CLASS RACER FORUM - View Single Post - Birth of the Tri-State S/SS Association

Tom Lang · 02-16-2010, 05:32 PM

Mike, I hope you don't mind if I throw in some details.

The seed that got the whole thing started was when the Tedesco Brothers used to put on a race at Keystone called "The Superstars of the Early Years". It was designed to give people who used to race at PID and Keystone a chance to race locally as many of them had moved on to follow the NHRA and IHRA points races and national events. Boburka, Kunsak, Lydon & Johnson as well as non-class racers like Jack McDonough, Joe Meinert and others would go to Keystone for that race and it was a good time for all. We used to call it the Oldtimers Race until a couple guys ( I think Wes Sr. and Lydon) showed up one week early, then it became known as the Alzheimer's Race.

In early 1995 my friend Paul Barr and I went to the Custom Car Show in Pittsburgh and we got to talking about the Oldtimers race. Paul asked me why we couldn't do something similar for the Stock and Super Stock guys because we rarely saw them race around home. That's when I called Bob Mancino at Fairmont Dragway and together we came up with the West Virginia Stock/Super Stock State Championships. It was my first attempt at race promoting and it turned out to be quite a success, mostly because of the kind of people that compete in class racing. The Sheehans put on a barbecue and fed everybody. Jerry Hunter from the NHRA Safety Safari prepped the track and as he is a big fan of the high winding stick cars he put up $100 to get Doc Watson and Ed Matsko to come back for an encore after they were eliminated. We did it again in 1996 and again it worked out well. In early 1997 we got everybody we could to meet at Dave McConnell's house and that is when the Tri State Super Stock Association was born with the intent to put on about a half dozen or so races a year. I think you covered the rest of the story from there.

The thing that made it work was the group of people we were dealing with, Class Racers. We had a tee shirt made up for the first race with a simple logo of a camaro with the wheels up and the slogan, "Stock/Super Stock, it's class racing." Class racing doesn't just refer to the type of cars they race, but the kind of people they are. I must say I got spoiled dealing with that group of racers, they were very easy to work with. A few years later I worked at Keystone and found out not all racers are so easy to work with.
I glad to see that you're keeping it going. I'll make it out to some of your races this year and I'll use the two radio shows I'm involved with to help you promote them.

Tom Lang

02-16-2010, 05:32 PM	#4
Tom Lang Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 8 Likes: 0 Liked 19 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Birth of the Tri-State S/SS Association Mike, I hope you don't mind if I throw in some details. The seed that got the whole thing started was when the Tedesco Brothers used to put on a race at Keystone called "The Superstars of the Early Years". It was designed to give people who used to race at PID and Keystone a chance to race locally as many of them had moved on to follow the NHRA and IHRA points races and national events. Boburka, Kunsak, Lydon & Johnson as well as non-class racers like Jack McDonough, Joe Meinert and others would go to Keystone for that race and it was a good time for all. We used to call it the Oldtimers Race until a couple guys ( I think Wes Sr. and Lydon) showed up one week early, then it became known as the Alzheimer's Race. In early 1995 my friend Paul Barr and I went to the Custom Car Show in Pittsburgh and we got to talking about the Oldtimers race. Paul asked me why we couldn't do something similar for the Stock and Super Stock guys because we rarely saw them race around home. That's when I called Bob Mancino at Fairmont Dragway and together we came up with the West Virginia Stock/Super Stock State Championships. It was my first attempt at race promoting and it turned out to be quite a success, mostly because of the kind of people that compete in class racing. The Sheehans put on a barbecue and fed everybody. Jerry Hunter from the NHRA Safety Safari prepped the track and as he is a big fan of the high winding stick cars he put up $100 to get Doc Watson and Ed Matsko to come back for an encore after they were eliminated. We did it again in 1996 and again it worked out well. In early 1997 we got everybody we could to meet at Dave McConnell's house and that is when the Tri State Super Stock Association was born with the intent to put on about a half dozen or so races a year. I think you covered the rest of the story from there. The thing that made it work was the group of people we were dealing with, Class Racers. We had a tee shirt made up for the first race with a simple logo of a camaro with the wheels up and the slogan, "Stock/Super Stock, it's class racing." Class racing doesn't just refer to the type of cars they race, but the kind of people they are. I must say I got spoiled dealing with that group of racers, they were very easy to work with. A few years later I worked at Keystone and found out not all racers are so easy to work with. I glad to see that you're keeping it going. I'll make it out to some of your races this year and I'll use the two radio shows I'm involved with to help you promote them. Tom Lang