Jan 26, 2022 06:49 PM EST
OUTLAW SPEEDWAY COMMERATES ITS 65TH SEASON IN 2022
Kenny Shupp Jr.
Promotions and Consulting LLC
AARN Exclusive Story
(Dundee, NY) It all began in 1957 and it is still going strong today. The track has been known by various names during its tenure, Dundee Speedway, Dundee Raceway, Dundee Motorsports Park, Black Rock Speedway and now better known as Outlaw Speedway. No doubt there have been other names attached to the track over the past eight decades.
“I purchased the track seven years ago from Dean Hoag, claimed current track owner, Tyler Siri. I grew up sitting in the stands with my dad watching all the greats compete at this place and one day I thought I would like to own it. I began racing myself as I got older and when the right opportunity presented itself, Dean and I were able to come to terms. The past few years have been a challenge with COVID, but I’m extremely optimistic about 2022 as Outlaw Speedway will celebrate its 65th Anniversary and I have a lot planned to commemorate this milestone.”
Local Dundee businessperson, Tim Gibson recalls watching races at the historic Yates County oval as a youngster and can vividly remember many of the greats that competed at the facility.
“Hoot Gibson is my dad’s cousin, and he was one of the all-time greats that competed at Dundee in the 50’s and 60’s. Glen Reiner is another name that has come up a lot as being one of the winningest drivers when the track first came about along with others like “The Flying Pollock”, Dick Karlnoski and George Schenck. Back then it was coupes that raced in the Modified Division and the track ran a few other classes as well. All that was way before my time, but there was a board of directors that oversaw the race activity. Pretty much a volunteer group that enjoyed stock car racing and wanted to better the sport. The track was a little smaller back when I first started going to watch the races in 1977 and up thru the Steve Wetmore promotional years. Lin Hough reconfigured the track and made it bigger when he ran the place in the 90’s thru the mid 2000’s”.
Gibson then went on to say, “I have watched many of the all- time greats race at Outlaw Speedway over the years including Calvin and Malcom Lane, Lin Hough, Tom Smalley and Gene DePuy. The name and promotion of the track has changed several times; however, it has been a Friday night venue for some of the best. Back when Lin and Mal were dominating under Steve Wetmore’s promotion, everyone is the crowd wore either Orange (Lane) or Red (Hough). It was a fierce rivalry”!
During the time of the Board of Directors such names as Butch Sutryk, Harold Bates, Jerry Crans, Steve Kellogg, Steve Wetmore, and numerous others participated in the decision making at the track, but one name that stood out was Charlie Hill. Now deceased like so many others that laid the groundwork for the track, Hill was a driving force in making the Dundee Speedway the place to be on Friday nights. He graded and watered the track, ran the pit food concession and was the go-to guy when Steve Wetmore assumed the promotional duties at the facility in 1981.
“Charlie took care of the track for me when I promoted the facility, claimed Wetmore. His grandson, Jared Hill continues to race at the track keeping the legacy alive. I was the promoter of Dundee from 1981 thru 1994 after which Lin and Cindy Hough along with their partners Sam and Margo Kelly assumed command. Lin put a lot of much needed money into the facility and many of the improvements that were made in the 1990’s remains today including making the track larger in 1997.”
Under the Hough and Kelly deal everything changed including the name change to Black Rock Speedway. All new restrooms and concessions were constructed in both the pits as well as the grandstand seating area. A new pit tower was built, new ticket booths, the pit area enlarged, new lighting, sound system, fencing, sponsor booths and vendor areas included. A huge turn one lap counter complete with the top five running order was also saw construction. It was a massive capital investment for Lin Hough, the former Mr. DIRT 358 Champion and member of the DIRT Motorsports Hall of Fame. When completed everything was brand new except for the turn one covered grandstands which was part of the original Dundee Fairgrounds. They remain to this day.
It should be noted that under the tutelage of Steve Wetmore the tracks weekly fan attendance and car counts were some of the best in the region with a Modified field boasting the likes of John Moravec, Mal and Cal Lane, Mark Oosterhout, Lin Hough, Curt VanPelt, Doug Howard, Jim Mahaney, Walt Mitchell and Lance Yonge. Calling it a who’s who list of some of the best 320 and 358 Modified pilots would be an understatement. Wetmore deserves much credit for keeping the track open and running well considering he did not have the collateral or financial backing to make any capital improvements during his time steering the ship. However, he did continue to make subtle and necessary improvements during his fourteen-year promotion of the track and everyone had the Dundee Speedway on their Friday night to do list.
The Hough’s and Kelly’s turned Black Rock into the show palace of the northeast, flew the Dirt Motorsports Banner for a decade and had all the top name pilots in Modified racing compete at the track one time of another. Life was good at the Yates County Oval!
Dean Hoag purchased the track from the Hough’s in the early 2000’s, just about the time the economy began to nose-dive. Hoag continued to carry the name, Black Rock Speedway but would eventually drop the Modified Division in favor of the upstart 602 Crate Sportsman Division. To keep rising overhead costs in check due to the poor economy, Hoag continued with the Sportsman as his premier division, however he would go outside the box several times during the season and bring in 360 Sprints and some additional touring groups along with a highly acclaimed NASCAR Night at the track each season. After a successful ten year run as owner/promoter of Black Rock, Hoag sold the track to current owner/promoter, Tyler Siri in 2016 to spend more time with his son, Alex and daughter in law, Nichole’s racing careers as well as his other business interests.
