Thunder Mountain Gearing Up For Exciting 2017 Season

Column By: EDWARD KOCHERSBERGER / RPW – CENTER LISLE, NY – The offseason has consisted of many shopping mall shows and some motorsports related indoor events. We have seen a display of immaculately prepared race cars. Promoters have also put some great thought and effort into their speedways and various touring series. One promoter that has been working hard to make an extra special season at his facility is Thunder Mountain’s Karl Spoonhower.

We recently caught up with Karl during the 2017 Motorsports Expo and Trade Show at The New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, New York.

Thunder Mountain will be celebrating their 25th anniversary season of racing this year. According to Karl, there are some special events planned to help promote this milestone.

“We are looking for big car counts and big crowds. We will be having a 25th anniversary celebration race. I just feel like it is going to be a good year.”

Karl was able to summarize a laundry-list of highlights in regards to the season schedule. Fans can expect to see anything from Summer holiday celebrations to a visit from some of Modified racing’s greatest talent. The Spoonhower family will once again be hosting Brett Deyo’s Short Track Super Series Fueled by VP Racing Fuels.

“We have the Short Track Super Series returning this season. This will be the Lightning on the Mountain special. We will be running the Wade Decker Memorial race in the fall. We are going to put a big street stock race as soon as we get the date figured out for it. We also have a huge Fourth of July show planned.”

Spoonhower was also proud to announce some key improvements that will be noticed when the track opens up for competition in late April.

“We tore down the old tower. We are in the process of building a new one. We are also putting in a new lap counter.”

Fans can expect to see regular race programs as a preamble leading up to the Short Track Super Series event in late May. The weekly racing show will consist of the Modifieds, Open Sportsman, Crate 602 Sportsman, Rookie/Budget Sportsman, Street Stocks, IMCA Modifieds, Xcel 600 Modifieds and the Four Cylinder division. Karl will be sticking to this plan throughout most of the 2017 season.

“Opening night is a basic, regular night of racing. A few weeks after opening night we will be running our Thunder on the Mountain race with the Short Track Super Series.”

There is an open practice scheduled for Saturday, April 22nd. The regular show on April 29th will have the Modified Division racing for $1,992 to win. Gates will open at 4 p.m. for all Saturday night racing events. Hot laps will begin at 6:20 p.m. The first heat race of the evening will roll off at 7 p.m.

Thunder Mountain Speedway is a three-eighths-mile banked clay oval. It is located minutes off of Interstate 81 in Lisle, New York. The speedway is about an hour drive south of Syracuse and 30 minutes north of Binghamton. Fans and teams can find more information by visiting the website at Thundermtnspeedway.net. The speedway can also be found on Facebook.