The late Charlie Jarzombek will be inducted into the NY State Racing HOF on Jan 24, 2015. (Credit: NASCAR archives.)
By Lou Modestino
A trio of outstanding drivers and two highly respected promoters will comprise the 2015 Hall of Fame class of the New York State Stock Car Association. Dirt track heroes Pete Bicknell and Kenny Brightbill will be joined by the late asphalt star Charlie Jarzombek on the driver’s side, while Marcia Wetmore and Howard Commander were elected for their accomplishments in speedway management and promotion.
Induction is set for January 24, 2015, with an 11 a.m. ceremony at the Saratoga Automobile Museum, site of the association’s permanent Hall of Fame display. That event will be followed by an evening awards banquet at the Polish Community Center on Washington Avenue Ext. in Albany, NY, with a 4 pm cocktail hour to be followed by the Hall of Fame induction at 5:15.
While a Canadian citizen, Bicknell has long been the dominant factor in western New York small block modified racing, notching 13 titles at Ransomville to go with his nine Humberstone championships and 23 season titles at Merrittville. Known as “Mister Small Block” through his illustrious career, Bicknell has claimed some 19 Super DIRTcar 358 Series wins along with series championships in 1991, ’94 and 2008, registering five Syracuse Super DIRT Week wins along the way.
With over 400 career wins, Bicknell continues to compete on the Niagara Frontier while overseeing his families’ Merrittville Speedway promotions and a wildly successful chassis and race parts manufacturing facility. His NYSSCA induction will mark his third such experience, as he is already a member of the Canadian Motorsports and DIRT Motorsports Halls of Fame.
Many associate the name Kenny Brightbill with Pennsylvania’s Reading Fairgrounds, and rightfully so, as Brightbill won some 135 features and four championships there before the historic speedway property became a shopping center. But many of his 450-plus wins came in the Empire State, including the State Fair race in 1972 and the Super DIRT Week finale in 1988. He has also visited Victory Lane in the Eastern States 200, Fonda 200, Weedsport 200 and claimed Lebanon Valley’s Mr. Dirt Track USA classic in 1989.
Other notable New York triumphs on the “Shillington Slingshot’s” resume include two wins in the Albany-Saratoga Super Shootout, the Northeast Showdown at Rolling Wheels, the Victoria 200 at Fulton and Five Mile Point’s Southern Tier 100, showing his talent on tracks of all sizes and type of racing surface.
NASCAR star Jarzombek, who perished in a 1987 crash at Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway, was arguably the greatest talent to come out of the ultra-competitive Long Island bullrings. He was the Islip Speedway champion in 1972, ’78 and ’80, garnered three straight titles at the Freeport Speedway and was a six-time champion at the Riverhead Raceway, the only one of the three tracks still in existence.
Further afield, he claimed the 1985 Stafford Speedway championship over a bevy of other superstars, was the New Smyrna, FL. World Series co-champion in 1976 and notched some 16 career wins in NASCAR events at Martinsville, Stafford Springs, Thompson and Orange County, NC.
Marcia Wetmore, who quickly became a true racer after marrying into the Wetmore family, learned the office and promotion side of the sport from mentors Hertha Beberwyck and Annette Lutz and a healthy dose of on-the-job training with Bub Benway at the Fulton Raceway.
Life as a racer’s wife travelling with husband Donnie had brought her both an intimate knowledge of the sport and friendships with countless racers and insiders, attributes she combined with a winning personality to become a success first at Fulton, then in Tennessee with Robin Manus and Richard Childress and finally, back in New York with up and coming promoter Alex Friesen.
Shortly after Friesen’s untimely passing, Wetmore moved on to other things but she has long been remembered for her fair treatment of racers, whether they were raw beginners or superstars, and her winning personality.
Howard Commander would be a Hall of Fame promoter on the strength of his very successful Lebanon Valley Speedway and Dragstrip operation alone, but he has also had a major influence on the sport through his “behind the scenes” involvement with DIRT Motorsports when fellow Hall of Famer Glenn Donnelly was in charge.
Commander, who is also a partner in a number of promotional ventures in the mid-west and deep south, has been voted the RPM Promoter of the Year by his peers and is well known throughout the industry for his financial skills and long range vision. At an age when most businessman of his stature are slowing down and planning their retirement, Commander is still adding to his empire and recently purchased the Albany-Saratoga Speedway, which he had been leasing from the Richards family since the passing of patriarch CJ Richards.