RPW Exclusive: Closing Another Chapter & The Beginning Of A New Era At The Track of Champions

Column By: RAY ROGERS / RPW – FONDA, NY – Now that the dust has settled, and the last race of the season has been run at the historic Fonda Speedway, big changes are at hand. On Monday, the Fonda Fair Board signed an agreement with Brett Deyo of BD Motorsports Media to run the Speedway for the next three seasons.

Deyo is no stranger to the racing world. He started out as a member of the media and turned into an event and series promoter with his Short Track Super Series. He is also a track promoter at the Georgetown Speedway in Delaware.

Now Deyo assumes the wheel at one of this country’s most historic dirt tracks.

Fonda has seen its fair share of promoters over the years, starting in 1937 when Capital District businessman Roy Peugh promoted several sprint car races at the fairgrounds. The track fell silent from 1939 until 1948 when Jack Kochman, promoter of the Speed Corporation of America (SCOA) a charter of NASCAR, brought stock car racing to the Fonda Fairgrounds.

However, after only one season, the effort from Kochman would fail and the speedway would again fall silent with the old grandstand serving as a backdrop for drive-in movies and the racing surface only used for trotters during the annual fair.

In 1952, race fan and hot rodder Ed Feuz along with lawyer (and silent partner) Jim Gage Sr. would secure the lease for the speedway along with a sanction from NASCAR who was now paying guaranteed purses and provided insurance for drivers. The two also changed the configuration of the speedway from a horse track to something more suitable for racing stock cars. The rest is history and Feuz and Gage would make “The Track of Champions” a household name throughout the 50’s and into the 60’s.

By 1970, NASCAR had shifted its focus to the larger southern tracks that better suited the more “stock” cars. With slumping ticket sales, Fuez decided to call it quits. The elder Gage turned things over to two longtime speedway employees, Jim’s son, Jim Jr. and Ron Compani, who would be part of separating NASCAR from the dirt world forever. They began to allow tubular chassis, custom frames, and suspension helping return Fonda to its former glory.

During the off-season of 1979-80, Compani’s brother, Ralph, and Seymour Hays would successfully bid on the speedway and assume control. That year, the facility became part of the Drivers Independent Race Tracks (DIRT) run by Central NY promoter Glenn Donnely. Ralph ran Fonda even after his brother and Hays both walked away. That was until 1997 when another local business owner, Ric Lucia, stepped in and took the reins.

Lucia survived the 90’s, seeing many changes and the speedway would thrive for years. That was, once again, until ticket sales dropped off and the fair board started losing interest in the old grandstands, focusing more on the horse arena and stables out back.

In 2014, Lucia and longtime track GM Marty Beberwyk stepped away and the fair board choose former Modified track champion, Matt DeLorenzo, to take over operations of the Speedway. DeLorenzo, with backing from the BBL Companies, set out on the large task of cleaning up the grounds and putting things back to where they once were with hopes of returning the old speed-plant to its former glory.

After only two seasons, however, DeLorenzo decided to walk away, leaving a vacancy in the promoter’s office for the 2016 season. That’s when the promoter for the Glen Ridge Motorsports Park, Pete Demitraszek, stepped up and took control. Demitraszek and his family took what DeLorenzo started and continued to work toward the goal of returning Fonda to its full potential over the last three years.

With the crowds returning and northeast modified racing once again on the upswing in 2018, the famed oval was again up for a new lease on life. Demitraszek expressed interest in continuing to run the facility and in August announced that he and the board had come to an agreement on running the speedway for two more years. However, he did express to me that it was only a verbal agreement and anything could happen.

It did.

Unknown to anyone outside of the fair board, a second party was also interested in taking control of the “Track of Champion.s” Brett Deyo had also entered his bid to run the famed oval and the decision was made to go with him.

Brett’s resume speaks for itself. His Short Track Super Series has expanded by leaps and bounds over the past few years, reaching as far north as Albany-Saratoga. His promotion of racing in the southern tier has brought the Modifieds back to sprint car country.

So what does this all mean to racers and race fans at Fonda? Nothing we haven’t seen before…changes in sanctioning bodies…changes in tire compound…new specs for engines. These are all things we’ve been through over the years at Fonda.

The crowds have shrunk and grown. People have come and gone, but one thing that has been continuous since 1953 has been racing on Saturday nights at the famed Fonda Speedway. As of now, it looks like that tradition will continue for years to come.

To me, personally, it doesn’t matter who’s running the show as long as there is a show. Remember, sometimes change is a good thing but we, as racers and fans, must embrace it. If we take a few pages of our own history and learn from it, we have all the answers to make the gem on the Mohawk Valley a destination for fans that it once was.

Well, folks, it seems that the fall racing season is here and racers and fans alike will be making the pilgrimage to the year’s biggest events. Be sure to keep an eye on Race Pro Weekly for our Super DIRT Week edition as we will once again have the whole week covered with video interviews, columns, photos and of course the latest results from all the satellite shows leading up to Sunday’s 200-lap marque event at Oswego, the Billy Whittaker Cars 200.