhat exciting, especially to none race fans. In the past, I've gone to Bridgeport and thought the race was terrible, but a friend who'd never gone to a race before loved it because of how fast and on-the-edge the cars looked throughout the night.

My favorite place to sit is in between the flag stand and turn 1. It's just before the cars get off the gas and set up for the turn, so it's when the cars are just about at their full speed. It's also the perfect spot to watch the cars throw the cars sideways into the turn. It's amazing watching those guys run 130 mph into a turn and throw the car completely sideways to make the turn.

Bridgeport's Speedway announcer is Jeff Alum, growing up, he announced at Susquehanna Speedway, which I used to go to weekly. During the "wave lap", which is what all dirt tracks do one lap before the feature event starts where the crowd stands up and cheers and sends off the field of drivers as they get ready to go racing, Alum yells over the speakers for the crowd to wave "something blue off of you, something red off your head, something black off your back, wave it for your favorite, the modifieds are ready to rumble!" While, now, I understand why most people look at his saying as extremely corny, for me, it still takes me back to my childhood and that saying used to pump me up! Understand, I started hearing that saying when I was just 2-years old, and throughout grade school (and still today) I have an obsession with dirt racing. When Jeff would say that, I knew that it was time for the race to start, and it'd get me pumped up for the race, it raised anticipation and excitement. Back then, if I didn't hear that saying, I didn't feel like I was at the right race.

My most memorable moment at Bridgeport is one the track probably wants to forget. It was just a few years ago when there were huge floods in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. I was planning on heading to one of their bigger races, the George Wingate Classic, with a couple of guys that I always go to the races with, including my dad, and was also taking two girls with me to their first race. With the heavy rains just stopping two-days earlier, I never expected Bridgeport to race. I thought the track would have taken on too much water, and it probably did, but they ran anyway. It was a beautiful day, and with everything being rained out over the previous 4 days, a large car count of over 50 cars packed the pit area. Things started off great, with the water the track took on from the rain, the track was incredibly tacky and incredibly fast, but, as the final qualifying races finished up, the track started getting bad, and developed huge ruts around the entire track. The water caused the clay to get too soft, and where the cars would hit the gas, bumps would form. Then, from the cars hitting the bumps, the wait of the car would go off the track for a few feet and where the weight would come back down onto the track, another bump developed. This started tearing up equipment. By the time the 40 lap feature was finished, only 4 of the 30 cars that started the feature finished the race. Of those, Chic Cossaboone was one of them and he wrecked early, and came back out after noticing the attrition, which led to him being 7 laps down at the end of the race. Veteran driver Jimmy Chester ended up winning the chaotic feature. It was certainly memorable, but for the wrong reasons.

New Egypt Speedway

New Egypt is probably my favorite track. There's just a great atmosphere there. Sure, I'm a race fan, but the fans are a huge factor in enjoying a day at the races. It could be the best race ever on the track, but if the fans are just sitting there, basically looking dead from the neck-up, it takes away from the whole show. New Egypt doesn't have that problem. The crowd is passionate every time there are cars on the track, they're standing up, hooting and hollering, cheering on their favorites. I mean, come on, what more could you expect from a track that is operated by a 30-year old 400-pound Hawaiian man that refers to himself as simply, "The Pimp."

Section 6 of the main grand stands has a group of fans that are self-titled the "Section-6 Psychos." Every track has a group of fans that are more obnoxious than the rest, but, the Section-6 Psychos are probably as good as it gets to fan groups. A group of at least 20 college-looking guys and girls show up wearing plastic helmets, face and body paint, and are completely decked out in New Egypt's all-time winningest driver, Billy Pauch gear. When I go to New Egypt, I'm sure to sit in section-7, so I don't get stuck in the middle of the arguments, but, when the racing is boring, I'm close enough to stay entertained just by looking one section down from me.

I started going to New Egypt weekly to watch my personal favorite driver Kenny Brightbill run there every Saturday night back in 1998. The track has two playgrounds for children to play around on, which of course has a racing theme. A friend of mine, Josiah, and me were basically racing experts for being 9-years old. We knew who was in every car out there, and knew who was good, and who wasn't, so, at the playground, we'd set up racing pools. Basically, we'd tell my dad that we wanted something to eat, get $10 or so, go to the playground, and hope other kids had money on them and were willing to bet us on who would win each qualifying race or feature. Usually, no kids had any money on them, for obvious reasons, but, every once in a while, we'd get someone to take our bet. Despite our best efforts, we probably only ever got around 5 kids to bet with us, and we certainly didn't win every time.

My fondest memory was watching Kenny Brightbill, in late 2002, at the age of 54, win the feature event for the night. Brightbill has over 500 career victories in modified racing but this was different. First of all, he was on the downside of his career, the man certainly didn't have the reaction times he once had but, on this night, it seemed like he was 20 again. After starting mid-pack, Brightbill took the lead and seemed headed for an easy victory. With just 4 laps to go, his luck quickly changed. While attempting to put another car a lap down, Brightbill caught a large rut going into turn 3 while broke the left front bird cage (a major part of the suspension) and caused the left front wheel to break off, and fly over the outside wall, into the pit area. Brightbill's car quickly slowed down and he fought hard to keep the car moving and hold onto the win. The car dug into the ground and it seemed Brightbill's night was over. He came off of turn 4, and drivers Roger Laureno and Keith Hoffman, who were running second and third at the time of Brightbill's misfortune, snuck passed, pushing Brightbill back to third. As he was passed, Brightbill swung the rear end of the car around, jumped on the throttle, which forced the left front of the car off the ground. He kept the left front off the ground until he reached turn one, and hit the brakes, the car dug into the ground and shot large pieces of clay skyward. Brightbill once again jumped back onto the throttle hard, and picked the left front off the ground. He ran around the outside, and in turns 1 and 2 passed both Laureno and Hoffman back. He continued this pattern of having the left front of the car off the ground through the turn and down the straight-away, getting on the brakes, shooting clay up, getting on the throttle again for the final 3 laps, and went on to win with just 3 wheels.