PRESENTS--- 

BETHEL MOTORSPORTS PARK JUST A MEMORY
by Mike Fields

February 4, Long Beach, NY--- We’re not certain what the future holds for the former White Lake Speedway and Bethel Motorsports Park (BMP), but we know that Jason Makarewicz won’t be a part of it. Jason, who was going to foot the upfront expense of leasing the track for himself and promoter Billy Bartley, has pulled himself out of the picture.

A combination of not being able to come to a final financial agreement with the property owner, persistent rumors that the owner was either in the process of selling, or has in fact already sold the property, the land owner took over a month to return his phone calls, and of course, problems with the town board of Bethel trying to secure a permit to open on Sunday afternoons have soured J-Mac on being involved. The next question obviously is where does this leave Billy Bartley?

The answer at this time remains unclear. However, Bartley has just laid out a considerable sum to purchase another building, which has both businesses and residential units in it that would put a strain on anyone’s bank account. There is word that there is the possibility of another investor for ‘BillyB’ to turn to for BMP, although we don’t see that happening.  We’ll have to take a wait and see attitude for the next few weeks until then. However, he stated in a post on a local message board that he does have a “Plan B” that he’s working on, and a “Plan C”, if needed.

This news has worried many of the racers that have raced there over the years and have cars sitting waiting for the 2007 season, and the many racers that live out of the Bethel area that had planned on making the trip to the Sullivan County facility.  Throw in the many fans that have lived in the area, and were waiting for the smell of Sunoco race fuel in their nostrils on weekends, and you have a very sad group of campers.

Probably the only one that is happy over this is the promoter of Mountain Speedway. He had been sitting watching as his former officials and racers left to open their own track, as well as many competitors stating that they were glad to have a place to race at that had nothing to do with Joe Callavini.

There are also a group of drivers that have waited for BMP to open.  This group has not come out publicly choosing a “side”, and will be back at Mountain.  However, some have stated publicly on message boards that they were glad to have an alternative to Mountain, and will either have to find another place to race, or eat crow when they go back. That is, if BMP doesn’t open as hoped.

It’s too bad that things couldn’t be worked out at Bethel for J-Mac.  When we were at Mountain Speedway back in 2004, we found him to be very friendly and helpful if I had a question. He hasn’t ruled out looking at another track to get involved in and promote.  At this late date, attempting to find the right track in February that is looking for a promoter is very tough to find.

Still, it should be noted that the property that Mountain Speedway sits on can still be bought for about $650,000. With the “right” promoter who knows racing, and isn’t bigoted, it remains a gold mine in the rough. Callavini’s lease expires in about 2 or 3 years we believe.  We wonder that one of the best in the “right promoter” category could do if that person was someone like Ben Dodge…

A WEEK FROM THIS COMING SUNDAY--- we’ll be at Mike’s Place in Coram for the annual Long Island Daytona 500 Party put on by Bob Finan and Steve Halpin. We hope we get our tax return back this week to be able to afford all the pools that we want to enter.

It’s not that we’re greedy; we just hate to pick Arnold Kapinknick year after year.  Oh, you don’t know Ernie? Well, we don’t either.  But it seems that’s who we keep getting stuck with when we pull our starting positions in the pool every year!

As always, there will be a ton of giveaways, including t-shirts and tickets for other goodies. Although Miller Lite will be the official beer of the bash, we hope that Diet Coke will be an ‘associate’ sponsor.

Mike’s Place is located at 24 Route 25 in Coram, just east of Route 112. For directions, you can call them at 631.732.9667. If all else fails, you can just root for Arnold…

GOODYEAR EXTENDS CONTRACT WITH NASCAR--- NASCAR and Goodyear jointly announced the extension of their partnership for the top three series, NEXTEL Cup, Busch, and Craftsman Truck Series through 2012. That continues a partnership that started back in the 1950’s.

Well, there is no surprise in that announcement.  Since Hoosier pulled out after their failed assault on the top series a few years ago, there has been no other tire supplier that has stepped forward to challenge Goodyear’s dominance.

We think that may be a good thing.  If a manufacturer is going to step up, there are certain things that they must do. Chief among them is that they must make enough tires for every single car at whatever track they go to for that week. Even though they know that certain teams will not switch from Goodyear, they must still make enough as if all teams would run the Brand X tire. That is a significant cash layout.

Another thing that they need to try and compete is patience.  There is no way that they are going to come into the NASCAR series and think that they will take over as the king of the mountain in a year or two. If their not ready to put in a long-term commitment, they will probably bail out losing money and with a lot of red faces.

That being said, I don’t think that anyone has to worry about coming in and challenging the dominance of the Goodyear Eagle for quite a few years.

