Site Plan Recision Gives Five Mile Point Speedway A Temporary Reprieve

By STEVE BARRICK

A ruling by the Town of Kirkwood (NY) at its Tuesday May 20, 2023 work session that rescinded a developer’s prior application to rezone the Five Mile Speedway site has provided an opportunity for track owner Andrew Harpell to continue racing operations through this summer.

Five Mile Point promoter Andrew Harpell presents Justin Holland with what was thought at the time to be the last winner’s trophy at the track. (Alex & Helen Bruce)Speedway site has provided an opportunity for track owner Andrew Harpell to continue racing operations through this summer.

“The plan had been rescinded. It’s being changed, and a revised site plan from the same buyer will be resubmitted,” Harpell informed.

Harpell’s first contact with the buyer was in November of 2020. The revision came about because of public opposition to the original plan as it had been submitted.

“Quite frankly, the same people who complained about the race track were the ones who were complaining about the site plan,” Harpell said.

Harpell believes that the newly submitted plan will revise the previously proposed entry way. Refiling a new site plan will create additional delays moving forward with redevelopment.

“It doesn’t give me any clarity whatsoever at this point, I have no answers,” Harpell offered.

While answers are elusive, the renewed opportunity for racing at Five Mile Point has taken hold.

“Our first Modified race on the May 21 we had 26 Modifieds which in these days is pretty good,” Harpell shared.

The events scheduled are primarily on Sunday nights. When the redevelopment track had seemed to be speeding along, Harpell had ceded Saturday night to Afton Motorsports Park.

“There are people on social media who will blast anything, find a conspiracy in everything. I gave my Saturday nights, the night Five Mile Point has run on for 72 years, to another track. If you think that’s the basis for a conspiracy, you’ve lost your mind,” said Harpell.

“I’d be running Saturdays obviously, but that’s not an opportunity that I can do at this point.”

Five Mile Point has already run three Sunday races, two featuring Sportsman cars and one with Modifieds.

“We have five Sunday races scheduled moving forward, with the additional, who knows if we might be able to do more.

Current dates are June 11, Tuesday, June 20 for the Mike Colsten Memorial, July 16, July 30 and August 13. All the race dates will feature Modifieds as the premier division.

The Colsten Memorial on Tuesday, June 20 was scheduled by Harpell at the request of the Colsten family who wanted to perpetuate the memory of one of the speedway’s most popular drivers and among its most prolific winners.

Though sacrificing Five Mile’s Saturday night race night in retrospect wasn’t wholly desirable, Harpell did not sell off the track’s equipment as had at one point been planned to take place by the end of 2022.

“I don’t believe I jumped the gun with any of this, last year we really did want to run one last race. When that race was over, I thought it was over,” said Harpell.

“When the opportunity presented itself to reopen, I honestly had no expectations. In years past, we knew we had our weekly guys. Now, we don’t really have anybody. In all fairness to them, they have to make choices as to what they wanted to do. So, I’m appreciative of the turnouts we have had.

Cars race past the Five Mile Point sign on the wall in last October’s presumed finale. Since then the track has found new life. (Joe Kaminsky Photo)

“If you love Five Mile Point, the track is just racy as it has always been. The races we have run have been run off well,” Harpell said.

Harpell was fortunate in that he had subcontracted his concessions a few years ago and was able to maintain those relationships when the track reopened.

“We have food trailers as concessions, which we started during COVID and kept using them. We were lucky about that,” he informed.

Yet the course of events, while positive, is not an easy one to undertake and promote.

“Because of the timing, we came into the season with zero sponsorship. That is what we are struggling with right now, struggling to sell laps for Mike Colsten’s race which we have done every year.

“It just makes everything harder. In fairness to people, they don’t know what to expect and I don’t know what to expect. The track could be here another ten months, it could be here another ten years,” Harpell reasons.

At this point, Harpell said his guidepost is to make the best of the information he has available to him and make decisions on additional races this year and beyond as the sale process evolves.

“One thing people need to keep in mind is we need to run races to keep our zoning especially if things ultimately fall completely apart. That’s another big consideration for racing this year as we are.”

Harpell believes that the current Five Mile Point schedule could very well be extended into the fall, depending on the continued high level of competitor and spectator support.

In that, he is limited by the uncertainty of when – or if – the proposed redevelopment plan moves from concept to shovels-in-the-ground.

