The Legends Of Racing Excite Dirt Track Heroes Show Crowd Friday

Story By: STEVE PADOS / DIRT TRACK HEROES – PHILLIPSBURG, NJ – The Quaker Steak & Lube Eleventh Annual Dirt Track Heroes Show completed the fifth day of the week long journey into the past, present and future of auto racing for the racing community and will head into the finale on Saturday, March 10th with a tribute slated for many of the great racing talents that competed at the local venues including the famed Flemington “Square” Speedway.

The Friday event highlighted a tremendous day event that lasted through 6:30 as a large crowd was on hand to honor legendary Modified talent Bobby Rossell. The eleventh annual edition of the show will continue through March 10th. The second show featured a combination of Modified and Open Wheel drivers to close out the evening on interviews. The week long show thus far has included a bit of everything with major power outages within the calling area hindering some of the entries to withdraw from the event. Following up with another major storm the Mall was closed Wednesday due to the following snow storm and the show staff quickly reorganized and revised the original schedule to compensate for the bad tidings from Mother Nature.

With the eclectic Quaker Steak & Lube Restaurants the lead sponsor of the event, the excitement and the pulse for the week long show quickens with each day as the diverse schedule of the week long show offers a bit of everything to all racing fans. The 55 stores making up Quaker Steak & Lube annually sell more than 80 million wings per year and “The Lube” is recognized as “The best wings in the USA.” The Phillipsburg location has also been dubbed “The Official Restaurant of the Dirt Track Heroes” show. To contact the restaurant, call: 908-454-2900 or check out their website at: www.thelube.com Before or after the show head to Quaker Steak & Lube and get recharged and refueled in a great sports setting.

An amazing group of sponsors have supported the show with sponsorship through Quaker Steak & Lube, IRCO, Premio Foods, Smith Fabrications/Stage One Modifieds, Martocci’s Automotive, Hamlin Speedway/S&S Speedways, Speed Tec, Phillipsburg Easton Honda, JPA Masonry, Upstate Auto, Alex’s Tire/Breidinger’s Speed Shop, Jeff’s Automotive, R&T International Muffler and Brake, Murante Auto Repair, Clean Run Auto, Gardner’s Auto Service, APS Powdercoating, Adam’s Brothers Used Auto Parts, ARM Automotive, Smitty’s Collision Center, Dean Autosports, Ralph’s Radiator, Huston Automotive and Carl’s Auto Repair. Nightly interviews and 141 race cars provide the race fan a full appetite of racing fun before the 2016 racing season begins. The Phillipsburg Mall, located on Route 22 East in Phillipsburg, NJ, has proven to be a popular setting for this special event and offers a multitude of race cars, racing memorabilia, collectibles and photos on display throughout the course of the show. The show continues to be FREE of charge to the mall traffic and the 2018 edition of the show is the trend setter and show stopper of the many shows that are scheduled during the year.

Emcees Ed and Steve Pados opened the show and introduced IRCO Vice President Greg Collins to the crowd. Collins once thanked the local racing community for their support and talked of the various offerings from the IRCO group and once again thanked everyone for their continuous support of the annual event. The Pados Brothers along with Bobby Stull were honored to present and interview a great panel of driving legends from the local area and beyond during the show. The show played to a full house and in roundtable fashion to allow the fans to connect with the drivers they cheered for when they dominated the local speedway scene and they came out to salute the legendary Bobby Rossell. Carol Rossell, Gary Gollub, Alan Carter, Tighe Scott, Wyatt Jacobus, Dom Ragno, Earl Derr, Nate Strunk, Ken Brenn Sr, Newt Hartman, Ray Liss and Charlie Gunther, were onboard for one of the best shows ever in the history of the eleven year old show. The question and answer period brought many great responses from the drivers and is a lasting memory to their exploits on the speedway. Bobby Rossell was presented with the Grand Marshal Award for the Dirt Track Heroes Show and in usual Rossell fashion was gracious in his acceptance of the honor. Constance Vroom, the daughter of Modified talent Tommy Vroom, was on hand with cards of cheer to send to Tommy as he is suffering from some serious health issues. Before the show began, Pados got in touch with Gerald Chamberlain and allowed each driver signing in to have a chat with him via phone service. Photographers Jack Kromer, Mel Stettler and Clint Bush were also on hand.

The second show was short due to a mix-up in signals but on hand were JR Fulper, Chloe Andreas, Kyle Herve, Gary Mondschein, Nate Seigfried, Art Baker, Brian Seigfried, Bobby Stull and Bobby Rossell.

The great fan base of racing can come out to this grand Mall event and be transported back to a time when they could hop into their family jitney and travel less than a half hour to witness the excitement of a night at the races. All historical racing groups including Reading, Flemington, Harmony through Greg Collins, Tri State, Friends of Nazareth, Mike Ritter Photos, Archie Myers/Harmony and Bob Snyder Photos and Snyder Video will have their memorabilia on display and their many scrapbooks open for the fans to take another long look at the glory years of racing and possibly find a picture or two they want to purchase as a keepsake from past glory or racing exploits. More information is available by calling: 443-513-4456.

The Quaker Steak & Lube Dirt Track Heroes Car Show has a must have event T-shirt done exclusively for the show, highlighting many of our racing heroes who have passed away in the past year. The great keepsake 60 page event souvenir program book has many great articles regarding our racing heroes. The Phillipsburg Mall is open Sunday 11 AM to 6 PM and from Monday through Saturday from 10 AM to 9 PM. The event offers race teams a great opportunity to promote their sponsors and announce their racing plans for the 2018 racing season.