Looking Ahead, While Keeping An Eye On The Past

Column By: TOBY LAGRANGE / RPW – GLOVERSVILLE, NY – With the holidays in our rear-view mirror and the banquet season getting started, we start to look forward to the 2018 racing season. For me the year 2017 was one that I will never forget. It was one of many changes, some amazing additions, severe disappointments and hard lessons learned.

On a personal note the birth of my son and support of my wife has made the learned lessons and disappointments much easier to take and allowed me to refocus on the 2018 season.

The 2018 season will begin for me on February 10th when I emcee the Winged Champ Racing Series (WCRS) Banquet in Little Falls, New York. Then it resumes a month later with a trio of car shows. The first two take place on the weekend of March 9th through 11th. That weekend will see me visit the Wilton Mall for the inaugural Glen Ridge Motorsports Park Race Car Show on both Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

In between my family and I will be heading to Syracuse and the New York State Fairgrounds for the annual Motorsports Expo. While I will never attend the New York State Fair again due to the unnecessary destruction of the Moody Mile, a long-standing Motorsports Show such as this will continue to receive my support. It will also mark the first race car show for my almost (January 20th) one-year old son, Sammy.

The third show of the trio is the annual show at the ViaPort Rotterdam Mall. The event runs Friday through Sunday, March 16th through 18th. I will be there on Saturday March 17th doing the same as the previous weekend – interviews and other video/audio things.

My plans for the 2018 season will take me in a bit of a different direction. I will be the series announcer for the Empire Lightning Sprints (ELS). I will also serve as the series announcer for the Winged Champ Racing Series (WCRS). I will also be hosting various YouTube based videos for each series and penning columns for Race Pro Weekly on each. You can learn more about each series on their Facebook pages, including their 2018 schedules when they are released.

In addition to my announcing duties I will be hosting my own Vlog for the first time. While there are other Vlog’s out there, my inspiration came from the show Last Man Standing and the Vlog that Tim Allen’s character hosted. Entitled “Toby’s Take”, my Vlog will be posted early each week and will cover the hottest local racing topics. Toby’s Take will debut in March following the Glen Ridge Motorsports Park Car Show and will be posted on YouTube and shared on Facebook and Twitter, as it will each week.

I will also continue as a columnist and on-air personality for Race Pro Weekly, including Super DIRT Week in October as I have the past three seasons. I will pen bi-weekly or so columns and do as much on-air work for RPW as I can. I can tell you I have some interesting articles lined up for the remainder of the off-season.

The first will be my Top 25 Fonda Speedway Drivers of All-Time articles. I originally penned such an article about a decade ago however it is time to use my knowledge gained during that time to redo it. This article will come out in three phases, over a three-week period. The first will be positions 25-14, the second positions 13-2 and then the third will be dedicated to number one. While most can guess at who number’s one and two are, the remainder may surprise you. This article will be out in the next few weeks.

Another article will be the Top 10 Glen Ridge Motorsports Park Drivers of All-Time. With The Ridge having been in existence for 15 years or so and racing stock cars for more than a decade, it is time to take a look back and give my take on the top ten Ridge Runners.

In between the Fonda trio and the Glen Ridge top ten I will give my take on what I feel is one of the, if not the largest issue hurting local short track racing. Here is a hint, it is not money, promoters or rules.

Finally, I will give my annual season preview and prediction column. This column will be out just before the gates open to start the new season.

In association with the Dirt Track Racing Network (DTRN) I am also in discussions about returning to the airwaves. I would be hosting a show called “Down Memory Lane with Toby LaGrange”, presented by the Fonda Speedway Memories Facebook pages (not officially connected with the track). It would center around the history of the Fonda Speedway. We are currently ironing out the details on what would be an every other week or a once a month show.

I would like to thank Nick DeNyse (ELS), Tom Varin (WCRS), Bobby Chalmers (RPW) and their staffs for the opportunities.

There are a lot of exciting things happening this season in the local area so be sure to set your schedule and include as much racing as possible.