2005 USA Speedway History
East Coast

Please contact RC Jones by E-MAIL if you would like to write the news for the East Coast.

East Coast Results

The following schedule for the US Open Speedway Championships is as of now confirmed. August 20, 2005

August 26BMS Batavia, NY

August 27 Mountain Springs Arena Shartlesville, PA www.mountainspringscampground.com raindate Aug 28-Noon

August 28 Champion Speedway Owego, NY

Sept 2 BMS Batavia

Sept 3 Action Park East Greene, NY

Sept 4 Champion Speedway Owego, NY raindate Sept 5-Noon

Confirmed lineup
"Gorgeous" Gary Hicks Ventura, CA
Shawn "Mad Dog" McConnell Tustin, CA
George "Lazorbeam" Lazor Brockport, NY
"TV" Tommy Burge Port Crane, NY
"Mean" Gene Bonsignore Rochester, NY
"Smokin" Dave Oakden Clarkson, NY
Larry "Tuff" McBride Windsor, NY
Mike Robinson Churchville, NY
Jeremy "Darkhorse" ParsonsJohnson City, NY
Mikey Buman Binghamton, NY
Casey Donholt Port Crane, NY
"Flyin" Brian Hollenbeck Owego, NY
Adam "OJ" Mittl Endicott, NY
Russ "Homer" Cornell Nichols, NY
Merle "Crazey" Craven Apalachin, NY

Reserves
Keith Hawkins
Alex 'Hazzard" Heath

Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005
Subject: ACTION PARK AUG 20 RACE CANCELED

Due to the lack of riders and staff this week, some out of town, some injured, bikes "pranged", etc.

The Sat. night race at Action Park will not be run.

The track will be preped for practice (if you are so inclined) from about 6PM till dark.

Date: Sun Aug 14, 2005
Subject: Champion Speedway

Champion was rained off yesterday. We will not be rescheduling it but will award the Hank Bassett Cup to the winner of the Main Event at the next race which will be The US Open Round 3, Aug 2 8 - SUNDAY. Only two races left before the track says goodbye to speedway.

Date: Sun Jun 26, 2005
Subject: Batavia Motor Speedway

As long as the track lighting is completed and everything falls into place the Grand Opening of Batavia Motor Speedway will be July 8.

We already have a very full lineup planned. It will be nice to see some new faces this year including one of the best of all time back here, George "Lazorbeam" Lazor and top quality D-1 guys like Dave"Smokin" Oakden, Mike Robinson and several others who will be coming out of retirement.

Hope to see many of you there.

Jason

Fans point of view

While Friday in Conway, South Carolina the races were rained out. There were a couple of good points.

1. The promoter of the Red Springs track was there to show support of the riders and the sport. When the races were cancelled he afford to go turn on the lights at his track for practice and a few riders took him up on it. I thought this was cool.

2. Upon leaving Conway gas was $1.97 a gal. sad to say but what a deal. Thanks to Gary Densford for trying.

On to Red Springs for Speedway on Saturday. What a beautiful day the track looked good and was fast. The Darkhorse was perfect all night long. I will say a couple of things I have never seen happened. The promoter Roosevelt thanked and shook the hand of almost every rider, very nice touch.

During the evening the new lights that were installed needed adjusting, during a intermission either the installer or the power company came out and set things right. It sure was nice to see a promoter take the extra time it took to do this. Safety first !!

The East Coast has a fine group of younger riders that are willing to travel the extra miles to help promote the sport and to better themselves with more track time. The cookout afterwards was awesome, and Speedway express was there in full bloom.

The best part for me was Henry and Doc, I had the pleasure of pushing them both off for most of their races. Between the two of them are about 135 year of racing. I think if you add up the ages of the D1 main they would be about 30 years. short.

To me Brian Hollenbeck and Adam Mittle are to be watched as they all showed great form and speed. I would say more about Jeremy but as you know I am bias on that one. Thanks to Tim and the crew from NSRA you saved me allot of travel time to see Speedway within a total of 5 hours. travel time. Looking forward to New York later this year. Can not wait to see Batavia a new track. Look out world Speedway lives and is strong.