Twelve Year-Old Caleb Newlin Is Impressing As Sprint Co-Announcer

By STEVE BARRICK
A fresh, new voice being heard more and more often whenever the PASS 305 Sprint Cars are in action in Central Pennsylvania is that of 12-year-old Caleb Newlin, of Millerstown, PA, whose command of calling the on-track action alongside Stephanie Dodson is every bit as proficient as the most veteran announcers.
“I’ve doing some announcing for the last two years, mostly at Path Valley, Port Royal, BAPS, Williams Grove and Selinsgrove when the PASS 305 Sprints are there,” Caleb said.“Stephanie and I work together, she’s been a great teacher.”
Caleb’s work so far has been exclusively with the PASS 305 Sprint group. His father Zach once raced 305s but stopped in 2018 to run 410s.
Before he turned his attention away from competitive racing, Caleb had been pursuing a career of his own in racing with caged go-karts, competing at Penns Creek, Seven Stars and Selinsgrove.
“I started when I was eight or nine. I moved had up two classes. The last race I ran, I had a huge crash at Seven Stars, bad enough to split the front bumper. It a nasty wreck,” said Newlin.“I wasn’t been hurt other than getting one of my legs cut by a piece of fiberglass from the kart body. I had won two races earlier that year but never had the same success again and I decided to call it a career. I was getting sick of being so inconsistent. The wreck I was in happened on one of the weeks we were not running well. I came to realize I wasn’t having fun any more.”
Enter Doug and Stephanie Dodson, long time family friends of the Newlin family. Doug Dodson once raced 410 Sprints but stepped back to concentrate on the responsibilities running his company. Stephanie had also raced, with Caleb’s father, in 305 Sprints. She had also done some announcing for the group.
A chance set of circumstances then conspired to get Caleb Newlin behind a microphone instead of a steering wheel. As it happened, Caleb was already intrigued with calling races.
“What first got me was interested was seeing crash videos on You Tube and calling the action as I saw it. One day when I was doing this, Stephanie had come over to our house and heard me. I asked her if she thought I might have an opportunity to call some PASS races with her, and she agreed it could happen,” Newlin informed.
“My first time was at BAPS, and they told me afterward that I had been really good. It all has moved forward from there. I started in early 2024 when I was 11.”
In a very short time, young Newlin has learned the many elements involved in becoming an announcer. He became expert in event preparation, a true student of the craft.
“I’m in the pits before the races every week. Steph and I both walk through the pits, find any new drivers, get them registered and informed of the rules,” said Newlin.
“I know the guys who raced when my dad did, so I have those names memorized. Before any of the races, Steph and I will go over lineups, I learn pronunciations of names from her if there are any new drivers and memorize them.”
Track announcer struggles to identify the car numbers during a race particularly when track conditions are less than ideal. Newlin has studied these circumstances and has maximized his accuracy because of it.
“If I can’t see the number on a car because it’s in a shadow or an awkward spot, I look for the color of the car which I memorize before the race. There are many that are really easy to identify, some not as easy,” said Newlin.
“Cars that are team cars painted alike are the most difficult. At Port Royal, teammates Nick Sweigart and Chris Dolan run cars that are very similar. I look for minor details in determine which one is which. In this case, Dolan’s car has a diamond-plate number, Sweigart’s is a solid green number.”
Caleb and Stephanie introduce lineups together as well as call the race action. By consistently working together, the work of each compliments the other’s.
“I’ve learned to always be focused on the action, try to notice small things a lot. Steph tends to call the action up front, I’m looking further back. We work side by side, we don’t step on each other, I learned that early. I’ve also learned a lot by listening to the way other announcers call races,” said the Greenwood Middle School studen.
He further refines his announcing skills by frequently listening to the audio replays of races he has called.
“I do that a lot, and will see where I second guessed myself sometimes,” Newlin said, adding, “I sometimes cringe when I hear where I have made a mistake.”
Newlin has received feedback from the drivers and officials whose events he covers.
“Nick Sweigart, who won a recent race, messaged my dad after the race to say how good of a job I had done calling the race. At Port, Steve O’Neal told me I had done a good job. Bert Wojcik at Selinsgrove told me I was doing well,” said Newlin.
“Path Valley said they liked what they heard. What criticism I have received is constructive.”
Not that the 12 year old hasn’t made an occasional error in judgment.
