RPW Column: Gary Palmer’s Accord Speedway Looking To Rebound During 2021 Season

Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – ACCORD, NY – The 2020 season was lined up to be a great year for Accord Speedway’s owners, Gary and Donna Palmer.

It was going to be the 20th year that Accord was under the Palmer’s ownership.

The family have put in many improvements into the speedway over the years and the Ulster County bullring, located at the southern edge of the Catskill Mountains, is a terrific facility. It would have been great for them if on a summer night last year, they could have looked out over the track on a Friday night and deservedly so reflect with pride what they have worked on for the past 20 years.

But as it was with many businesses, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the racing world in New York very hard. And that unfortunately included Accord Speedway. With no way to host fans, there was no actual racing at Accord during 2020. But the facility was far from quiet.

Accord had 9 2020 practice sessions with hopes of possibly salvaging the late season part of the schedule. Included in these were 3 practices that had dash races built into them. It gave the racers in the various Accord divisions the sense of having some competitive racing. And the racing in those dashes was just as intense as it would be on a regular Friday night.

But as the low New York virus numbers started to rise again in September, all hopes of having any part of the schedule raced were dashed. It was frustrating for sure to see New York’s neighboring states allowed to race with some limited capacity while tracks in the Empire State remained quiet.

2020 is now a memory in the rear view mirror. And Gary is looking forward to getting racing back on the track in 2021.

‘We will be back with all our divisions intact for 2021. Modifieds will be allowed to run a spec small block, full spec heads, headers and intake with a weight of 2275. We feel that will make them competitive with the open Modifieds that will be racing,” Gary said.

“Sportsman and Rookie Sportsman will be unchanged,” Gary added. “The Sprint Cars will run twice a month as we had planned to do last year. Pure Stocks will be allowed to use a spec crate motor, similar to what Middletown uses with a small carburetor. And we are going to be running the Slingshots again in 2021. We think these rule changes in the Modifieds and Pure Stocks will help with the car counts.”

The racing schedule will kickoff with one of Accord’s big races and a fan favorite, the Short Track Super Series Battle of the Bullring.

“We will have a practice in late April with the Battle of the Bullring scheduled for Tuesday, May 11th. It’s a great event to bring back racing to Accord,” Gary said. “The rain date will be the following day, Wednesday, May 12th.”

And many other fan favorite events will be returning in 2021.

“We will be having our fireworks show on July 2nd. Also scheduled are the 9/11 tribute and fireworks, the Great Crate Race and the end of season Gobbler.”

“We have all our town and county permits in place,” Gary said. “And all of our race dates have been approved by the town. All we need is a go head to open. Even 25% capacity will do.”

There was many other things going on at Accord in 2020 that the race teams saw at the September practices and that the returning fans will see this year.

“We took down the existing pit grandstands and replaced them with larger aluminum stands and it looks really nice there. We moved the pit concession. It is now where the tire and fuel guys used to be located. It gives more room for race cars in that area. There’s going to be a patio by the pit concession and it’s going to be kind of covered so it will be cleaner for the people to eat,” Gary said. “The new stands will eventually have railings to make it easier for folks to go up and down.”

“We rebuilt the tower near the Victory Lane. We have 9 poles to put up for better track lighting, especially in turns 3 and 4. And were going to put up some lights in the parking lot so it’s not so dark out there. And we’ve set up a bar area where people won’t have to go to the main concession area to get beer. They will have a bar type seating area to have their beer.”

And the maintenance does not take the winter off. The track needs looking after and some track maintenance equipment needs repair.

“The way the track is situated like a bowl, it floods easily. I have to make sure to keep it pumped out or the track will be a mess in the spring. I have the Harley Rake repaired and that is going to help us groom the track and I’m hoping to have the new water truck running this year.”

The Palmer’s have a great group of people that help them out with the operation of Accord Speedway. And Gary is so appreciative of those people and their support of the track.

“Dave and JoAnn Rocket, they are the backbone of our operation. My daughter, Melissa. Benny Campbell for tech. Our starter, Rich Rooza. Uncle Mike from WRWD is a big help. My wife Donna of course. Rich Gibson, he’s been with us almost 20 years. My neighbor, Wes Davis, helps us with all the electrical at the track. Mike Gates. Scott Ferrier brought over 5 guys to help with the grandstand work. That was very nice of him to do that. Joe Judge was a big help with the grandstands as well. Rob Green. Clayton Macartney is a big help to me. Jan Cross, she runs the kitchen. My cousin, Brian Lynch. Jimmy Rossi does the pit concessions. Kerry Graham helped out with the repair of the wall in turns 3 and 4. Ric Ryder. Bobby Talmadge does a great job for us. And we have great media people, Tom Czaban, video, and Kevin Berryman, track photographer. Marty Dibble is great at helping promote the track to people. The Tyler Family. H.O. Penn company was a big help during the pit stands teardown. And Randy Filopowski has been here for 20 years. All these people all contribute to the success of Accord Speedway. Donna and I are extremely grateful.”

When one talks to Gary Palmer, you can easily see how much he loves racing and loves his track. He has put so much time and finances into the speedway over the years. And it’s plainly visible what he has done to improve the facility for both fans and racers.

“We are looking forward to opening up this year. We’ve been here for 20 years and we aren’t going anywhere. We just want everyone to stay safe and stay healthy.”

Good luck to the great folks at Accord Speedway. I’m looking forward to covering the action there for Race Pro Weekly in 2021. A great way to spend a Friday night is at the picturesque bullring.