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ARRA - Auto Racing Research Associates, is a loose knit, national in scope, group of auto racing fans that are dedicated towards the effort of researching, documenting and archiving various bits of auto racing history so that this information is not lost to time, is not twisted away from original facts and is available forever to help in looking back, accurately, at our favorite sport....local auto racing.  The small group of Fred Voorhees, Bill Braga Jr., Bill Hanna, Steve Barrick and Bill Skinner have spent years compiling statistics through laborious and time consuming research, using all means of publications to root out the information. That group of historians comprise the beginning of our organization.  It is truly a labor of love.  As ARRA grew...we became hooked up with other well established historians with the same dedicated purpose.  We welcome you to read about all of our esteemed historians.  Consider them friends.  We are here to help with the history of our sport.  

  Fred Voorhees (President/Founding Member)- Fred began compiling historical racing stats in the mid 90’s….beginning with putting together Billy Pauch’s career win list as Pauch inched closer to his 500th career win.  Fred and fellow ARRA member Bill Braga have been collaborating on historical stat keeping for almost as long after Bill asked Fred to help complete the career win list of the late Doug Hoffman.  Focused on driver career win records in the past, both he and Bill branched out as their research work grew and they began to compile important statistical information on tracks also since it would also assist them in their driver research work. 

  Fred began attending the local races at five years old…joining his Grandfather weekly in the fourth turn bleachers at the famous Flemington Speedway.  Fred went on to begin covering Flemington for his hometown weekly newspaper…The Lambertville (NJ) Beacon.    Fred covered Flemington for The Beacon for 16 years.  In that stretch of time, Fred also joined the Flemington Speedway press department, hired on to Gater Racing News as a writer/reporter/columnist and also did occasional work for Area Auto Racing News.  Fred also wrote race coverage for the Hunterdon County Democrat, Steve Barrick’s Flemington and Bridgeport Speedway Souvenir programs…published his own monthly newsletters for Modified greats Billy Pauch, Doug Hoffman and Craig VonDohren.  Fred performed press relations work for the Pro-Four Modifieds…took a turn at the microphone as chief announcer at the New Egypt Speedway back in its ¼ mile paved days…and performed color commentating work in both local access tv and local radio stations covering the racing at Flemington.

  Fred lives in Ringoes,NJ and is married to wife Karen, is retired and enjoys racing history, is an accomplished cabinet maker and furniture maker and is passionate about fresh water fishing.  He is the happy Grandfather of Joshua and Maya.

               Bill Braga Jr. (Founding Member) - An avid northeast dirt modified racing fan for over 40 years, Bill first went to the races with his father at the Nazareth PA ½ mile dirt track in 1971 at the age of 3.  During the 1970’s father and son spent many nights at area speedways including The Flemington NJ Fairgrounds, East Windsor NJ speedway, Orange County NY Fairgrounds, The Reading PA Fairgrounds, and the aforementioned Nazareth PA ½ mile dirt track.

               His passion for the sport of dirt modified stock car racing was cultivated by watching and following the careers of legendary drivers such as Frankie Schnieder, Will Cagle, Buzzie Reutimann, Stan Ploski, Billy Osmun, Gary Balough, and Bill’s first racing hero Sammy Beavers. In the mid to late 1970’s Bill had the pleasure of watching the careers of current legendary drivers begin like Billy Pauch, Jimmy Horton III, and Brett Hearn.

                During the 1980’s and 1990’s as Bill became an adult he traveled to other area speedways in central New York State, Eastern and Central Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.  He has witnessed dirt modified races at over 30 different speedways during the past 5 decades.

                As much as he enjoys watching the 800 horsepower machines broad sliding through the corners, embracing the rich history of the sport is just as near and dear to Bill.  With the help and tutelage of the other ARRA members, Bill has done several driver and racetrack studies all with the intent of capturing and preserving the history of the sport he loves so much.

                Bill lives in Pompton Plains, NJ with his two children who he loves taking to the races when time allows.

 Bill Hanna (Founding Member -  Deceased) Bill Hanna grew up in Three Bridges, NJ, just a short distance down the South Branch of the Raritan River from the now closed Flemington Speedway.  Bill was introduced to northeast modified racing by his father in 1964 when he was 5 years old, and was immediately drawn to the sport.  Thanks to his older brother Larry and his best friend, former Flemington novice driver John Frankhauser, he was able to attend different race tracks at an early age, including Flemington, East Windsor, Nazareth, Nazareth National, Langhorne, Trenton, Harmony, Allentown Fairgrounds, Orange County and Reading.

