All About Racing

By Ed & Betty Biittig

Despite the snowstorm that hit the area this past weekend many people came out to see all the beautiful race cars at the Rotterdam ViaPort Mall during the Fonda Speedway car show.

Racing is truly a family sport and one of the families that came out to enjoy the show was the Seth Martin family of Schoharie. Wife Ashley and son Brexton were there with Seth and his father, Ward to greet fans and those coming to learn about auto racing in the area.

Seth will be running regularly on Friday nights at Utica-Rome this season in the 602 Sportsman division in his new DKM chassis and will also venture out to try some of the Short Track Super Series (STSS) events. His second car will be trying out a few of the Super DIRTcar Series events.

Fonda’s Pro Stock 2023 Track Champion, Ivan Joslin of Fonda had his car on display and was greeting fans all three days of the show. Ivan will defend his championship at Fonda this season and run the Thunder on the Thruway Series between Utica-Rome and Fonda. On Sundays Ivan will run a Pro Stock owned by Bill Yurkewecz and powered by a new engine at Glen Ridge.

Along with the dedicated veteran racers there were many of the younger drivers at the show this year and Connor Prokop from Middleburgh was one of the young guns that has been showing his racing talents at Fonda and Utica-Rome the past two years. Connor started in the Limited Sportsman division at both tracks, putting his concentration on Fonda and learning the ropes of the racing game from the more experienced racers at the track. He moved up to the 602 Sportsman the end of last season and did well in the division and this year he will run a 602 Sportsman at both tracks. Connor will also take on the STSS this season.

Laudy Hoyenga of Sloansville has been a racing enthusiast since his younger years and occasionally raced himself, early on at Fonda and more recently at Glen Ridge where he also won twice, first on 8/14/2009 and the second on 7/5/2013. When he hung up his helmet he became an owner and started hiring drivers to drive his No. 34.

The past few years, Laudy hooked up with DKM Fabrication of Amsterdam and since then has increased his stable of racing power to four cars and seven engines.

Last year he tapped Cody Clark of Dolgeville to driver his second Modified at Fonda, Dave Constantino of DKM drives the other Modified. Clark showed that it was a good decision and finished fifth in points in his first time in the division. Prior to teaming up with Hoyenga, he drove his own car in the 602 Sportsman division at Fonda. Cody will chauffer the second No. 34 at Fonda this season but won’t be taking it out the brand new DKM early in the season until they see how the track shapes up with the new clay.

Fonda opens the gates for a practice session for all divisions on Saturday, April 13, rain date, Sunday, April 14. Opening night for the 2024 season is April 20, when Fonda will honor Jack Johnson with a memorial event paying $12,000 to win for the Modifieds plus racing for all divisions and points start.

Lebanon Valley held their annual awards banquets this past Friday and Saturday and inducted three new members into their Hall of Fame for 2023. Announcers, Dan Martin and John Stanley were both inducted and said that being inducted together was an honor after working together and being friends for 34 years. Driver, Bruce Berger was also inducted.

Until next week, please send all news and/or comments to biittig@yahoo.com