Orange County (NY) Fair Speedway, May 20, 2006 2006 May 22
On Saturday, May 20, 2006 I made a trip to the Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, New York. Although Orange County is only a 2 hour drive from my house and is not a new track for me, it felt like going there because I haven’t been there in almost 15 years. I used to go to the track a lot about 1989 thru 1991 or 1992, but I stopped go there a longtime ago. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the track that much (although it isn’t my favorite), but it just never seemed to be in my plans. Another reason is sometime back in the early 1990′s they stopped letting the top drivers like Brett Hearn and Danny Johnosn (neither of whom I am fans of, BTW) run in both the big block modified and 358 modified divisions [1]. After I arrived at the track and paid my $15 admission I noticed that almost nothing has changed. I don’t think they even put a coat of paint on the place! Although a fresh coat of paint and a few other changes may have been nice, I’m happy to report that some good things haven’t changed as well. First, they still have excellent French Fries and second, unlike many tracks, they don’t waste needless time between heat races.
The reason for my trip to OCF was a visit by the wingless ARDC midgets. I showed up about 4:45 for a scheduled 6:00 PM starting time and the place was rather empty. After finding a seat, I went into the 31st lap for a beer and to watch the end of the Yankees-Mets game (Go Yanks!). I think this was the first time I ever been in the 31st lap (a bar at the speedway) – in fact, I probably wasn’t old enough to drink the last time I made it to the track. There was a rain shower about 4:00 PM which may have helped cause the 27 minute late start so I will give the officials the benefit of the doubt on that. By the time the hit races started there were a few more fans in the stands for what I would say was a decent, but not spectacular crowd. The heat races were not spectacular but still very enjoyable. There were a few long reds however. One for an accident in the pits (rumor has it that a driver ran over two girls in the pits when he was exiting the track) [2] and another one when a pro stock flipped over (no one was hurt in that incident). Both of these reds lasted the better part of a half hour each. Despite the 27 minute late starting time and the two long reds, the officials decided to still have a lengthy intermission. If it was a nice summer night I would have been more forgiving, but it wasn’t. In fact it was pretty cold. I don’t know why tracks don’t want to let fans go home. Especially with the rain in Charlotte, fans in the area could have made it home to watch the Nextel Cup All-Star race. Next time if they like watching NASCAR, they’ll just stay home instead of going to the track and just catching the end of the race on TV. The only saving grace was that Orange County, as I remembered, still knows how to get cars on the track for the next race so there was minimal downtime besdes the long reds and intermission as discussed earlier.
They had 3 features scheduled after the intermission – the ARDC midget race, the big block modifieds, and the Sportsman modified features. The first one up was the midgets. The car count for the midgets could have been better, but even with only about 16 cars showing up the racing was still good. Ray Bull made it through the field quicker the Steve Buckwalter and by the time Buckwalter cleared traffic, Bull was long gone I’m not sure if Buckwalter would have had enough to get by Bull if a caution bunched up the field, but I would have liked to find out. The big block modified feature saw a number of accidents that took out a number of drivers. One of the drivers was OCF favorite (or least favorite, depending on who you talk to) Brett Hearn. Hearn lost one lap making repairs and came back out. He made it up to about 5′th in line which made for a pretty impressive run even though he never gained his lap back. Taking the win was Jeff Heotzler who came from towards the back after wining the 2nd consi. By this time it was 5 hours and 15 minutes past the scheduled starting time so I took off towards home before the last race of the day. I had a 2 hour drive and I was getting kind of sleepy and had plans for Sunday so I figured it was the best bet. All-in-all it was a good day at the races. If Orange County could just start the races on time and be wise enough to cut the length of intermission when need-be, they might get a few more fans in the stands (including a return visit by yours truly). Oh yea, a few gallons of paint might help as well.
My 2006 season race viewing stats after Orange County Fair Speedway on May 20:
Races: 12
Tracks: 9 (6 new) (143 lifetime)
States: 8 (2 new) (34 + DC lifetime)
[1] I’m not sure when they changed it back, but drivers can once again run in both divisions.
[2] The rumor did not state what was meant by “girls” age-wise, but I’d assume that New York has some sort of age limit for pit entrance so they were probably at least teenagers.
You need to get a grip they’ve worked their asses off and for people like you to try and put them down is terrible. And if they are so wasteful of time then why didnt you leave when you thought it was late . huh!!!!! Well you really cant say anything so buh bye.!!!!!
Jordon, I’m not sure why you are replying to a post that is almost a year old, but I figured I’d take the time to respond since you took the time to write. After re-reading this, I think I wrote a decent review of Orange County. The only thing I really complained about was the long intermission after a number of things they couldn’t control (rain, accidents in the pits, flips). As far as not leaving earlier, if I left would management give me back the money I spent to get there and my price of admission? I doubt it.