His passion though has always been Flemington, which he attended faithfully each and every Saturday night, thanks to the fact that his father was employed there as a gate attendant.  During his childhood years, he became fascinated in keeping statistics of auto racing, recording lineups and finishes whenever he could.  While most young race fans probably had a favorite driver they looked up to, Bill found a hero in statistical wizard Bob Eckert, whose results were always found in the annual Area Auto Racing News racing reviews in the 1970’s.

Flemington was more than just a race track to Bill, as well over a dozen family members were employed there in various capacities.  A dream came true for him on Memorial Day 1987, when he was asked to join the speedway staff as a track official.  Starting as in pit-sign in with Johnny Rogers, through the years, Bill was promoted several times, being assigned many tasks at the speedway, including Modified and Late Model Handicapper, Enduro Scoring Director, Spotter in the tower, and assisting in scoring for long-distance events.   In addition, he has also been employed by the Nazareth Speedway, DIRT, and NASCAR for special events.

His love at Flemington has never wavered, and after the speedway had been closed for some time, he decided that something needed to be done to retain the rich history of the speedway and fairgrounds, and in September of 2009 announced the plans to start a society that would “Preserve, Protect and Document the History of the Flemington Speedway & Fairgrounds”.  That dream became a reality in January 2010, with the formation of the Flemington Speedway Historical Society, of which he was the first president.

While no longer an officer, Bill has continued his efforts of documenting and preserving the history of Flemington Speedway with a large racing library of racing papers, programs, and magazines.  He has also recently begun to expand his record keeping to several other speedways as well.  

  Steve Barrick (Founding Member) 69, of Flemington, NJ, has made his living writing about auto racing. His company, Program Dynamics, founded in 1975 with wife Pam, has produced weekly programs for more than 30 tracks. Steve also began full time work with Area Auto Racing News in 2011. The Barricks have two children and four grandchildren. 

 Bill Skinner (Founding Member) - is a historian and statistician whose research largely encompasses the early 1950’s to mid 1960’s era of stock car racing in the South Jersey area. Bill has done extensive research in gathering the “Top 5 Finishers” feature race results for this era at the following tracks- Alcyon, Atco, Flemington, Pleasantville, and Vineland, NJ as well as Hatfield, Nazareth, Orange County, Georgetown, and Delmar. Bill has also done extensive research into the daily racing activities of famous drivers such as Al Tasnady, Jackie McLaughlin, Budd Olsen, Freddy Fehr, Otto Harwi, Lew Mood, and Ken Wismer, Sr. during the 1950’s and early 1960’s.

 Jay Mooney (Member) – Jay’s exposure to the sport of auto racing dates back to the 1960’s.  Growing up near Binghamton NY he spent his Saturday nights at Shangri-la and 5 Mile Point Speedways.  His father, John, was a well-known engine builder in the Southern Tier and worked on the modified stock cars of Don Diffendorf and Chuck Akulis.  As a teenager, Mooney would go on to crew on D.I.R.T. modifieds with his dad.  “However, I never considered myself mechanically-inclined.” 

In the 80’s, Mooney was bitten by the open wheel bug.  He became passionate about the supermodifieds of Oswego Speedway while attending nearby Syracuse University.  Then a visit to Central Pennsylvania’s dirt tracks got him hooked on sprint car racing.  “Next thing you know, I packed up and moved to the Midwest so I could go to even more sprint car races.  I travelled all over, crewed on a non-wing sprint car in Indiana for a few years, I even had a stint as a scorer and did some P.R. work for the MARA midget organization.”  To date, Mooney has been to over 1,500 open wheel events across the US and Canada at 270 tracks and counting.    

Although he’s lived in the St Louis area for over 20 years, Mooney still has an intense interest in New York’s auto racing history.  Through the decades, Jay has amassed an impressive library of racing books, newspapers, magazines and programs from which he’s been able to conduct research and compile detailed stats.  His first contribution to A.R.R.A. was in helping to compile a win list for 14-time 5 Mile Point Speedway track champion, Chuck Akulis. 

Mooney, who is employed in the book publishing industry, lives in Effingham, Illinois with his wife and two sons. 

