Newly-Named Outlaw Speedway Starts New Chapter With Stable Future
Story By: Steven Ovens/Outlaw Speedway Media
Photos By:Curtis Berleue Photography
HORSEHEADS, N.Y. — It appears that, in the coming weeks, we will all see and hear just how differently things are going to be done at the newly named Outlaw Speedway.
New owner Tyler Siri has come in and really shaken things up for the 2016 season.
Increased purses, new track equipment, a fresh dose of clay to be added throughout the season and the tender loving care that the facility has desperately needed for the last handful of years are all part of the master plan. A new electronic scoring system for the premier divisions (eventually outreaching to all divisions in 2017) and a good number of touring series across several divisions will create the recipe for success at Outlaw.
Keep in mind, this is not the first time that fans in the Northeast have heard the name Tyler Siri associated with taking over the speedway. Rumors of the speedway changing hands several seasons ago didn’t ultimately bear any fruit, but the past two off-seasons heard Siri’s name get brought up as a candidate in the running to promote or purchase the speedway.
This time, the deal didn’t slip out of Siri’s reach.
Black Rock Speedway, now Outlaw Speedway, has gone through many transitions over the course of the last 12 seasons. The speedway has raced on Friday nights mainly, but did operate on Saturday nights in 2004 with 360 sprints being the headline division. When that plan didn’t work out to it’s full potential, it was not long before Dean Hoag and the Hoag family took over the controls of the facility the following year.
Modifieds remained a headline division for several years before giving way to the Crate Sportsman Modifieds, when the Crate Sportsman program in the Northeast set itself in motion. Black Rock Speedway was one of the first speedways in the area to grasp onto the Crate program, making it the track’s headline division for several seasons.
Hoag’s team tried to make use of the track grounds for alternative motorsports events and non-motorsports events, but that gave Black Rock the ‘entertainment facility’ label instead of the ‘racing facility’ label that it had been known as for decades. This seemed to create a larger and larger divide between the racers and track ownership at a time where both sides needed each other the most.
When the future of the speedway was unclear, Hoag chose to seek out a new promoter for the facility. He found an eager, experienced promoter in Dan Harpell who took the plunge to promote the track under the name ‘Yates County Speedway’ in 2014 with roughly only five weeks to assemble a staff before the season opener. Harpell had a relatively successful season, brought a lot of former fans back to the speedway but would not receive a lease extension for the 2015 season, leaving Harpell, drivers and fans with certainly more questions than answers.
Enter former Modified racer Mike Jackson, who was the new promoter that would take over the reins of the facility on January 1, 2015. Jackson swiftly brought back the Big Block/Small Block Modifieds as a headline division, a popular move with the local racers and fans alike. The season saw it’s highs and lows as the rookie promoter navigated the waters of running a race track with a fickle economy and fickle motorsports fan base.
Jackson would ultimately learn that he too would not be offered a lease extension for the 2016 season, opening the door for either a new promoter or potentially new ownership altogether. The Hoag family had made it clear that Black Rock Speedway would race in 2016, but to what capacity was truly an unknown. Many racers feared that the facility wouldn’t operate on a weekly basis which created such a disconnect between the drivers, the fans, potential new fans and the track.
The reality of the sale of the speedway is this — the sale is a win-win-win-win situation. The racers win, Tyler Siri wins, Dean Hoag wins and ultimately the race fans will win this coming season.
For the racers now comes a renewed sense of stability for the future that some thought wasn’t possible. Siri has made it clear that the speedway isn’t going anywhere and neither is he. For the last three years, drivers have been frustrated in not knowing where, what and how the facility would operate from year-to-year. Now, the plans and expectations are crystal clear.
For Siri, this is a huge win. A win for a race car driver in his 40′s who grew up going to races at the famed ‘Fast Four-Tenths Mile’ and eventually took his son to races there on Friday nights. This is also a win for Siri because he brings to Outlaw Speedway a strong background in the world of business. Siri owns a very successful business in the Southern Tier, and knows what it takes to build a strong business that will sustain itself for the foreseeable future.
This is really a win for former track owner Hoag. It has been a long tenure in owning Black Rock Speedway and there has to be a great sense of relief in selling the speedway for him. The speedway has been through it’s ups and downs, but Hoag never wavered — he kept the doors open when it would have been easy to close up shop and walk away several years ago.
Dean and I have certainly had differing opinions over the years, but I will always give him credit for sticking it out when he didn’t have to. Had he not done that, who knows where we would be or what we would be talking about when someone brought up Black Rock Speedway.
Maybe the biggest win of all in all of this is for the fans. The fans know that their Friday night track is going to be transformed into a Friday night destination. The happening place in the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier will be located at 82 Main Street in the quiet village of Dundee, N.Y. The Modifieds will continue to rumble less than a football field away from State Route 14A and some of the best in the business will be calling Outlaw Speedway their home in 2016.
As a fan, what more could you ask for than that?