“One of my first times announcing at Selinsgrove I said something embarrassing. I said, ‘It looks like we have some sort of beef between Logan Spahr and Nick Sweigart here on the homestretch’. Steph said to me, quietly and in private, ‘we don’t want to draw attention to that sort of stuff’. I learned that I need to be as respectful of the drivers as they are of us.”
Ever-creative Newlin has been working on coming up with nicknames for drivers and for the racing itself. Josh Spicer has become “Super Spicer”, Nick Sweigart is now known as “Nitro Nick”. “I also came up with “movin’ and groovin’” to describe the flow of a race. Everyone seemed to like that.”
Though all of his work so far has been performed pro bono, as an internship of sorts, it is not surprising that Caleb has come to aspire to announce races on a professional level.
“In school we have been writing journal stuff about what we might want to do when be get older. I wrote that I’d like to be announcing for a bigger national racing series,” he said.
“I’m not all that interested in most of the high school sports. Football is the only other sport I pay any attention to. Racing, to me, has so much excitement.”
For her part, Stephanie Dodson thoroughly enjoys working with Caleb.
“I raced for 27 years. I last raced with the PASS 305 Series and when I retired, I became their announcer and the Series’ co-director. Caleb’s dad Zach was a competitor of mine and through that I met Zach’s family with whom we had lots of things in common. I actually have known Caleb since he was born,” said Stephanie.
“I consider him like my “little spirit buddy”. We are similar, people ask us if we’re related which we aren’t. Our two families became close through racing. He had all of the race car toys to play in the dirt with. But was interesting is that he used to call the races he was doing with his cars, like a track announcer for full size car racing.
“He started making stop-motion films, announced all of those, then created his own You Tube channel. He did race Karts a little bit while his dad was racing 305s, but when his father moved up to 410s, he didn’t race as much, not as consistently as before. It seemed like it became more of a stresser for him rather than fun.”
Having heard Caleb “announce” his toy car races, Stephanie was not wholly surprised when, during a visit at the Newlin home, Caleb asked her, ‘Do you think I could ever announce with you’?
“He was eleven at the time. I decided to ask the Gobrecht family if he could work with me announcing one night at BAPS. It seemed like a good place to start since they don’t stream many of their races. I was thinking, if we had him announce on non-streaming nights, if he makes a mistake it doesn’t go out there for the whole world to hear,” said Stephanie.
“The track agreed. Their track announce Dave Hare was totally supportive of giving Caleb the opportunity. Dave had acted as a mentor for me when I first started out announcing. Dave has also recorded some of Caleb’s announcing for others to hear.
“His first night went very well. April Clark, who is involved with BAPS, suggested that Caleb might consider announcing for their Micro Sprint races. As it happened, he didn’t take that position but just being asked ignited a passion within him. It also made him decide to declare he was not returning to Go-Kart racing.”
From that auspicious start, Caleb Newlin has been co-announcing with Stephanie at most every PASS 305 Sprint race this season.
“To be honest, at first it was a little stressful for me. He’s a minor who is signed in as an adult. He’s essentially in my care for the whole night.,” said Stephanie.“I also do a lot more for the PASS Series behind the scenes in addition to announcing. But now, it relieves some of my stress in that I don’t have to worry about what I say or am going to say every single second. He shines calling the action.”
Because of the PASS 305 Sprint schedule of racing at several different tracks during the season, Caleb’s prowess behind the microphone has become well known to a wide audience, far more than most announcers who call the action at only or two tracks.
“He recognizes that this is a broad opportunity,” Stephanie said.
Dodson is amazed at Caleb’s observational sense.
“When he first started, the two of us tag-teamed so well that people couldn’t tell who was whom. He’s just 12, he hasn’t hit puberty yet, his voice hasn’t changed yet,” said Stephanie.
“He’s perceptive, I tell him he has ‘young eyeballs’. Part of that is because he has grown up at the race track and knows the terminology, the vocabulary. He’s not wrong about any of this. He’s also very witty. Having Caleb do what he does has made it all the more enjoyable for me, he loves calling the races. He’s innocent in that he doesn’t know any of the past histories among drivers.”
Dodson further noted that since Newlin has had the opportunity to observe and interact with several different speedway managements, he understands that expectations may vary from track to track, from promoter to promoter.
“Caleb has found his niche. It’s wonderful, really, to observe,” Dodson said.

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