   John Nelson (Member) - I have never been directly involved in auto racing, but have been a fan since growing up in Vermont in the mid 1960s. I moved to Pesotum, Illinois in 1971, and watching World of Outlaws Sprints on the Springfield mile twenty years ago reignited my interest. Soon, I started looking up history of Modified racing in the Northeast. Not finding much, I started research myself, digging deep into collections of racing papers where I could find them. This soon led to another project – organizing a huge collection of racing papers, magazines, and programs donated to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa. When I began, these documents were completely unsorted in boxes and tubs divided between a damp, unheated former car wash building and a rental storage unit. Now they are fully organized, catalogued, and archived in a solid, climate-controlled building. I maintain a smaller collection at home, including fairly complete runs of AARN and NSSN from the mid 1960s forward. My research on Eastern Modified racing continues, and hard copies have been donated to the Sprint Hall of Fame and the new North East Motor Sports Museum. I am also quite well along in researching oval track racing in Illinois. 

 Larry Jendras (Member) - A historian of Maryland auto racing whose father was a car owner in the early 50's at Baltimore's Westport Stadium. About 1971 started collecting Maryland racing history and documenting the results of all it old tracks. Also looking into nearby tracks in Pa., Delaware, New Jersey and Virginia for Maryland drivers. Contributed to the former website, The Vintage Racer and wrote articles for the magazine Trackside. Always interested in the big Modified races of Langhorne, Trenton, Richmond Fairgrounds, Concord, N.C.

 Jeff Ahlum (Member) I started going to the races with my father when I was very young (3 or 4 years old).  We went as spectators to tracks close to home like Reading Fairgrounds, Flemington Fair Speedway, Nazareth and Grandview Speedways.  I had a few favorite drivers as a young kid growing up, but I always just seemed to enjoy the whole show and loved watching how it all unfolded by watching the flagman and listening to the announcer.

After being able to drive I started going to the races with my friends 3 nights a weekend, and did that for years until I was able to get to know Bob Stull who was working as a flagman at Penn National and he hooked me up with Lee Reading who was doing the video work, and I started doing the voice overs on the tapes of the races.  Two years later that lead to my first announcing job at Susquehanna Speedway and the rest they say is history. That has lead me to be able to announce for several different race tracks and series starting in 1993.  (Grandview, Thunder on the Hill series, Short Track Super Series, Bridgeport, Georgetown and Susquehanna)

So I have been heavily involved in racing from the track side of things since 1993.  With the need to have up to date and accurate info for my job, it lead me into the area of race track stat keeping and the love of the history of our sport and trying to preserve it.  Some of the places I have announced at have been great at keeping records, some not so, and that is why I have been such a researcher, and really enjoy looking back and hunting up the history of our great sport.

 Tom Schmeh (Member) - Thomas J. Schmeh was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1959 and saw his first race at Lancaster (N.Y.) Speedway in 1969.  His first love was of asphalt modified stock cars and it continues to this day.  During the Seventies, Tom ventured from Lancaster to such upstate New York tracks as Holland, Perry, Cayuga (Ontario), Ransomville, Merrittville (Ontario), Spencer, Shangri-La, Stateline, Eriez (Pennsylvania) and many others.  In fact, in 2018, he has now seen racing at 379 different tracks in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Tom was named the Northeast Auto Racing Associates (NEARA) Fan of the Year in 1978, the year of George Kent and Maynard Troyer dominance in the modifieds.  He was also a NASCAR scoring and timing official, working under the late Morris Metcalfe, in 1983-84.  He scored races from Oxford Plains, Maine, to Daytona Beach, Florida, and as far west as Clermont, Indiana.  This was a time when Richie Evans and Jerry Cook were grabbing modified division headlines, and Sam Ard and Jack Ingram were doing the same in the sportsman division.  In 1979-81, Tom coordinated the Mid-Atlantic Racing Series (MARS) for dirt late models in New York, northern Pennsylvania, western Vermont and Quebec.  Ron “Skip” Furlow, Tommy Williams, Walt Mitchell, Craig Keel, Guy Leclerc and Randy Glenski were a couple of the top MARS drivers during that time.

In 1985, Tom founded the National Sprint Car Poll, with the goal being to increase the exposure of sprint car racing in the mainstream media.  It was the time of the Big Three in sprint car racing: Steve Kinser, Doug Wolfgang and Sammy Swindell.  Just four years later, Tom was named executive director of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum in Knoxville, Iowa.  The North American Sprint Car Poll honors the current achievers in the sport of sprint car racing, while the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame (begun in 1990) honors the greatest achievers of all-time.  Tom spent 28 years at the museum, the first nineteen (1989-2008) as executive director and the next nine (2008-2017) as curator.  During his time in Knoxville, Tom led the A Brick at a Time fundraising program, the Racers at Rest memorial program, the Sprint Car 101 educational program and the International Reel Wheel Film Festival.  He also helped Knoxville Raceway promoter Ralph “Cappy” Capitani coordinate the Knoxville Masters Classic, the Knoxville Tournament of Champions, the Knoxville World Challenge (formerly the Australian/American Challenge Cup), the Knoxville Midget Nationals, the Hawkeye Hundred, and the Iowa Sprint Week (awarding the “Mr. Sprint Car” title).

