2010 USA Speedway History
East Coast

New York US Speedway Museum

I am very hopeful to open a US Speedway Museum at our property in Watkins Glen in the near future. This is something I have thought about and wanted to do for quite some time and have been waiting for the right place to do it. I have over 50 bikes and some really neat memorabilia available for the museum already and anticipate the loan of quite a bit more if it all comes to fruition.

The location could not be any better as it is just 2 miles down the road from the Watkins Glen NASCAR track and we would be exposing the history and future of our great sport to huge potential crowds and very important people within racing. In order to do this I need to raise funds of approx $40,000.00 I am guessing at this stage and am about to embark on some fund-raising ideas which I hope people may be able to support.

I am pleased to announce that the first fund-raising will come from the sale of Kelly Moran merchandise after the holidays. I was very pleased and appreciative to get Shawn Morans full blessing on this and also that of Ron Preston and Carol Stock which means the world! Please stay tuned for more info on this in the New Year.

If there are people out there who would like to donate to this project or have valuable fund raising ideas I would love to hear from you. We will also be looking for items to be donated or loaned for display in the museum when it all comes together. Just to give people an idea of some of the bikes that are already in place for the display...

ESO's
JAP's
4-Valve JAP
BSA Speedway
DENCO
KEN MAELY's
NEIL STREET
JAWA 2 VALVES
JAWA TWIN CAMS
PENHALL REPLICA WORLD FINAL 81 AND 82 WESLAKE
Ivan Mauger Weslake Motor in bike
NEW GODDEN
NEW TWIN CAM
LANCE KING JUNIOR TRIUMPH
RUSSIAN LONG SPIKE

Thank You, Jason Bonsignore

East Coast Speedway Promotions eastcoastspeedway@hotmail.com

Action Park
Action Park has moved to a new home at:
2374 State Route 414 Watkins Glen, NY 14891

RIP Action Park East 1983-1989 / 2002-2010

East Coast Speedway Promotions <eastcoastspeedway@hotmail.com>
Thursday, October 28, 2010 9:49:29 AM

Action Park East has seen its last speedway race and has been officially sold. While it was a sad moment to see the closure of a facility that was an important piece of NY Speedway history it marks the beginning of an awesome and exciting opportunity for the sport.

I have purchased a new property in Watkins Glen, the capitol of racing in NY State, and have already been approved by the town board to build a new speedway track there to replace Action Park. The property in Watkins is an existing family fun park with mini golf, an arcade, 2 go-kart tracks and bumper boats plus a nice wooded area for a scrambles course and a pond big enough for winter ice races. The property is just 2 MILES STRAIGHT ON THE SAME ROAD AS THE NASCAR TRACK! This could be huge for our sport and I hope to raise enough funds to be able to have the new speedway track ready for opening this summer.

While I am sad to see Action Park go and apologize to those who will miss it, I am proud we were able to bring it back to life for 9 years so that those in the modern generation of speedway could say they raced there and enjoyed it. We had a lot of great times up there!!! In its early years of its second life it thrived on a Sat night but over the past few years when Champion Speedway had to switch back to Saturdays again the two facilities were bumping heads for Saturday nights and it was just not making sense anymore. Racing at the new facility will be Friday nights and the upside potential is just much more than what we could do with APE.

I want to thank all of the people who supported APE over the years and especially thank Tim Mathewson who worked very hard to help keep it going the past few seasons. Rick Redpath also put a lot of heart and soul into it and I thank him! My enthusiasm for the place had been drained slightly since being burned in a big way financially by former tenants of the bar and a tenant of the track but those guys kept their energy up! Its new future will be as a baseball driving range and training ground so at least a high rise will not be built over it and sports will continue. Ironically, Tuff McBride was the tracks first Champion in 1983 and Adam Mittl was its last, both of whom are still racing and took one two in this years overall points chase. The last event ever was this years US Open round and we had a nice crowd and a lot of fun, memories will live on forever!

