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By: Ron Szczerba
FONDA , NY – 2008 will be the 57th year of competition at the historic ˝ mile speedway known as the “Track of Champions”. Fonda Speedway will open the 2008 season on Saturday, April 12 at 4:00 p.m. with the annual Ice Jam event. On the racing card that day will be a 40-lap $4,000 to win event for the Modifieds, a $750 to win Sportsman Open, and warm-ups for all divisions.
This will be Ric Lucia’s 12th year as promoter at Fonda and he talked about that recently at the annual Fonda Speedway car show.
“This is an exciting time for me,” Lucia said. “I purposely held up this years schedule until I got the series together (the Go Green NMX Fonda Thunder Series for Modifieds) and although there are some sort of risks involved we are going to see if we can make it work.”
“The beauty of it all is that I love the sport of racing, I am passionate about the sport, and I am fortunate that my wife and my family have allowed me to do this for so long. I don’t know if I have all of the answers or not but we are trying very hard to make things better for both racers and fans at the Fonda Speedway.”
THE GO GREEN NMX FONDA THUNDER SERIES
The first of five Go Green NMX Fonda Thunder Series events for the Modifieds will take place on Saturday, May 24 at 6:00 p.m. with a 40-lap $4,000 to win event. The other four events will take place on Saturday, June 21 at 6:00 p.m. (40-lap $4,000 to win), Saturday, July 26 at 6:00 p.m. (50-lap $5,000 to win), Tuesday, August 5 at 7:00 p.m. (60-lap $6,000 to win), and Sunday, September 21 at 2:00 p.m. (100-lap $9,500 to win).
If one driver is fortunate enough to win all five events that would be a total of $28,500 in winnings. Add another $4,000 from the Ice Jam opener to that and it would be a total of $32,500 in winnings.
“The consensus through New York State is that the competitors that follow and chase the tours won’t be able to do so with the costs going up the way that they are this year,” Lucia said. “Our costs are going up as well at the track so this home track series seemed like a good idea.”
There will be a separate set of points kept for the series with a base number of points given to the Fonda Speedway regulars at all five of the series events. “We don’t want our regulars to get zero points if they have a problem and can’t race in the feature. With a base number of points given it will keep our regulars in the hunt for the point championship in the series.”
“Right now we are committed to a point championship payout for the series of $4,000 for first, $3,000 for second, and $1,500 for third but we will try to build on the point fund as other sponsors commit to the series to make the point fund as attractive as possible.”
Lucia said that for the series the drivers will draw for starting positions in the heat races and will be handicapped for the features with an inversion also taking place. The rules for the series will be the same rules as Fonda uses all season long with the Fonda Speedway American Racer tires having to be run.
“We are going to try and keep it fair for both our regulars and the outsiders,” Lucia said. “For years people have talked about the purses not going up but I came to bat this year with this series and if the drivers and owners that are complaining about money and purses all of the time don’t support this series they should pull up a chair, sit in it, and quit complaining about it.”
Admission prices at the front gate for the series events in May, June, and July will be $12. “That will give all of our local fans a chance to see their local drivers against the outsiders at a fair price,” Lucia said.
NMX CHEMICALS TITLE SPONSOR OF THE SERIES
NMX Chemicals is an environmentally friendly company that makes non-petroleum based products which are biodegradable. They will be the primary sponsor of the five race series at Fonda with secondary sponsors still being sought to increase the amount in the point fund for the series.
“I met the people from NMX Chemicals through conversation about business in general and common interests that we both have,” Lucia said. “Interest in the series has already been expressed by Brett Hearn, Pat Ward, Mitch Gibbs, and others and I am very happy to be involved with NMX Chemicals to put on this series.”
Fonda Speedway management is currently updating their rule book which will be available to all competitors very soon. “We have been criticized in the last few years of not having a rule book so we are putting one together with amendments for all divisions included in it,” Lucia said.
MANY OTHER SPECIALS ALSO ON THE SCHEDULE
Other special events for the 2008 season at Fonda includes the 360 Sprint Open on Saturday, April 26; the ESS Sprint Tour on Saturday, May 31; BBL Night on Saturday, July 26 including a flyover by the United States Air Force; the Night of Features when the 2008 point champions will be decided in all divisions on Saturday, August 16; Saturday, September 20 when there will be open events in all divisions followed by a 100-lap Modified event on Sunday, September 21 to close out the 2008 campaign.
The Sportsman division will have three open events featuring increased purses and the Budget Sportsman have a total of six events on the schedule in 2008. General admission at the front gate in 2008 for regular shows will be $10 as it has been for many years. Events on the schedule that have all divisions listed will include the Modified, Sportsman, Pro Stock, Street Stock, and IMCA divisions running that evening.
Be sure to come to the Track of Champions in 2008 to “Feel the Thunder”. Fonda Speedway is located off of exit 28 of the New York State Thruway. For more information you can call (518) 382-3115 Monday through Friday, (518) 853-4235 on race day or you can go to their website at www.fondaspeedway.com |
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