Today, the fan of the ill-fated Stock Car Connection (SCC) is retired and living back in upstate New York, midway between Newark Valley and Owego.  He is active with the International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC) in Watkins Glen, New York, and the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing (EMMR) in York Springs, Pennsylvania.  He remains committed to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum, which has permanently named the poll’s “Outstanding Contribution to the Sport Award” after him.  The past president of the International Association of Sports Museums and Halls of Fame (IASMHoF) is also a rabid college hockey fan, going annually to the NCAA Frozen Four and having seen games at 73 rinks in the United States and Germany to date (2018).

 Kenneth (Ken) J. Parrotte (Member) - West Monroe, New York     It all started June 21, 1963 at the Brewerton Speedway.  That wonderful and exciting day was the beginning of my collection of auto racing history.  Since then I have been fortunate to attend a vast variety of races from sea to shinning sea and from border to border. 

Some of my favorite history:  Auto Racings Formative Years 1895 – 1921  ·   The Year 1905 ·  The Year 1920 ·  Lewis Strang ·   Eddie Rickenbacker ·   Louis/Gaston/Arthur Chevrolet 

Herbert Lytle ·   Auto Racing During World War I ·    KJP All Time Top 20 Lists ·   Dirt Champ Car Racing 1902 – 2018 ·     A. J. Foyt ·      New York State Fairgrounds 1903 - 2015 

NASCAR Late Model Short Track Division 1951 – 1959 ·    Jim Reed “Short Track King” ·     Pioneer Stock Car Racing 1936 – 1960 ·      Indianapolis 500 ·     Parnelli Jones ·    Mario Andretti

 Gordon Johncock ·    Oswego Speedway ·    Brewerton Speedway ·    Fulton Speedway  ·     New York State Auto Racing ·    Richie Evans

  Kevin Eckert (Member) - Kevin Eckert was  born in Phillipsburg, NJ on August 30, 1963.  Eight days later, he was at the Flemington Fairgrounds as his family cheered Uncle Al Becker.  Kevin's Father Bob Eckert took his two sons to most Penn/Jersey modified haunts but dad took a real shine to the Reading Fairgrounds.  When the Eckert's relocated to Allentown, PA in 1972, Bob, Kevin and Steve rarely missed  a race at Reading.  When sprint car legend Kenny Weld built a modified, Bob began researching all Reading winners before him.  Before long, Bob had compiled extensive eastern statistics.  Weld having captured Bob's sons interest, Kevin began digging through that Area Auto Racing News stack, tracking accomplishments of Kenny, Jan Opperman,  Bobby Allen, etc.  Bob began writing columns in Keystone Auto News in 1977.  Kevin finished up high school in San Diego in '81 and joined Gater Racing News in 1982.  He began to expand West: Ohio, Indiana and those Knoxville Nationals that Weld won four times.  Kevin covered 27  Nationals in a row for Gater, Speedway Scene (1986-93), Trackside (1994-2000) and Flat Out, which Eckert edited in 1999-2001.  He served as statistician on live television broadcasts covering the World of Outlaws.  Kevin built a giant database called Open Wheel Times that became Sprint Car Stats.  A constant traveler, Kevin has covered auto racing on 535 speedways in 47 states and Austrailia.  

 Bob Mays (Member)  -Bob’s interest in racing began at the age of 3 years old when his father took him to his first race at Capitol Beach Speedway in Lincoln, NE.  He was totally awed then and he remains so today.  In 1973, he was asked to join the pit crew of a micro-midget racer and at the end of the 1974 season he bought the car and began his driving career in 1975.  During 1976-1977 seasons, he also learned a great deal about track preparation. His work schedule allowed him to get to Lakeside Speedway early Friday morning and work all day doing everything he needed to do to prepare the track for that evening’s race.