Jason Bonsignore

US Open Quick Results

After 2 nights of racing which included 8 heat rounds and 5 Main events, Tommy Hedden and Josh Larsen were tied for the overall Championship. They ended up running off for the title and on the first try Larsen seemed to have got an edge on Hedden off the start but Hedden got into him and Larsen went down. On the restart Hedden made the gate and they rode around nearly side by side until Hedden was first to the checkers for his second US Open title in a row. Congrats to both riders who put on a great show. Adam Mittl and Casey Donholt represented NY in good fashion. It was very unfortunate that Mittl got robbed of a potential 3 points in round one last night when he got knocked down and no call was made while he was the overall points leader at the time. He still took third overall with Donholt fourth and Faria fourth.

Overall US Open Final result

1.Tommy Hedden
2. Josh Larsen
3. Adam Mittl
4. Casey Donholt
5. Mike Faria

The US Open is this weekend Sep 4th and 5th

Sat at 7pm at Action Park, Sunday at 6pm at Champion Speedway.

See 3-time US National Champ Mike Faria, former #9 in the World/2000 US Open Champ and World Team Cup Champ, Josh Larsen, defending Champion, Tommy Hedden and former British League rider and 2007 US Open Champ, Dukie Ermolenko, take on the East Coasts best! Tuff McBride has been the most consistent guy all year in NY and is ready, Adam Mittl was unstoppable last Sat and looks to have his form back, Buman and Donholt have both had good seasons and Parsons is getting back into form lately. Gene Bonsignore has been strong lately and there are many more solid guys that will be on the program.

The walls at both tracks are freshly painted white, the tracks are in good form, the PA has all-new wiring at Champion, the Support Div will be very tough and the bathrooms look a lot nicer thanks to the Harris family. New US Open shirts and hoodies will be on sale and live music, including the teen sensation band, HOVER, will be at both venues. There is some good advertising out there and it should be a weekend you don't want to miss!

20 D-1 Riders Plus Legends for this coming Sat at Champion Speedway!

Wow, we have an awesome lineup for the Kelly Moran/Legends of Speedway Night at Champion this coming Sat the 28th! 20 D-1 Riders are confirmed! Legends who will be there for sure so far they say...Hank Bassett, George Lazor, Pete Atwater, Chip Jagger, Bruce Sill, Mike Lauterborn, Mike Cortese, Bruce Nelson, Kelli McMahon, Dale Wakefield, Mike Robinson, John Leale, Jody Garris, Kelvin Herrala, John Lewis, Lynn Arnold, Nick Ciardi, Jimmy Pierce, Dennis Pierce, Moonbeam, Bob Haskell, Frank Watson, Marty The Mouth is hopeful! and many more have been left messages.

D-1 Lineup...

1 Adam Mittl
4 Warren Diem
5 Mikey Buman
10c Mike Hammond
14 Jesse Diem
16 Jeremy Parsons
24 Russ Cornell
45 Andy Crawford
47 John Lewis
64 Gene Bonsignore
65 Jeff Garlinghouse
68 Jody Garris
70 Corey Brookes
72 Tuff McBride
82 Shawn Engel
190 Kelvin Herrala
97 Casey Donholt
227 Lee Bailey
277 Keith Hawkins
581 Ray Barondick

D-2
8 Cole Farwell
10 Ron Walker
22 Zach Peters
24d Dee Holden
42 Bunk Harris
56 Don Wheeland
77 Chuck Podany
81 Mark Bradley
111 Bill Papula

Need Sponsors for US Open 2010

East Coast Speedway Promotions <eastcoastspeedway@hotmail.com>
Thu, August 5, 2010 11:14:13 AM

I absolutely hate doing this but seeing as how other tracks do and seem quite successful with it and the fact that this year we really need some help I am posting this in search of some US Open Heat sponsors. We are going out of our way to make this one the biggest and best in years and have a great field for the event.

It looks as though there may be 5 CA D-1 riders coming and two CA support class riders already have tickets booked. We are hoping to be able to raise up enough money to help cover some additional expenses we will have in order to make this one the best in a long time. We hope to add some new dirt to the track in Owego which is long overdue and want to advertise heavily plus have additional purse expenses, trophies, travel, providing race ready bikes for out of town riders, etc for the Open.

