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Former Track Champion Jeff Trombley Looks Forward to another Season of Competition at the ‘Track of Champions’
Story and Photos By: MATT NOLES / RACERSGUIDE.COM
SPRAKERS, NY- January 15, 2016- A good racecar driver is competitive. A great racecar driver is competitive year after year with frightening consistency.
Altamont, New York native Jeff Trombley is certainly the latter rather than the former. For over three decades, the driver of the familiar No. 21J has been a force to be reckoned with at the historic Fonda Speedway in Fonda, New York and 2016 looks to be more of the same.
Though 2015 saw the wily veteran go without a trip to Fonda’s coveted victory lane, he was close on more than one occasion. One might think that a winless season would be considered a large-scale failure; not Trombley.
“We were competitive and I had a lot of top-five finishes,” stated Trombley. “I also had a lot of nights where I was running in the top-five and had some mechanical problems so we were definitely in the hunt. It wasn’t a bad year at all.”
Trombley will be back behind the wheel of a TEO Pro Car powered by Grant Racing Engines again in 2016. “We have some freshened motors and we have the chassis that was new last year that we’re going to run again this season,” continued Trombley. “We’re going to go and have fun. I only spend what I need to spend to do it and we’re not going crazy. Sponsorship would definitely help but it’s hard to find.”
Racing is a fickle business even when there are available funds to go compete on a weekly basis; it’s even more difficult when you’re doing it all out of your own pocket. “It’s very tough to do this on your own and very expensive,” Trombley remarked. “But we’re having fun and I don’t do this for a living so we’ll come back and do the same thing again this year.”
After having great success racing multiple nights at different speedways like Lebanon Valley [speedway in West Lebanon, New York] and Albany-Saratoga [speedway in Malta, New York] for the majority of his storied career, Trombley will once again be calling Fonda his one and only home for the upcoming season.
“It’s so much work and so much money to run two nights a week that one night is really all we can do,” Trombley continued. “We might hit a few special shows here and there but it all depends really. It’s tough during the week for me because of work.”
Though he has certainly had success at other venues over the years, Fonda has always welcomed him back with open arms season after grinding season. “I love that track, I love racing there,” Trombley said with a grin. “It’s fast and it’s where I started watching dirt racing and I haven’t left yet.”
When you’ve raced at one facility for as long as Jeff Trombley has raced at Fonda, you see some changes over that time span and this season will bring another change as Pete Demitraszek takes over as the new promoter for 2016 and beyond.
“I already like what I heard from Pete as far as just going by the DIRTcar rulebook,” continued Trombley. “He restructured things a little bit purse wise but I don’t think it’s going to hurt anybody and to be honest with you, I hope things work out for him because he stepped up when nobody else did.”
Jeff Trombley, who will turn 58-years-old this June, has pondered the question of when to retire. The answer, not surprisingly, is not yet and for at least one more season, fans will have the chance to see him throwing dust to the wind every Saturday night. “I’m on a year-by-year basis at this point,” Trombley concluded. “I could retire at any minute I mean I’ve done it enough but we’re still having fun so we’ll come back again this year.”
Matt Noles is a contributing writer with Racer’s Guide and Speedway Illustrated. He currently resides in Sprakers, New York.
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