Mays sold his micro-midget after the 1978 season and bought a camera and started traveling around the sprint car circuit taking photos. In 1980, he was hired to be the track photographer at Midwest Speedway in Lincoln and in 1981, Mays joined with another race shooter, Jim Jones, to form Fastrack Enterprises. Their first publication, The Fastrack Pictorial, came out in 1982. By this time Bob was shooting for weekly race papers, Hawkeye Racing News, Western Racing News and National Speed Sport News and the monthly sprint car magazine, Open Wheel.  In 1983, he became a correspondent for Western Racing News, reporting on the goings on at Midwest Speedway and many other tracks. Following the 1984 and 1985 race seasons Bob again published Fastrack Pictorials, covering the open wheel nation from coast to coast.

Halfway through the 1986 season, Bob bought a mini-sprint and hit the circuit once again. In 1989 Mays was named Most Improved Driver at Cornhusker Raceway Park in Waverly, NE. It was also in 1989 that Mays won his one and only point title, the Indoor Championship of the Eastern Nebraska Modified Midget Association. 

In 1990 Bob was named Sportsman of the Year by the EMMA and won Reporter of the Year by the National Modified Midget Association while writing and shooting photos for the Pit Stop Magazine.

 Mays was ready for a new challenge by 1992, sprint cars. One race stands out during the years Mays raced the big cars. It occurred in 1995 when Mays was able to race with sprint car legend, Lloyd Beckman at Webster City, IA. The 68-year-old Beckman won the race over Mays, but Bob went wheel-to-wheel with the many- time champion.   

By this time, he was already thinking about his next project.  Bob had talked about a book on the old super modified days, so in just short of four years, “High Plains Thunder", Supermodified Racing in The Midlands rolled off the press on March 7, 2002. The book chronicled the history of Supers in the Kansas City, Topeka, Tulsa, Knoxville, Lincoln, Central Nebraska, Wichita, Oklahoma City, and Dodge City areas from 1956 to 1983. The book was a huge success, selling out in less than six months. 

Bob had been shooting photos for FlatOut Illustrated since 1999 and in 2003, Editor, Justin Zoch, asked Bob if he wanted to write a column for the magazine and Mays said he would try it out. It’s now 2018 and he is still writing stories, feature articles and columns for FlatOut on many racing legends.  In 2008, Bob started a feature in FlatOut called, Competition Archives, which highlights a driver or owner from the past.  Mays joined with another 3 Wide Media title, Dirt Modified on a history page called, “Modified Chronicles,” which started running in 2017.

Bob and Ray Valasek together wrote a book on the history of the Valley County fairgrounds track.  In 2004 “Valley County Thunder", The History of Racing at Ord, Nebraska, was called “the best book of the year,” by National Speed Sport News editor emeritus, Chris Economaki.   At the same time, Bob was also working on a two-volume set called “Big Car Thunder   In June 2005, “Big Car Thunder", Volume I was born and Volume II was published in April 2009.  His fifth book was released in 2015, “Competition Portraits”, featuring photographs spanning the history of dirt champ car racing from 1946 to 1987, and his sixth book came out in in 2017, “The High Banks!”, Belleville’s Amazing Track and the Men Who Tried to Tame Her.

Bob was elected to the board of directors for the Nebraska Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1998.  In, 2006 Bob was inducted into the Highbanks Hall of Fame in Belleville, Kansas, and in 2018 he was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa.

 Stephen Bubb (Member) - was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania in June of 1957.  He attended his first race at Williams Grove Speedway in the mid-1960s and the next night was in the grandstands at Silver Spring Speedway.  Through the early years he went mainly to the speedways of Williams Grove, Silver Spring, and Dorney Park, although there were other trips to the Allentown Fairground and the Nazareth Speedway.

In the high school years he lived in Towanda, Pennsylvania in the state’s northern tier and went to the races at the Chemung Speedrome.  It was during this time in Towanda his interest grew in racing history.  Along with several friends, he snuck into the now-closed Towanda VFW Speedway and explored the grounds.

After locating to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, he was back to his weekly tracks of Williams Grove and Silver Spring.  Stephen became a crew member on the Super Sportsman cars of Ron Kreitzer and Joey Kuhn. Stephen began writing the weekly results for the Silver Spring Speedway program.  This led to another interest and in 1981 he became a writer for Area Auto Racing News, a position he continues.  He received AARN’s Editor’s Award.

By the 1990s he became a corner flagman at Jonestown’s Linda’s Speedway.  Eventually, he became the assistant flagman at the speedway.  During the same time era, Stephen left Silver Spring Speedway and became the announcer at Shellhammer’s Speedway. He later did the weekly press releases for the Williams Grove Speedway Saturday Night Series.

His interest in racing history never died and he worked with a group of dedicated people in finding the exact location of Pennsylvania’s former speedways.  The hunt continues and has been a fascinating trip through history.