FRANK RUOCCO UPDATE--- Last week, we had the item about 2006 Stafford Motor Speedway SK Modified Champion Frank Ruocco being arrested for assault.  Since last week, we have received more information from various new sources.

Ruocco is the coach of the Connecticut Wolves, a Pee Wee hockey team in Connecticut for kids 11 through 13 years old.  During the course of a game, a parent from the opposing team, 39-year-old Lawrence Smith of Greenfield Center, NY, was using some profanity aimed some of the players on Ruocco’s teams and causing a disturbance.  The referee was forced to have Smith ejected.

After the game, Ruocco encountered Smith outside, and an altercation ensued. According to reports, Smith began the incident by pushing and then poking Ruocco in the eye. Ruocco then retaliated. Smith was taken to the hospital with facial cuts and other injuries.

Initial reports had Frank Ruocco charged with assault and Smith charged with disturbing the peace. Afterwards, Frank Ruocco released the following statement:

“No child should ever be berated with expletives or physically intimidated by an adult.  When encountered outside the rink and questioned about his behavior, Smith chose to escalate the situation by physically assaulting me and the unfortunate incident ensued.”

The above information came from the Associated Press and WVIT television in Hartford, along with other news sources.

THE TIME LIMIT HAS BEEN REACHED--- In the course of a week, we have hundreds of press releases that are e-mailed and faxed to us. Most are never a problem, since the PR people know that they need to give us lead time for the information to make it into a column, if appropriate. However, some race teams on the local level tend to send releases expecting them to make it into this column the same week it is sent to us.

That’s just not always going to happen. If you have a press release with news of your driver/team, it usually needs to be in our hands the week before this column is published. Much of this column is written the week before it is seen on whichever website you are reading this; especially during the off-season. We try to reserve the weekends for breaking race news from different tracks and series.

Of course for releases that are to appear on the press release section of Long Island Motorsports News (www.LongIslandMotorsports.com), the above doesn’t apply, as they may be sent to us at any time.

In fact, one release we found interesting was that Danny Sammons, son of Area Auto Racing News publisher Lenny Sammons, would be promoting The Fairgrounds at Kutztown in 2007 in Kutztown, PA. He has put out the word that he would like to talk to the track employees from 2006 about them returning to the 1/5-mile clay oval for the new season.

Besides currently running Ralph Solhem’s #0 on the Whelen Modified Tour, Sammons also dipped is fingers into the promoting well by putting on the annual Gambler’s Classic at Atlantic City last month. Although we didn’t attend the race, we understand that it was very successful with 200 cars and a full house through the front gate.

We have two thoughts about this--- 1) We hope that it is successful, and that Danny Sammons finds a reason to continue as promoter there through the years as opposed to the revolving door at some other facilities.  2) We also hope that this wasn’t Billy Bartley’s “Plan B” or “Plan C”…

ON MY LIST TO READ--- is the new book Let ‘em All Go by Chris Economaki, available from Coastal 181 (877) 907-8181).  We listened to the fascinating interview by Jalopy Jack on his We Love Auto Racing (718 707-1052) race line. We didn’t realize that Chris had announced at tracks such as Staten Island’s Weisglass Stadium, as well as Long Island’s Islip Speedway. For those interested, you can still listen to the interview until this coming Thursday morning (February 8^th) by calling the above number. When finished, you may leave a message for Jalopy Jack or just hang up.

Besides the book by Economaki, NASCAR Senior Editor Paul Schaefer chronicles the complete history of NASCAR’s weekly racing program in Where Stars Are Born, also available from Coastal 181 (877) 907-8181). It seems apropos since this is the 25^th anniversary of NASCAR’s weekly racing series.

The book goes into detail about crowning both regional and national champions from the series. All series champions are prominently detailed, including Pete Daniels and Ted (TC) Christopher, recent champions from the northeast.

 *****

Those are out thoughts this time.  What’s yours?   Questions, comments, and complaints will reach us at liracenews@hotmail.com. Until next time, Happy Motoring!

     Mike Fields has written for the Area Auto Racing News, Raceway Media Magazine, as well as being a contributing author for the book Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul.  He has also been a co-host of a weekly motorsports radio program, and a track announcer. Fields currently writes a weekly internet column, and is an occasional contributing columnist for the Riverhead Racer, the track program for Long Island's Riverhead Raceway.

     While not at his full-time job (babysitting his very rambunctious almost 4-year old grandson), he is the owner of The Hero Card Store!, providing specialty autograph cards to racecar drivers and teams. He may be contacted by e-mail at info@LongIslandMotorsports.com, or by phone at (516) 376-4028.

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