If some help can come in over and above we may be able to improve the PA at Owego as well. There is a very good chance the Trackside Lounge may be re-opened for the Round at Action Park and both tracks will be spruced up including new paint on the walls which I already did by myself with a 12inch roller at Action Park last weekend. It has been a real tough year on us with the economy and we are really putting a lot of effort into the stretch run this summer.

We just opened the new go-kart fun track which is a blast and should help bring traffic. We have a big legends night on August 28th planned and have quite a few riders coming out for the August and Sept events. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Heats are being sold for $25.00 each, and there are 20 heats both nights plus finals are being sold for $100.00 each with 4 finals on Sat night and 7 on Sunday night. We really need to sell every race.

Many Thanks,

Jason

No racing this weekend in NY (Aug 8)

East Coast Speedway Promotions <eastcoastspeedway@hotmail.com>
Wed, August 4, 2010 9:23:03 AM

There will be no racing this weekend in NY...we are taking the weekend off with it being NASCAR weekend to finish up a few more things in preparation for the next 3 weeks which are all big shows. We will be back racing at Champion on August 14th.

Champion Speedway

The Hank Bassett Cup is this Sat at Champion Speedway - 7pm and will feature a great lineup!
Can Tuff McBride go undefeated again? Parsons is back in the lineup again also along with Mittl, Doholt, Bonsignore, Harman, Clark, Brookes, Cornell, Crawford, Engel, Garlinghouse and more! See ya at the races, bring a friend!

East Coast Scheduling Change

From: East Coast Speedway Promotions <eastcoastspeedway@hotmail.com>
Sent: Tue, July 13, 2010 8:08:09 AM

The July 24 event at Action Park is being switched to FRIDAY, July 23 at 8PM. As a result the planned Sunday July 25th meeting at Champion Speedway is going to be changed to the Saturday, the 24th at normal 7pm start time.

Points for NYS Champ after Round One

Heat points plus Main event points

Tuff McBride   27
Warren Diem 25
Casey Donholt 23
Mike Buman 23
Lee Bailey 21
Adam Mittl 19
Brian Hollenbeck 19
Gene Bonsignore 16
Jerry Harman 12
Jesse Diem 12
Josh Carr 9
Ray Barondick 6
Russ Cornell 5
Dave Clark 3
Andy Crawford 2
Shawn Engel 1

Champion Speedway Prepares for Biggest Night in Years

Posted by: "East Coast Speedway Promotions" eastcoastspeedway@hotmail.com
Date: Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:01 pm ((PDT))

Champion Speedway plays host to the 25th anniversary of the NIKSTOCK music festival this Thursday-Sunday along with RD 1 of the NY State Speedway Championships Sat at 7pm.

A massive crowd is expected, likely larger than the ST Alexis Quebec crowd of a few years back. A great lineup of riders is in place and there is a very good chance the new go-kart slick track will be open for the first time this weekend. There is also a big BMX race on site Sat afternoon.

It should be one heck of a weekend. If you show up at normal speedway gate time, after 4:30 pm, your $15.00 speedway admission will gain you access to the festival after the racing. Show up earlier though and you will have to pay the concert fees.

Silent shots photography will be on hand taking updated summer season pictures. They took some awesome ice racing pictures this past winter.

Action Park and Champion Speedway are set to host 2nd Annual NY State Indoor Speedway Motorcycle and ATV Championships May 8 at the Chenango Ice Rink

Well-known local racetracks, Action Park East in Greene and Champion Speedway in Owego, will be hosting an indoor ice racing spectacular for the 2nd time ever at the Chenango ice rink, on the standard size hockey arena surface, May 8, 2010.

