FULTONVILLE – The cold, wet weather may have pushed the opening day of racing at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park back a couple of weeks, but it has not stopped new promoters Pete and Matt Demitraszek from further developing an interesting schedule.
“We are trying to give people what they want,” Pete said. “A lot of people want to race enduros and other tracks are not doing them right now. So after the night’s racing is done we will run the enduros.”
GRMP has added six enduros to its schedule, four 75 lap and two 100 lap events, with the first event of the season on opening night, April 19.
The regular show will consist of features for the modifieds, 602 sportsman modifieds, rookie sportsman, street stock and lightning cruiser divisions.
“That is what we plan on running each week, but if there is not enough interest or cars in a division, we may have to drop it,” Pete said.
Most nights will feature bonus events including eight Racesaver 305 sprint car events, four Lightning Sprint races and two appearances by the Lucas Oil Outlaw Midget POWRi Series.
“There are two types of people who have sprint cars,” Pete said. “The ones who don’t like to travel and the ones who love to travel. It has come to the point where some teams can’t afford to travel a lot. That is why they are racing 305s instead of 360s because of the budgets and the price of fuel is not going down.”
Hosting the 305s has also led to an unexpected result.
“We have received our own sanction now,” Pete said. “I have to grow my own business and we have 15 guys who want to race here consistently.”
The weekly feature divisions will also feature special events.
During the season, nights have been designated as double-point events along with twin 15 lap features for the 602 sportsman division and twin 20s for the modifieds. Both classes also will run topless on Aug. 9. The track has also scheduled a meet and greet night and kiddie rides during the season.
Although the points battles for all divisions end on Sept. 13, a special weekend has been added for Sept. 20 with the 602 sportsman division featured in the Redneck Nationals, a 125-lap main event for the division. The rookie sportsman division will run a 40 lap main event that night along with a 30 lap feature for the lightning cruisers, a 100 lap enduro plus the Lightning Sprints.
The Demitraszek’s announced that Denny Tilison has been named as race director for the upcoming season.
“I was looking for someone who was not real controversial,” Pete said. “Denny is very knowledgeable of the sport having been a racer and track official. We are very confident he will do a great job.”
However, before the season can begin, the Demitraszek’s and the track crew need a break in the weather to get the race surface in shape.
“The track is wet and soft,” Pete said. “Especially turns three and four, where we had problems last year. The rest of the track is light brown. The parking area you can’t even walk in it.”
Pete said that everyone is ready to get the season under way as soon as the weather breaks.
“We are trying to do everything we can not to let anybody down,” he said. “It is tough right now because we have things ready to go but the grounds just aren’t ready.”
