For Fonda Speedway Promoter Pete Demitraszek, You’re Damned if you Do, Damned if you Don’t
Story and Photos By: MATT NOLES / RACERSGUIDE.COM
SPRAKERS, NY- June 16, 2017- I would hate to be the promoter of Fonda Speedway.
After being around the historic facility for the entirety of my existence – that would be 35-years for those of you counting – I’ve seen my share of management teams come and go. Though the names have indelibly changed over the years, the one common denominator that has remained the same is the fans; unyielding, temperamental and down-right miserable at times.
Unless you’ve been trapped under a large boulder for the past six-days, you know the story of last Saturday’s modified feature at the famed Fonda, New York oval.
Stewart Friesen, a venerable God among men in the modified division, seemingly ran away from the rest of the field to clinch what should have been his 43rd career feature win on Saturday night. All was right with the world until the Halmar sponsored No. 44 made its way across the scales; that’s when the story took a strange turn.
Friesen, who races far too many times a year to be light at the end of a feature, was exactly that and what’s more, Tim Fuller was as well. With the win forfeited, the story should have ended there and yet, in typical Fonda fashion, it did not.
There are days where you are the bug and days where you are the windshield. For luckless promoter Pete Demitraszek, he seems to be the former rather than the latter more often than not. Though some of his misfortunes have been self-inflicted – and they have been – last weekend’s stranger than fiction situation was anything but.
In a release directly from the promoter’s desk earlier this week, the exact cause – and subsequent remedy – for the snafu was explained. The uproar and head shaking reverberated down the Mohawk Valley like a title wave.
The release read as follows:
“On Saturday night June 10, 2017we at Fonda Speedway had a malfunction of our track scale. The scale seemed to have operated correctly early in the evening but started to malfunction as the night went on. We have come to learn the scale was run over and vandalizedon Friday night by people attending another function on the Fair Grounds. We feel it in the best interest to everyone to award both Stewart Friesenand Tim Fuller the full point value of their respected finishing positions. Stewart will also be credited witha win along with Josh Hohenforst. While track scale weight is always the norm we feel due to the weight changes we should have noticed the issue sooner. We hope to have the scale repaired later today and it should be ready for this week’s racing action.”
The internet has become a breeding ground for experts; those with no experience behind the scenes and yet they have the incredible ability at being right all the time. What they fail to realize in this instance is that here you have a promoter doing something that few of them are willing to do; admit they made a mistake.
Where Pete could have turned his head and simply said ‘whoops,’ he instead swallowed his pride in an attempt to right the wrongs. One would think this would placate the enraged masses; wrong again.
There was no ideal ending to this situation. Take the win away from Hohenforst and award it to Friesen? Wrong. Leave Friesen and Fuller out in the breeze with a sympathy card and some flowers to hopefully ease the burning sensation from losing both money and points? Wrong again.
Demitraszek made the best decision he could have and does not deserve to be run over by the bus of righteous race fans repeatedly. I’ve been critical of him in the past – and more than likely will be in the future – but at the very least, the man admitted a wrong and attempted to fix it. For this week, he is the epitome of damned if you do, damned if you don’t through no fault of his own.
That’s why I would hate to be the promoter of Fonda Speedway. Whether your last name is Hayes or Compani, Lucia or DeLorenzo, you’ll never do anything right in the eyes of the faithful ‘Track of Champions’ patrons. Besides, they’d rather talk about the ‘good old days’ when ‘racing was racing’ and ‘men were men’ and all other nuances of cliché sayings from those who seem to know better than anyone else.
It’s a slippery slope – talking about the past and remembering it for more than it really was – and it’s one that most Fonda fans seem to be happy to take at full-speed. However, there’s one truth about living in the past that seems to escape everyone’s thought processes; the past is often never as good as it seems and more often than not, it’s never where you left it.
At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before the Fonda faithful will finally get their wish and all they will have to cling to are the ‘good old days.’
Because reminiscing about racing is far better than still having it around.
Matt Noles is a contributing writer for Racer’s Guide and Dirt Track Digest. He currently resides in Sprakers, New York and can be reached via e-mail at matt_noles@yahoo.com.
