By: Steve Pados, Accord Speedway Media

The Accord Speedway is putting the finishing touches on it’s upcoming promotion on Friday evening July 23rd as the prestigious Joe Winne Memorial event will be held to honor of one of the most popular drivers who ever turned a wheel at the Ulster County racing facility. On an evening when the headline sponsor for the evening is the good people from Van Kleeck’s Tire Company, Winne’s sisters Virginia and Ruth and well known car owner and driver Jimmy Winchell Jr. have added some impressive incentives that will find the winner of the event smiling from ear to ear in the Lucas Oil Products Winners Circle with $2500.00 in cash for the win. “The Stateman” and current track champion Jerry Higbie has won the event the past two seasons and looms to be a favorite when the action gets underway. All of the top ten finishers in the Modified event will find additional bonus figures posted by the trio and some good friends of Winne who are willing to share in honoring his great legacy at the speedway. Winne passed away from a massive heart attack while competing at the Eastern States 200 event at Orange County Fair Speedway on October 20, 2000.

Five hundred dollars has been added to the first place prize of $2,000.00. Increments of $300.00, $200.00 and $100.00 have been added to second place through fifth placers. The list of supporters include Jimmy Winchell Sr at C&J Self Storage in Kingston, NY; Chris Ruger at Ruger’s Gun Shop, Mike Ricci, Tommy Ryan, H Jarvis Construction, TJ’s Excavating, Jarvis Fuel Service, Ricci Barber Shop, HigFab, TeoPro Fabrications and BD Promotions. In addition, all of the top ten place finishers will receive an additional $55.00 each for their performances from the Winne Family in honor of the signature number Joe Winne utilized on his race cars. There will also be a Dash For Cash in place from the Winne Family for the Modified heat winners with $200.00 going to the winner, $125.00 for second, $100.00 for third and $75.00 and $50.00 for fourth and fifth places.

All five of the speedway’s regular divisions will be in action in the Friday evening format and will find the Lightning Sprints returning to the speedway as a regular division for the first time since 2008. With much behind the scenes work initiated and completed in the past month, the interest is a peak level within the owner’s and driver’s ranks of the small 1000cc Motorcycle powered Midget Chassis creations and with two events already in the books, a solid starting field is expected for the weekly competition. Promoter Gary Palmer has been working non-stop on his pristine racetrack to give all of the divisions the best racing surface possible and the comments from the drivers and owners have been positive all season long in regards to the great track they have to compete on.

The Lightning Sprints will come in with a diverse field of driving stars and many of the drivers will certainly be familiar to the loyal fans who support the speedway. Scott Goodrich, a former Modified talent who enjoys racing the Sprints, is looking forward to the tough competition always found at Accord and captured the win when thery returned to the speedway. Ralph Utter, comes up to do battle from the Garden State and this sensational wheelman was the winner the second time around. From the Connecticut area comes a parade of popular driving favorites led by Doug and Matt Norrie, names very familiar with finding their way to victory lane. Will and JD Casazza will also be heading to the speedway from their Connecticut home-base and additional support comes from Peter Dance, Jon Moore, Charlie Pease, Mark Taylor and Dale Friedly. Rick Hench, the well known car builder from the Keystone State of Pennsylvania, is hoping to make this upcoming event. The Empire State of New York will have additional representation with “Whirlin” Timmy Durland out of the Middletown area expected to have a ride this time around, Christian Wright from nearby Monroe, Jimmy Johnston, and former CRSA Sprint Car titlist Steve Lapine. The talent speaks for itself and the reports from pitside has the drivers beaming about the great surface Promoter Gary Palmer has given them to compete on.