The event will serve as The New York State Championships on ice for Speedway motorcycle racing and ATV's. This will mark only the 2nd time a State Ice Championship has been held since 1976 at the Syracuse Arena and the only the third time an indoor event has been hosted locally since 1979 when a large audience witnessed racing at the Broome Arena. Ice Races were held this winter at the Broome Arena and First Arena in Elmira in front of large audiences.

Ironically, the promoter of the events at the Chenango Ice Rink, Jason Bonsignore of Rochester, who owns Action Park and Champion Speedway, is a former professional NHL hockey player and will again be bringing his latest venture to the hockey ice!

The Speedway motorcycles and ATV's that will feature in these programs have over 1,000 razor sharp silver screws in each tire! The Speedway machines have absolutely no brakes, run on methanol, are capable of going from 0 to 60mph in less than 3 seconds and will be sliding totally sideways through the corners. The ATV races will culminate in an insane Main event each night where there will be 6 riders at once in the extremely tight confines and there will be sure to be plenty of bumping and passing.

Riders will be coming in from as far away as North Carolina and California to compete in the two night Championships that will also feature a full field of our local best. Headlining the Professional Speedway Division from out of State will be 3-Time US Open Speedway Champion on dirt and current Ice Racing star, Shawn "Mad Dog" McConnell of Brea, CA and experienced ice veteran "Rockstar" Ronnie Kemp of Charlotte, NC. McConnell won the Elmira races and is also a Hollywood stuntman who has appeared in such films as Terminator 3. They will face tough challenges locally as current NY State dirt Title holders, Adam Mittl of Endicott and Gene Bonsignore of Rochester are expected to compete along with speedway legend, Tuff McBride of Windsor, former track Champion at Action Park, Casey Donholt, flat-track Champion Craig Estelle of Windsor, 15 year old sensation, Corey Brookes of Apalachin and a host of others. Dan Hawk of Binghamton, who finished second in the Pro ATV class in Elmira is an early favorite on four wheels along with long-time stars, Steve Kappler, Steve Tarsia, Sean Neal and Rick Ganoung amongst others from the strong contingent of racers in the tri-cities area.

Bonsignore hopes to host events at the Broome County Arena and Chenango Ice Rink again next year. The popular summer dirt seasons at Action Park and Champion Speedway, which attracted thousands of fans weekly in the 70's and 80's and is making a big comeback in recent seasons, begins May 29 in Greene and with a Sunday special on May, 30 at Champion Speedway. Action Park will race one Saturday each month and Champion will race weekly, mostly on Saturdays with some Sunday specials. BMX and night-time motocross racing are also planed at Champion Speedway this summer and the track has added a concrete oval go-kart fun track as well which should be open in mid May.

Start times for the ice race May 8 will be 7:00 pm. Gates will open at 6pm. Ticket prices will be $15.00. Special seating inside the bar and restaurant at the end of the arena will be available for more. Tickets will be available at the arena the night of the race. More info can be had by calling 585 723-9746, emailing eastcoastspeedway@hotmail.com or by visiting the Rink or websites...

Lots of excitement building for the 2010 season in NY. Here is a link to the tentative schedule for Champion Speedway and Action Park.

I have had calls recently from bothLenny McBride and John "Boogieman" Lewis, who have expressed that they are attempting comebacks. McBride successfully came back two years ago after 2 years away to win the Action Park track Title but was limited to only two races last year because of a new work schedule. Lewis has not raced since 1993 but has ridden several times over the past few years and looked very comfortable.

Over the winter we have picked up 6 new riders, including Bunk Harris who now has his own bike and will be full-time plus Jeff Graham who is originally from CA and was living in Iowa but who has now moved to Rochester just to try speedway which he always wanted to do. Now that is dedication! He has two laydowns he brought with him.

Rumor has it "Jammin" Jeff Garlinghouse is building a new secret weapon bike in his garage. We are planning an overhaul to the track surface at Action Park and will be running once a month there as we did last year.

We are hard at work to finish the go-kart track at Champion Speedway which should be great fun for all and are hopeful to make improvements to the PA system there. The big news could be coming soon...A new home for the Batavia track may be in the works and it would be the ultimate fun place for speedway. The great news is that it would be a very short drive for the Southern Tier area riders and fans. It could be huge for speedway. More to follow soon. Practice this Sunday April 18, at Champion, cost is only $15.00. Jason...