Siri immediately hit the ground with his feet running and wasted little time in changing the name to Outlaw Speedway, instituted a new logo, added a lot of paint and polish to the facility, brought in $70,000 of clay, instituted the Modifieds as the headline class and added on a few other divisions for good measure. Over the past six years and in addition to the Open Modifieds on American Racer Tires, Siri added the Hobby Stocks which continue to race every week. Other classes include two 602 Crate Sportsman Divisions, one on American Racers with the other on Hoosier Tires, Street Stocks and Mini Stocks featuring a mixture of both front and rear wheel driven creations. The 600cc Modifieds will be added to the aggressive weekly schedule of events in 2022, a first for the track. Siri does triple duty each race night not only promoting the track and taking car of surface preparation, but he also races in the Modified Division. In fact, he was the winner of the first ever feature event for the Mod Squad after taking the reins of the facility seven seasons ago and he picked up four feature wins in 2021 including the prestigious Dutch Hoag Memorial last October. Siri also owns the cars driver by Bobby Varin and The Doctor, Danny Johnson with all three pilots finishing in the top ten of final 2021 modified point standings
Siri also took on a massive capital project during the offseason after the 2020 schedule was completed including adding on more pit tower spaces as well as a pit side saloon complete with observation deck as well as his own web driven live broadcasts better known as Outlaw Speedway TV. Over the past several seasons Siri has also widened and re-clayed the track making it wider and racier.
“The first few years I owned the track I just did a lot of sprucing up including new paint, track logos and larger billboards. I brought victory lane right to the fans by moving it from on-track ceremonies to an all-new victory land within toughing distance of the main grandstand seating area. It gives the fans a real up close and personal look at the drivers as they experience their feature victory. I put a ton of emphasis on bringing in a lot of touring groups and trying to make every week a special event. Spring, Summer and Fall Nationals, a massive Fourth of July Fireworks Show, the DIRTcar Big Block Series, Short Track Super Series and the Patriot 360 Sprint Tour. I am proud of the fact that I was able to encourage two National Touring Series in the Tony Stewart All Star Circuit of Champions 410 Sprint’s as well as the World of Outlaw Late Models to book dates at Outlaw. This was a first in the history of the track and the inaugural All Star 410 show brought in the biggest crowd to date in all the years the track has been open. I also started a tradition that continues in honoring one of this areas all time great Modified competitors. The Dutch Hoag Memorial is held every fall in late October and it brings the curtain down on each race season. A few seasons ago our Hoag Tribute Weekend brought in some 459 cars that saw competition over the two-day affair, a new record car attendance for the track or any venue in the northeast for that matter. That according to Tyler Siri.
Siri continues to tweak the Fast 4/10 of a mile configuration and he now has the surface right where he wants it as the wide and fast oval provides four to five wide racing from the opening heat thru the final feature of the night.
2020 found things grinding to a complete halt for the first part of the season due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
“We had to play by the NYS Governor’s office and NYS Health Department’s rules in 2020 which meant a June start instead of our traditional early April opener and no fans allowed in the stands for the entire season. I just ran our regular weekly seven classes all summer and instead of the traditional Specials Only format in September and October I ran a weekly Fall Series for my track regulars to give them some extra races in making up for what everyone lost in the spring.”
Siri made it through a tumultuous 2020 season by airing all the events on Dirt Track Digest TV to give fans an opportunity to at least watch the races on pay per view when they were not allowed into the stands. When other venues across the northeast shuttered for the entire season, Siri and Outlaw Speedway hunkered down and made chicken soup out of chicken poop!
Things rebounded nicely in “21”, but the weather killed any momentum as seven full rainouts cut short a promising season including losing one full day of the Fall Nationals and having to run an abbreviated Dutch Hoag Memorial Finale due to weather related issues. The season began with rain, ended with rain and we had a lot of rain in between.
Siri recently lost his father, Ted just as the 2022 season was about to kick off with the major announcement that the track will be celebrating sixty-five continues years of competition.
“My dad was by biggest fan and he never missed a race since I purchased the facility, stated Tyler Siri. This comes as a real blow to all of us as he was loved by everyone at the track and he is really going to be missed when we get the new season under motion. With that I have named NASCAR Night on August 19 as Ted Siri Memorial Night which includes the Tony Stewart All Star Circuit of Champions 410 Sprint Car Series. I honestly believe this will be the biggest event in the sixty-five- years of Outlaw Speedway.”
History will show that numerous small dirt short tracks within the region have come and gone over the past three quarters of a century. Naples, Bath, Corning Stadium, Addison Hills, Dryden, Drum, Waterloo, Hornell and many others began the same way as Dundee with an association or board of directors running the show. Some venues were able to survive for a long time before closing and others barely made it thru a couple seasons before pulling the plug. Locally, only a few have made it to the half century mark or longer including places like Land of Legends, Woodhull, Chemung and Five Mile Point placing Outlaw Speedway in a unique group of tracks that are still running today after fledgling along thru the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s before the face of Motorsports in the northeast changed in the 1980’s.
“This will be a big year for Outlaw Speedway and our schedule of events will show that when its released. I want to make sure that everyone who has been involved with this place for the past sixty-five-years feels like they had a part in making the track grow and be successful. If it were not for the foresight of the previous Board of Directors, past owners and promoters along with the towns people of Dundee and the surrounding areas we would not have gotten this far.”
The Outlaw Speedway has come a long ways over the past sixty-five years, beginning as a small, tight, dimly lit, dusty, flat, quarter mile bull ring where two or three classes were the norm in comparison to today’s wide, fast, banked, smooth surface that has seven classes on its weekly card. Outlaw can boast huge car counts in each of their divisions and a massive, loyal fan base making the facility one of the top-rated Friday night venues in the northeast.