Steve Tennant May 22, 2005

JBR Racing - Action Park News Release: (April 24, 2005)

While JBR is sill the owner of Action Park, it has been decided to lease the Track to Donavan Dorsey of Washington for the 2005 season. Donavan will be releasing the 2005 schedule soon. All questions can be directed to him atfastracing@direcway.com or (877) 887-4337.

JBR President, Jason Bonsignore, issued this statement. "Due to a need to spend ore time with my family I have decided to rent out Action Park this year. Action Park is a great facility and we wanted to see speedway continue there and we believe that Donovan will to a good gob of that."

NSRAnews April 15, 2005

Editors Note: By Tim Mathewson tmathewson677@tier.net

Back in the fall of 1997 I got the bright idea that the eastern speedway community needed a way to keep up on the happenings in the area and also of speedway elsewhere in the US and the world. After publishing a single issue of "East Coast Speedway News" it was apparent that I was in over my head. Enter Ian C. Blair, a displaced California speedway fan living in Long Island NY. Ian just happened to work in the publishing industry and was willing to take what I had started and run with it. After several years of publishing the well-received quarterly newsletter, Ian decided enough was enough. Speedway politics had become a problem and in general, there was little support for ECSN from within the sport it was trying to serve. Fast forward to 2005; there still exists a need for a printed, land-mailed source of Speedway Motorcycle Racing info to keep enthusiasts informed. Though the internet has been around to for a while many in the speedway community are still not comfortable or active online. Make no mistake; speedway in the US lives by the internet. But for those who do not participate online I hope that NSRAnews can be a source of information for as long as the speedway community needs. ’05 ECSS Expands to 8 rounds:

The East Cast Speedway Series will add two more rounds for 2005. Organized by the NSRA in 2003 the series is intended to enhance cooperation between speedway promotions in the eastern US and Canada. Since its inception the series has added at least one new venue per year. In ’04 rounds were added at Jolly Rogers Motorsports Park in East Lempster, NH and at Paris Ontario Canada. For ’05 there will be an additional round at Paris as well as the opening round being held at Conway SC.

2005 ECSS Schedule:

R1. 5/20 Conway, SC;
R2. 5/21 Red Springs, NC;
R3. 7/2 St Alex Quebec, Canada;
R4. 7/16 East Lempster, NH;
R5. 7/ 23 Welland Ontario, Canada;
R6. 8/13 Paris, Ontario;
R7. 9/ 4 Paris, Ontario;
R8. 9/24 Harpursville, NY.

For more detailed info log onto www.NSRAonline.com or call the NSRA Speedway Hotline at (607) 687-3458.

Local Schedules:

At the time that this newsletter is being published, there are still no definite NY speedway schedules except the September 24 SDR event. There are reports that negotiations are ongoing for someone to lease APE from Jason Bonsignore with an expected opening date of Memorial Day weekend. However, a lease is not in place at this time. There is still no word on a schedule for Champion Speedway in Owego though. Please Call JBR Racing at 585.723.9746 with an questions.

NSRA Needs You:The NSRA is looking for riders, staff, fans, supporters and above all participating members. Since 2000 the NSRA has attempted to offer the speedway community some additional directions to help insure the future of the sport on the east coast. By staging events at non-speedway venues, initiating the ECSS and doing preseason promotional work, we have opened doors that can keep the sport growing. Unfortunately, active membership in the club has dwindled from 45 in ’00 to 15 in ’05. We need your support!There are many ways to participate in NSRA activities with or without making a membership commitment to the group. We can always use a couple extra bodies on our road trips to help flag, score, or take video or photos. We are specifically looking for a NSRA media person(s) to help video and photograph our road trips. This could be a professional in those fields or a student looking for a project to showcase their talents. While we can’t pay our helpers, we do provide transportation to and from the events, make sure they have a place to sleep and enough to eat. In return you get to see what speedway can be like in new places with other promotions. If you would like to experience the ECSS up close and personal, this is your chance! Look at the ECSS schedule and see if you can help out on one of out trips. You won’t regret it!