Stephen has loyally supported the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing.  Last year he became the new librarian of the museum’s Chris Economaki Library.  He is now retired from his job working on the staff of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.  He has written two books on the history of Silver Spring Speedway and is currently editing a third book on the history of the Super Modified and Semi-Late Model era of the Susquehanna Valley. 

  Guy Smith (Member) Guy Smith was born in Allentown, PA in February 1960.  He attended his first race at the Allentown Fairgrounds in 1965 seeing USAC Sprint Cars.  He became a regular at Dorney Park Speedway in 1973.  In 1979, after the closing of the Reading Fairgrounds track, Guy hit the road for races and hasn’t stopped since. 

Guy began his weekly “Roaming the Raceways” column in Area Auto Racing News in May of 1981 and it is now in its 39th year.  He has also written for such magazines at Trackside, Dirt Late Model, and Auto Rac’r as well as a number of track publications.  Known mostly as a writer, Guy’s racing photos have appeared in racing newspapers, magazines, and books. 

Guy started the TrackChaser group of race fans that enjoy traveling to see different race tracks, and hosts the members track resume pages on his roamingtheraceways.com website.  The group engages in a number of projects, including the Researched Driver Project for drivers that have raced at 100 or more tracks, the Track Census Project, and the Track Picture Collection Project among others. 

Guy has seen races at over 1,850 tracks in every US state, every Canadian province, every race active region of the United Kingdom, five Australian states, and a total of 28 countries on four continents.  So far. 

Guy earned bachelor’s degrees from Kutztown State College (1982) and Bloomsburg University (1986), master’s degrees from Allentown College (1996) and Wilkes University (2003), and PA teaching certification from Temple University.  He taught computer programming, computer applications, business, ESL, history, and ran the Co-Op program in the Bethlehem Area School District for 30 years before retiring in 2015.  As FBLA and DECA advisor, he coached several national champions. 

In addition to auto racing and related research projects, Guy enjoys the same for baseball, ice hockey, and soccer.  He also loves travel and spending time with his wife of almost 30 years, Pam. 

Guy has been a great admirer of the work done to date by the Auto Racing Research Associates, and was honored to have been invited to become a member of the group.

 Mike Monnat (Member)  My dad and a bunch (11) of his co-workers put together a 1937 Hudson Four Door sedan to race at the local tracks, hence the number on the car Lucky 11. The car wasn't all that successful and didn't last all that long but the seed was planted. I went to the races continually until I hooked up with Dave Wright of Gater News at Lebanon Valley in 1967. He suggested that I start writing for the paper. My first article was a results story from Lancaster Speedway in June of 1967. A profile on Don Diffendorf followed in 1968 and then a weekly column starting in 1969. I did a few articles for both Stock Car Racing Magazine and Trackside Magazine. I love the history of our sport and leads me to want to know more about the past and who won what, when. History needs to be told accurately and I would like to help with that. 

 Michael Sessler (Member)  I started going to races when I was 3 years old. My dad ran a late model at Brewerton and Weedsport Speedway, and later crewed on a supermodified at Oswego. I almost immediately became a racing history buff. I saved all my racing programs and still use them to this day as reference. My expertise is Central New York tracks (Weedsport, Rolling Wheels, NYS Fairgrounds, Fulton, Brewerton, Oswego). I also research defunct tracks such as Lafayette, Champion Park, Long Branch Midget track, and others around NYS. The projects I’m working on at the present time are a Weedsport Speedway all time wins list (especially 1955-67), and completing a Fulton Speedway supermodified wins list.

  Dennis Clapperton (Member)  - Dennis was born into Northeast Modified racing and has been a part of it from many angles.  The son of longtime Modified racer Mike Clapperton, he has spent many nights at dirt tracks all over the Northeast.  Over the last few seasons Dennis and his Father have exchanged hats with Dennis spending most of the time behind the wheel.

     In his spare time Dennis has been spending time developing the Northeast Modified Statistics portion of his site Race Stat Central.  Dennis and his team have been working on documenting all Northeast Dirt Modified races.  By doing this, they can paint a complete picture of the history and milestones of nearly any driver, track or series with ease.

   Dennis got into historical racing statistics, simply because it combined two of his favorite things, racing and numbers.  With his background in coding and statistics, adding the database powered website was a natural fit.  "It is something I do to relax, with the amount of work involved in a project like this there is no timeline.  I work at my own pace and make improvements when I can.  I have taught myself all of the website and database coding, so it also works as a form of learning a new skill."

