Newsmaker of the Week

There’s always trepidation when a successful race team splits up, particularly for the driver. The wheelman is the one has to start over, building the team chemistry so vital for long term success. Ryan Preece took a giant step toward doing that Sunday at Caraway (NC) Speedway when he won the asphalt Modified North-South Shootout in his first start for new …

Unbelievable. An astounding upset. A defining moment in a budding career. These are just some of the superlatives laid at the feet of Ryan Smith after his win Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway against the best in the business, the fabled World Of Outlaws. This is the kind of race that tens of thousands will attest to having seen …

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship is one of the most difficult to achieve in all of auto racing.  It takes a team dedicated to doing whatever it takes to not just in but find a tenth of a second anywhere, at any time.  The transcendent talent is the one that can win championships with two completely different teams.  That’s …

The racing world is running out of superlatives for Stewart Friesen’s on-track exploits. For the third time in his still emerging driving career, ‘Stewy’ drove to win the Super DIRT Week Syracuse Modified 200 Sunday. It’s how he did it that made news. On a notoriously difficult track to pass on, Friesen charted a course on the outside lane for the …

Williams Grove’s National Open is the biggest Sprint Car race east of Knoxville, Iowa. To win this one is to become enshrined in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of 410 Sprint fans. But on this night, the liver was the organ of ‘enshrinement’ for race winner David Gravel. A controversial bump and run with race leader and fan favorite …

Stevie Smith had driven thousands of miles on dirt tracks in all four corners of the United States before coming back home to Central Pennsylvania this year. With the grandstands packed at William Grove on Friday night with warm, familiar faces Smith won the feature. But that was just warmup. The next night at Lincoln Speedway, the track on which …

It isn’t easy to win a race of any kind and when stakes are for upwards of in $16,000 in prize money, the competition is ruthless. Mix in the presence of one of the sport’s the winningest drivers of all time camped out on the leader’s rear bunper, and the drama escalates. Then, to ramp up pressure even further, have …

In asphalt Modified racing circles, there is no race more prized than the Race Of Champions. This year’s race, the 64th running at Oswego (NY) Speedway, was a hard-nosed affair and its winner, Chuck Hossfeld, rose to the occasion. Less than half the field finished the grueling 200 lap distance and many of the finishers were battle weary drivers steering banged …

Wed on Thursday, win on Saturday. That was the story for short track racing’s ‘power couple’ Stewart and Jessica Zemken Friesen at Utica Rome (NY) Speedway after the ‘just married’ husband and wife finished first and second in the rich Cole Cup for 360 Sprint Cars. Stewart led all the way but Jessica was the showstopper, passing Steve Poirier off …

Oswego Speedway’s Supermodified division is unique in all of auto racing. The wingless Supers race all year at the historic track in preparation for the Oswego Classic, a race that has withstood the test of time and adds to its legacy annually This year Otto Sitterly won the race for the fourth time in the past six runnings. On a …