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.