NSRA Membership Benefits:

The NSRA has attempted to build in value for 2005 members. While membership has never been required to attend NSRA meetings or participate in NSRA events, this year membership will save you money wherever possible. We have always tried to keep costs of our road events manageable for riders have never charged a sign up fee. This season, Members will get FREE SIGNUP at NSRA run events (Conway, Red Springs, East Lepmster, SDR) while non-members will be required to pay a nominal fee. Our first road trip of the season will have two events in two nights. At $25 sign-up for each event you can quickly see that a $50 NSRA membership is quite a deal. Add to that discounted travel expenses and bike-delivery charges for members, you can see members will save money on the first trip of the season. We are also working on discounted admission where possible but nothing definite has been set up yet. We have always given everyone the best deal we could. We will continue to do the same this season. The choice is yours. You can pay us now or pay us at sign up. Either way, membership is still not required.

Fundraising:

For 2005 the NSRA will be publishing an ECSS yearbook featuring reports and photos from the ’04 ECSS. The yearbook, once published will be free to Sponsors and available at a nominal cost at every ECSS round and via www.nsraonline.com. The purpose of the yearbook is to showcase our sponsors and to provide additional publicity for series venues and riders. We will feature rider profiles and lots of series photos. Of course, we hope that advertising sold will also give an added financial benefit to the NSRA. It is our hope to eventually be able to build the ECSS point fund up and possibly supplement the local purses of ECSS rounds. It all depends on how many yearbook adds we can sell.
The NSRA is also looking for donated items that we can sell on Ebay. Have some stuff laying around that you really don’t want but think it is too good to throw away? Donate it to the NSRA and we can us it to insure the future of speedway in the area. All donations will get you an free NSRA teeshirt.

Getting the most out of your sponsorship $$:

Speedway Express ready for action:

For those of you who don’t already know, last summer the NSRA invested in a 66-passenger school bus with the plans of converting it into an RV/Race hauler. We are happy to announce that the conversion is nearing completion! We hope that by our first trip in May, that we will have everything finished including full kitchen and bath with sleeping/seating for 15 passengers. The interior layout also has space for hauling bikes behind the rear wheel wells or adding additional seating and bunks if needed. The "Express" will be available for members and non-members on a space available basis. If you are a fan that would like to tag along on the road, feel free to give us a call and we will see if we have room.
Support the businesses that support speedway: Let’s face it Speedway doesn’t have a whole lot to offer its supporters other than exposing their business to our fans and riders. That is what makes it so important for everyone involved in the sport to support those who support speedway whenever possible. Need tires for your car? Looking for a better deal on home heating oil? Need machine work done on your auto, recreational or industrial engine? Need to buy a last minute gift for that special someone? Look no further than the event program for your local speedway venue. Make sure you tell them you where you found their name and that you appreciate them supporting your favorite motorsport.

Speedway Riders Wanted:

It seems like the usual cycle of speedway in NY being revived only for rider participation to dwindle several years down the line is once again repeating itself. We are looking for riders of all ages and experience levels, especially YOUNG riders. If are or know someone that has had enough of the MX grind, give speedway a try. If you are someone who has a child that needs some hobbies but just isn’t into the "stick and ball" sports but you don’t want to sink a ton of $$ into that racing cars, give speedway a try. The NSRA has both full size and junior speedway bikes available for anyone to try in the hopes that we can entice some new riders onto the track without them having to invest first. Just give us a call and we will set up a test session at one of the local tracks.

Other sources of Speedway Info:

www.speedwaybikes.com
www.nsraonline.com
www.squaredealriders.com
www.jbrspeedway.com

Cycle News (714.751.7433) Motorcyclists Post, 11 Haven Lane Huntington, CT 06484

For more information on NSRA activities or to comment on the content of this newsletter, please write us at NSRA PO Box 634 Owego NY, 13827 or call 607.687.3458

Thank for reading!