Ice Racing News - NY State Ice Championship

Posted by: "East Coast Speedway Promotions" eastcoastspeedway@hotmail.com
Date: Wed Mar 24, 2010

The NY State Ice Championship has to be moved to May 8th because of problems with the Chenango Ice Rink hockey schedule. I know this is late in the season but also knew that many people were looking forward to it so we want to give it a shot. Hope everyone will be willing to come inside for one night to see some great racing this Spring!

Ice Racing News - Albany

Posted by: "East Coast Speedway Promotions" eastcoastspeedway@hotmail.com
Date: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:01 am

The National Round of the NAIIR championship set for this Sunday in Albany has been postponed. The original reason for setting the Sunday date on this particular weekend was that another ice series was going to be making a stop nearby on this Friday and Saturday and we thought it would be really great for the sport to have a large scale event on Sunday where all the top ice speedway and ATV racers could compete against each other for the fans and to help promote the sport and determine a true National Champion but the other series promoter has turned down an invitation to compete himself and will not let his riders ride nor will he allow our riders to race for him so in light of that and in light of Sundays being about the third best option of getting the most fans possible, we have decided to try and seek a Friday or Saturday night date in the Fall once they know the River Rats hockey schedule for next season. We are very sorry if anyone had planned to go to the show and hope some people may be able to make the trip down to Florida with us in March. We may have some news by the end of this week though on some ice racing on the West Coast.

Bully Dog East Coast Speedway Banquet

McBride's Restaurant and Pub
Mittl takes home top hardware at East Coast Speedway Banquet
By Jason Bonsignore
Photo of Adam Mittl by John Zachary
Windsor, NY Dec 12, 2009

A nice crowd of approximately 50 people gathered at McBride's Restaurant and Pub in Windsor, NY to help celebrate the completion of another fine year of Speedway Motorcycle Racing on the East Coast. Most of the riders in attendance are still going strong with racing as they are now competing in the North American Indoor Ice Racing Championship Series!

A great lasagna meal was put on by owner and Speedway Legend, Tuff McBride. After dinner, Promoter Jason Bonsignore kicked off the awards presentations with a gift to McBride for hosting the event. McBride, well known for his love of green over his career and his green leathers, was given a pair of vans tennis shoes that were green with green shamrocks on them! Very fitting for McBride! Bonsignore also presented McBride with the George "Iron Horse" Lewis award for most dedicated rider.

The following were awarded Points or Track Championships. Spencer Portararo as the Action Park, Champion Speedway and overall East Coast Points winner in Junior Speedway, Henry Calpin as the Action Park Support B Champion, Brian Bailey as the winner of the Champion Speedway and overall East Coast Championship in Support B, Dwight Basa as the Action Park, Champion Speedway and Eastern Points Champ and Adam Mittl for winning both track titles and the East Coast title in division One speedway.

Bonsignore had a list of special awards starting with the Karl Humphrey Sportsmanship plaque which was won by Josh Carr. Next up was the Gary Ford rookie of the year award which went to 57 year old Don Wheeland who had a fine rookie season! Most exciting rider of 2009 was Andy Crawford. Unsung hero plaques were handed to Ron Hills for his work promoting speedway on television, to announcer "Crazy Crash" Kraig Moss, to scorer, Debbie Calpin, to worker Russ Cornell Jr. and to sponsors, Mike Banks of Fleetsource and Stefan Laessig of All Balls Racing. The sponsor of the year was Mike DeFord at Bully Dog Technologies!

Bonsignore closed by thanking special staff workers like Tim Mathewson, Russ Cornell, John and Tyler Vassil, Cindy and Kendal Brookes, Bill and Troy Hohn, Jen Brink, Dennis Craven, Kirk Valiquette, Karen Davis and all who helped make the year possible. He concluded with saying that speedway will be back strong as ever next spring for another great year and that the ice race series may be expanding to even more dates for this winter. The group heads to Utica Dec. 20 and Syracuse Dec. 27 for the next two tour stops!

