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Vern Wasson Has Clinton County Headed in the Right Direction
Dino Oberto ….. “Keeping Track”
Last year Clinton County Raceway was on the verge of closing as car and fan counts drastically dwindled and there was a question as to whether the track would survive the whole season.
Enter Vern Wasson, a car dealer and racer from Jersey Shore, who stepped in and took the reins of the 1/3-mile dirt oval located at the Fairgrounds in Mackeyville. Not only was he able to save the track but this year has been a complete turnaround as well.
Since the season started in May, weekly car counts, led by the headline sprint car class, have been very good which in turn has been reflective in the grandstand.
“It’s been a lot better than expected. I knew stepping in halfway through last year that I could get things going in the right direction for ’08 and so far I think we’ve done that. The lowest car counts we’ve had with the sprints cars was 21 and are high was 28 so I can’t complain,” said Wasson, who also promotes Woodhull Raceway in New York on Saturday nights.
“Our crowds have been excellent. I would still like to see more of course but we’ve definitely have had enough people there to pay the bills. It’s a viable operation now to the point where it was nowhere near that last year when I stepped in.
“Everything’s gone good. The track surface has gotten better and it’s a lot racier then it was. There are a lot of good sprint car teams standing behind us as far as making Clinton County there home track every Friday night.”
One of the first things Wasson opted to do was make the sprints top billing and that choice has been a good one. Drivers have all been boasting about how well things have gone thus far with Wasson in control and with a solid weekly average of cars the racing has turned out to be top notch.
“We’re seeing more quality teams showing up and I think that’s due to being a good show with us and also $1000 to win a sprint feature and a descent purse all the way back through. It’s not a Williams Grove purse or even a Selinsgrove or Lincoln purse but ours is still respectable,” said Wasson.
“We already paid as much as $1300 to win one night this year when the car counts were really good and I feel in time we can get that up to as much as $1500 to win and respectable all the way through and be able to make a lot of people happy.”
Competitive wise there is a diverse field when it comes to the sprints. Bobby Howard just unseated Neal Petock for the points lead, that coming on the heels of his first win last Friday night. Other reputable chauffeurs have helped to establish Clinton County as a player among the tough Pennsylvania sprint car circuit.
“Neil Petock was definitely the dominant car over the first few shows and so was Blane Heimbach. But there have also been a lot of other guys right in the hunt each week. Bobby Howard, Matt Heimbach, George Suprick, Matt Horst, Matt Miller. There’s a lot of guys that could win there,” said Wasson.
“I wouldn’t be too surprised that by the time the season ends we’ll have as many as ten different winners.”
The late models have been a bit light although they are only scheduled to race every two weeks. That, coupled with rain outs on the nights that they were slated have not made that class up to par as originally expected.
Pro stocks are averaging close to 20 per week while the 4-cylinder front wheel drive class has peaked at 30.
Micro sprints continue doing well with the season high car count reaching 25 on more than one occasion. The track is one of the best in the region for this type of car. Speeds are faster than most other tracks plus they are able to race three and four wide.
“I definitely think that’s one of the draws for the micros at Clinton County. There’s a lot more racing room and they can use the power they have. They’ve been putting on a real good show and as I’m getting the track smoother and smoother, we’ve been trying to run them as the first feature every week in order to give them the smoothest track and it’s been working out pretty good,” said Wasson.
Another part of the success with the track is the admission. For ten dollars Clinton County is one of the best deals going in short track racing.
“I promised myself that I would start out with a ten dollar admission at least until I could make it a viable racing venue. To be honest when I first took over the show wasn’t worth ten dollars. I’m going to continue to hold down the cost no matter how good the show gets and I think that’s part of the reason why things have gone pretty good,” said Wasson.
“My philosophy is to run four classes and get it all done by 10:30 and you’ll want fans coming back for more. If I can start a show at 7:30 and be done by 10:30 I think that says a lot to the fans that we’re trying to get them home at a decent hour. We give then twenty bucks of entertainment for ten.”
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