   Jeff Zimmerman (Member) - Jeff began attending races with his parents in 1985, when he was 6 years old, going to Penn National and Big Diamond to watch his godfather, Art Bair, race in the street stock class.  But it wasn't until 1989, after attending a modified race at Flemington with his Uncle Bryan, that Jeff really caught the racing bug.  "Toby Tobias Jr. put on a show that night, coming from the back in a plain white 17 car to finish second behind Billy Pauch.  He didn't win that night, but he didn't have to, I was hooked.....and I was covered in dirt!" remembers Jeff.

   In the early 90's, he slowly began collecting Tobias family memorabilia for a scrapbook.  He started a subscription to Area Auto Racing News and bought speedway programs whenever he went to the races.  The scrapbook effort is really what sparked his interest in dirt racing history.  A couple of years ago, he reached out to Dennis Clapperton, founder of the Race Stat Central website, and offered his assistance for back-populating race results.  "I still had a complete set of AARNs back through 2006 and I thought, why not put them to good use?  I enjoy helping Dennis, it brings back memories and am glad I can be a part of preserving history."

   Jeff resides in Orwigsburg, PA, with his wife and two children.  He is also founder of the Auto Racing Hub website (www.autoracinghub.com) that provides free template based webpages for race drivers and teams.  In his spare time, he crews for the Dave Best Speedstr racing team, driven by Andy Haus.

 Will White (Member)  A lifetime resident of Quakertown, PA, Will White has been a racing fan ever since his pre-school days in the mid 1960s, when his family would attend the local modified stock car races at tracks like Reading Fairgrounds, Hatfield Speedway and Nazareth Speedway. His mother started a fan club for Tommy McAndrew, who was one of Will's first dirt track favorites, along with Freddy Adam. Will's father continued to take him to the races locally until Will was old enough to drive, after which he and his friend Kris were able to dedicate much more time to race going.

    After the closing of their beloved Reading, they were regulars at East Windsor Speedway during the RSCA era (1979-80) before abandoning the idea of being a weekly regular at any one track, instead opting to expand their horizons to many tracks throughout the Northeast. Will co-wrote a weekly racing column for the Quakertown Free Press with former open cockpit driver Chuck Kauffman (1979-83). Will was always interested in compiling statistics and in 1987 he began his Northeast Dirt Points, which tracked top five finishers in several divisions of regional dirt racing. The following year, he began writing the Northeast Dirt column for the Kalamazoo, Michigan, based MARC Times Racing News.  He continued keeping the NED point standings for 10 years (1987-96) and writing the column for 12 years (1988-2000).

     Will had mainly attended dirt track modified races until age 30, at which time his desire to really expand his racing horizons won out and he became a "TrackChaser", following the lead of fellow ARRA members Guy Smith and Allan Brown. This led to his eventually traveling to races in all 50 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico), 9 of the 10 Canadian provinces (plus NW Territories), all 6 states of Australia, and a total of 26 countries on 5 continents. His interests have expanded to include many types of racing, which he has witnessed at over 800 tracks worldwide.

   After studying Web Design at Allentown Business School, Will created the original TrackChaser website in 2002 and was the group's statistician for nearly a decade before returning that role to Guy Smith. In 2008 he greatly expanded his database of worldwide racing info and developed the Auto Racing Records website, which he still runs. The ARR site contains info on thousands of tracks, drivers and series from throughout racing history (1895-present). He has several projects in progress at any given time and has said that ten lifetimes would not be enough to fulfill his

goals for his website.

  Justin St. Louis (Member) Justin went to his first couple of races before he was born. His mother, eight months pregnant in the spring of 1983, found that the hum from the engines at Catamount Stadium would calm him down.  It has been pretty much the same thing ever since. Raised on asphalt and later groomed on dirt, Justin was a regular in the grandstands at Thunder Road, Catamount, and Airborne, and his family followed the American-Canadian Tour to exotic places like Lee, Bryar, Sanair, Oxford, and Beech Ridge.

   Justin’s father drove four-cylinder Street Stocks at Thunder Road in the early 1990s, and Justin followed in his footsteps as a junior in high school. His first race was May 7, 2000, and he wrecked before he got to the backstretch on the first lap of his first heat race. Sure, there were a few wins eventually, but nobody remembers the wins – only the wrecks. And, man, they sure were spectacular.

