Get the Dirt... 

Great Articles & Editorials

from the World of Dirt Track Racing

 

by Terry Whetstone

 

Get the Dirt - Debut Article
By Terry Whetstone
Most men surprise their wife with a box of candy or flowers on Valentine’s Day, but not Tim Bainey, for Valentine’s Day he bought his wife a racetrack.
It wasn’t one of those little slot car tracks either, what he purchased was Central PA Speedway.
Valentine’s Day week is when the paperwork was getting close to being finalized for the purchase of the speedway, and last week, the speedway officially changed ownership from Dan Russell to Tim Bainey.
But then, if you’re on this site, you already know that.
This is the fourth time in speedway history that it has changed ownership.
James Christman and Ferd Wallace went together and constructed the facility in 1969-70. The first several races drew standing-room-only crowds.
Mr. Wallace promoted the facility until the 1990’s, taking a major step to change it from one of Central Pennsylvania’s premier dirt tracks into an asphalt facility in 1986.
A year later Jennerstown Speedway also changed from dirt to asphalt and secured a NASCAR sanctioning. Clearfield also secured a NASCAR sanction that same year.
Over the years it was a NASCAR track the NASCAR Feather-lite Modifieds raced at the speedway, as did the NASCAR Busch North Series.
At that time four of NASCARS biggest stars made an appearance, including Ken Schrader, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and Bobby Allison and Allison also raced in the event.
He blew the engine and retired early, but their appearance that night produced one of the largest crowds the speedway had ever seen, especially on the asphalt.
It was in the early 1990’s when a “six-pack” of owners assumed ownership. That six-pack, as members of the media called them, was DuBois area businessmen Gary Walborn, Rusty Peoples, Robert Fyock, Kevin Shannon, Barry Desalve and Wade Dixon. They owned the track and ran it successfully until the late 1990’s.
It was about 2000 or 2001 when Dan Russell purchased the speedway from “the six-pack” and he re-paved the facility before putting clay back down on the track. He leased the track out twice, first to Craig and Juanita Wilson, and while leasing it, Mr. Wilson died from a heart attack.
Mr. Russell then leased the speedway to the Paden family and they operated it on a weekly basis for one year.
Mr. Russell continued to operate the track but only on a specials-only basis, but those specials were huge events and once again the stands were packed.
This year, under the ownership of Mr. Bainey the track will again see a specials only format. There are a couple of races on the schedule; one of which is the return of the historic Yankee Doodle 50 race. This race has seen some of the best and brightest stars not only compete in it, but also win it.
Exactly what and when the rest of the events will be will be decided at a later date, but keep checking back and we’ll keep you posted.
Mr. Bainey has the support of his family behind him, with son Dan heading up the operations and sons Timmy and Randy helping out with other projects.
With the racing season nearing us, we have to give a remembrance to one of the racing communities best-known photographers.
Mike Eberl of St. Mary’s died unexpectedly in November of a heart attack. To the furthest of my knowledge, he wasn’t sick and never had a bad heart. His death took a lot of people by surprise.
Mike was a great friend of mine. He was best known for being the video man at Clearfield Mountain Speedway. He was the guy you could always see standing on the embankment in the first turn.
The name of his small business was Mikes’ Race ‘n Video. He was very good a shooting videos and he was able to catch the excitement before it happened because, as he told me before, he would watch the cars on the track with one eye, while taping with the other. He had to stop the taping because he couldn’t handle the weight of a video camera on his shoulder any more, but after that he turned to his other love, photography. He was at the Hummingbird Speedway Banquet just days before he left this world.
Mike left behind two lovely daughters, Tracy and Michelle and a loving wife, Theresa. He was a very good friend of mine. The two of us traveled to more than one race together and his friendship will never be forgotten.
Well, that’s going to do it for this inaugural issue of Get the Dirt. If you have something you want to let the racing world know, drop an email to terry2w@yahoo.com and we’ll print all the Dirt that’s Fit to print!