With twelve weeks into the great season thus far at Accord and Andy Bachetti with three leads the win parade. Ronnie and Danny Johnson have each scored two wins apiece at the tough as nails racing facility. With a weekly car count that has averaged 35 cars for the VP Fuels/Rhinebeck Ford Modified division, Promoters Gary and Donna Palmer have instituted the new B-Main format at the speedway in recent weeks to give additional drivers a more favorable chance to make it into the tough and talented qualifying field. The points have see-sawed back and forth the past couple of weeks and through consistency, defending track champion Jerry Higbie is leading the way with 594 points thus far. Behind him is former track champion Andy Bachetti with 532. Mike Ricci has been hopping cars of late to remain in the hunt and is third with 524 tallies and Ronnie Johnson has been a welcome addition to the speedway in 2010 and sits in fourth place in points with 479 markers. Completing the top five is Danny Tyler who has totaled up 416 points to date. Robbie Green, Vinny DeCicco, Richie Eurich, Scott Ferrier and Rick Mill complete the top ten.

Two-time defending track champion Brian Krummel taken the point lead in the Camper’s Barn Sportsman ranks with a slight advantage over the hard charging Darrell Ford. Super talented youngster Anthony Perrego is a close third with Ray See holding down fourth place and Jesse Marks in fifth. Kyle Rohner is still in command of the Healey Brothers Group Spec Sportsman division but the points have tightened up over the past couple of weeks and now down to a 32-point advantage over Chris Stevens.  Tyler Boniface, Eric Moon and Danny Cross complete the top five. Emerson Cargain goes into the Friday night event with a 20 point advantage over Ford proponent John Roese with Torin Betterton and Ralph Ronk still clawing away for a spot at the top. Mike Deyo leads the charge in the Bryant’s Towing Pure Stock division but this one is far from over as Kyle Wright remains close as does the veteran campaigner Paul Aragon. Ray Tarantino, Joe Narok and Gary Ronk remain in contention in this tough division and all drivers have their eyes on the title.

Midweek Madness suffered another rainout on Wednesday to make it two in a row but the action with through the first three shows has been outstanding and more exciting for the fans with the addition of the TT track at the speedway for the Quads, who utilize the four turns of the speedway, the hometretch and an infield portion to zig and zag back to the main turns. The Midweek action returns on July 28th and will run weekly until September 1st every Wednesday evening. Gates open at 5 PM with Hot Laps scheduled for 6:30. Racing is to start at 7 PM. Admission for the Wednesday shows is just $5.00 and the great concession stand is open throughout the racing card.

Friday night racing at Accord runs from April through September with five great divisions going to war on the Accord high banks. This week Van Kleek’s Tire Company will serve as the headline sponsor for the evening’s events. The five regular divisions at the speedway will be in action plus the return of the Lightning Sprints to Accord as a regular division for the first time since 2008. Goodrich Construction will be offering a $200.00 bonus for the first Lightning Sprint across the finish line on Friday evening to make it a $500.00 day for the winner. Admission for the great racing action remains the same from a season ago as Adults (12+) will be $12.00; Children (11 and under) will be $3.00. The Family Value Pack that was met with much success last season is once again offered and is: 2 Adults, 2 Children and $20.00 in food vouchers for $40.00, a savings of $10.00 to the consumer. Pit Gates open at the speedway at 4:30 and Spectator Gates open at 5. Hot laps kick off at 6:30 and the racing is slated to start at 7 PM.

Upcoming events at the speedway will include the re-scheduled ARDC event on August 13th. The speedway and ARDC management are confident the new date will work out for all parties involved with all efforts being made to bring back Grand Marshal Johnny Heydenreich and the ACOT Old Timers. Additional information will be available shortly regarding the event.

For further updates and information regarding all of the news and additions to the Accord Speedway, log-on to their well documented website at: http://www.accordspeedway.com or call the speedway hotline at: 845 626 3478. For video work or questions regarding the purchase of videos from the exciting on-track action at the Accord Speedway, contact Jason at: http://www.tristatestudios.com For the purchase of action or victory lane track photos, contact Kevin at: http://kbsracingphotos.com

At the Accord Speedway……………………………………..

We Measure Excitement A Quarter Mile At A Time

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