More Than $60,000 Awaits a Driver Who Can Win Both Modified Championship Races
Story By: JOHN SNYDER / OCFS MEDIA
Photos By: HARRY & JANE CELLA / RACERSGUIDE.COM
MIDDLETOWN, NY -September 19, 2016- Six times in Orange County Fair Speedway’s Eastern States history, one driver has won both the Small Block Modified championship race and the headline Eastern States 200 in the same weekend. Danny Johnson swept both races in 1992 and Brett Hearn took top honors in both races five times—1986, 2002, 2004, 2012, and 2014. But neither Johnson nor Hearn ever won as much money as a double victor will this year.
With $35,000 going to the winner of the 2016 Eastern States 200, and $15,000 to the Small-Block Modified 100 victor, plus a $10,000 bonus for a sweep of the two races, one driver could leave the historic Middletown “Hard Clay” on Sunday evening, October 23 some $60,000 richer. And this doesn’t include special awards like $1,000 for fast time and the pole position in the 200 and $500 for the outside pole slot, nor the lap money in both races to the leader of each completed circuit.
The questions thus become, how many drivers will enter both races? And who has to best chance of winning the double?
During Orange County’s 2016 weekly racing schedule, 13 different drivers raced one or more times in both the Big-Block Modified and the Small-Block Modified divisions. Of the 13, the best overall record was turned in by Waldwick, New Jersey’s Tommy Meier, who won the point championships in both Modified divisions. Meier is also the defending Eastern States 200 winner, and finished second in the 100-lap Small Block Modified race. (Ironically, Hearn won the 2015 Small-Block Modified 100 and finished second to Meier in the Eastern States 200.) And based on his Orange County 2016 weekly performances in both divisions, Meier has to be considered among the favorites to join Johnson and Hearn in the exclusive weekend sweep club.
The 55th Annual Eastern States Weekend presented by Halmar International, Arkel Motors, and WLR Construction Company, the oldest continuously-run championship race weekend for dirt track Modifieds, is set for Friday through Sunday, October 21-23, 2016 at the historic Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, New York. Advance ticket information and weekend schedules are available by calling the track office at 845-342-2573 during business hours, or by visiting www.orangecountyfairspeedway.net.