Indoor Ice Racing Championships
Utica Auditorium and The Syracuse War Memorial/Oncenter
December 20 and 27, 2009

Round 2 of The Bully Dog/Fleetsource North American Indoor Speedway Motorcycle and ATV Championships set for December 20, 2009 at The Utica Auditoriumand Round 3 for December, 27, 2009 at The Syracuse War Memorial/Oncenter.

The events will be supported by Bully Dog Technologies and the local BRP,Can-am, and Ski-Doo dealers and will serve as Round 2 and 3 of the North American Indoor Ice Championships for Speedway motorcycle racing and ATV's. Former local NHL hockey player, Jason Bonsignore, of Rochester, is the race operator and the series just came off a successful stop in Binghamton, NY in November where ice racing was held at the Broome County arena for the first time in 30 years! Bonsignore, who promotes dirt races all summer long at Action Park in Greene, NY and Champion Speedway in Owego, NY, promoted a very successful two day show at the Chenango Ice Rink in Chenango Bridge, NY last April. The Chenango rink will again host ice racing this April, 9th and 10th. Just last winter an outside touring event consisting of the same show came to Elmira's First Arena for two nights and the show sold out with capacity crowds of 4,000 both evenings.

The Speedway motorcycles and ATV's that will feature in these programs have over 1,000 razor sharp silver screws in each tire! The Speedway machines have absolutely no brakes, run on methanol, are capable of going from 0 to 60mph in less than 3 seconds and will be sliding totally sideways through the corners. The ATV races will culminate in an insane Main event each night where there will be 6 riders at once in the extremely tight confines and there will be sure to be plenty of bumping and passing. There will also be a flat-track Mad Dog motorcycle class.

Riders will be coming in from as far away as California and Canada to compete in the Championships that will also feature a full field of our local best. Headlining the Professional Speedway Division from out of State will be 3-Time US Open Speedway Champion on dirt and current Ice Racing star, Shawn "Mad Dog" McConnell of Brea, CA. McConnell won the Elmira races and is also a Hollywood stuntman who has appeared in such films as Terminator 3. Former US National ICE Champion, Jeff Orosz of ST Catharines, Ontario, Canada will also be in the field as will former Canadian National Champion, Aaron Hesmer, of BrantfoRound and his cousin, former CSRA high points Champion, Gary "The Hitman" Hesmer of Toronto. They will face tough challenges locally as current East Coast, NY State, Action Park and Champion Speedway Track Champ, Adam Mittl of Endicott and 4-time East Coast Points Champion, Gene Bonsignore of Rochester are expected to compete along with speedway legend, Tuff McBride of Windsor, former track Champion at Owego, Mikey Buman, 16 year old sensation, Corey Brookes of Apalachin, plus local warriors Jerry Harman, Dave Clark, Russ Cornell, Shawn Engel and Josh Carr amongst others. Carl Bartlett, of the Utica area, is an early favorite on four wheels along with long-time star, Dave Kent of PA and former State Champion, Ed Reilly of Apalachin. Sean Neal, winner of the Broome event, Steve Tarsia, Tim Jackson and Stoney Ray lead another strong contingent of other racers from the tri-cities area. Tom Kuhn of Albany is a front runner as well.

Start time for the ice races in Utica and Syracuse will be 2pm. There will be an hour long amateur program open to locals at 10:30am at each event. Tickets will be available at the arena the night of the races but are available through ticketmaster.com online or by phone charge at 1-800-745-3000. More information can be found at www.eastcoastspeedway.com. The NAIIR series moves to Reading, PA January, 7, 2010 at 7pm and then stops in Albany, NY for the US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP at the Times Union Center, January, 17, 2010 AT 2pm. Champion Speedway in Owego, NY also plays host to mud and snow scrambles races for motorcycles and ATV's all winter and dates for that can also be found on the website.