   Somewhere along the way, Justin realized that he had better have a backup plan, and so he started covering races as a freelance reporter. He also picked up gigs as an announcer and publicist, and he was eventually hired to work full-time in the media department for Thunder Road and ACT. He left that position in the fall of 2008 and started the Vermont Motorsports Magazine website, which evolved quickly into a full-time job and also led to weekly columns in the state’s three largest daily newspapers, a spot on the motorsports play-by-play team for Ken Squier’s WDEV network of radio stations.

   Justin was eventually hired for his current full-time position at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in October 2011, where has been ever since. His official title is “media director” but he also sells sponsorships, mows lawns, yells into the microphone, drives a packer truck, runs the social media accounts, flips burgers, does the handicapping, and plunges toilets when necessary.

    All the while – even as a teenager – Justin was interested in collecting statistics and learning about the history of local racing. That passion has only increased in the last decade, and a massive research project on motorsports in Vermont and some surrounding areas has consumed thousands of hours since. Justin has found records and evidence of no less than 80 locations in his little home state that have hosted motorsports competition in one form or another, and is actively researching, verifying, and documenting as many race records as possible – an estimated 20,000 features so far.

   Justin’s daughter – who is still just a toddler – has caught the racing bug. His biggest fear is that she’ll eventually want her own racecar and will end up driving it just as well as her old man.

   Bill Ladabouche (Member)  I was bitten by the racing bug after my family took me to stock car races at Pico Raceway in Rutland, VT in 1951. Despite an almost total lack of racing in my area for many years, I stayed interested, with help from my uncle who took me wherever we could find a race. I became a regular follower when racing returned to my area and spent time around tracks like Fairmont Speedway, Devil's Bowl Speedway, and Catamount Stadium. My participation [balanced by maintaining a teaching career] was first through a sign painting business and  later – through journalism.

  I had been away from racing for a number of years when a need to teach website creation led me to create the Catamount Stadium website in 2005. It has grown to over 700 pages today. I had written columns for Speedway Scene and Racin' Paper. During the stint with Speedway Scene, I soon realized that I got far more positive reaction to nostalgia – themed columns than anything else. The Catamount website soon went past its original goal of keeping that track in the memory of the racing community and expanded, by today, to coverage of stock car racing history of most the Northeast and Quebec.

   I wrote the biography “To Beat the Beaver”, about Vermont legend Harmon “Beaver” Dragon. My areas of personal interest center around western Vermont and eastern New York stock car racing. My biggest thrill in this work that consumes much of my free time is coming across a rare photo or acquiring some information on obscure or long forgotten subjects.

2018: Inducted into Calistoga Speedway Hall of Fame.

2013–present: Reporter, World of Outlaws on CBS Sports Network.

2013 - Play by play / Host of TORC Off Road Championship - Speed (Fox Sports)

2011–2012 World of Outlaws pit reporter - Speed

2007-10 World of Outlaws - TV Play by Play - Speed

2007 World of Outlaws - TV Play by Play - ESPN2

2004-06 United States Auto Club (USAC) Western Media Coordinator.

2003 World of Outlaws - TV Pit Reporter - Speed.

2002 - Voice on Ratbag World of Outlaws Sprint Cars video game.

1999-2000 NHRA Drag Racing - TNN - TV Pit reporter.

1998 - IRL at Charlotte - TNN - TV Pit Reporter

1998 ProTruck Racing Series - TNN - TV Pit reporter.

1995 Knoxville Nationals (First ever LIVE broadcast of Knoxville Nationals - TNN - TV Pit reporter.

1993-95 Sacramento Kings Broadcast Team. Pre-Game radio host. In-arena video host. TV sideline reporter. Post Game radio host. Public Address Announcer.

·         Source - Wikipedia

Jim Thurman (Member)  Jim Thurman attended his first race at age 4, at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, California. Three years later, the family moved to San Diego, where an antsy 7- year-old with a broken foot was impatient for the local track, Cajon Speedway, to open for the season. Jim's mother called the track office inquiring about their schedule, mentioning the situation during the conversation. This led the drivers of the El Cajon Stock Car Racing Association to give Jim a press pass for the season. Family members regularly attended races at Cajon Speedway, and also made it to major races at Riverside International Raceway and Ontario Motor Speedway as well as other Southern California short tracks. Vacations soon incorporated visiting other California short tracks. Deeply interested in the sport's history from an early age, Jim bought old racing magazines and programs when he'd find them at used magazine and book stores. He has contributed to many books on racing history, including Allan E. Brown's "The History of America's Speedways - Past & Present",  and written racing history pieces for National Speed Sport News and Southern California newspapers, he also has covered some races.