RUB RAILS & ROOSTER TAILS: FIRST "HARD CLAY OPEN" SET FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 23 AT ORANGE COUNTY FAIR SPEEDWAY (11-20-13)

News from the Orange County Fair Speedway ‘Hard Clay Open’

Media Contact: Brett Deyo – 845.728.2781 or Deyo99H@aol.com

For Immediate Release/November 20, 2013

Spring Fling: Unique ‘Hard Clay Open’ To Kick-Start Orange County Fair Speedway 2014 Season On Sunday, March 23; BD Motorsports Media To Promote Inaugural Event; Modifieds (Big-Blocks & Small-Blocks) To Compete For Lucrative $30,000 Purse In 50-Lap Open Competition Lid-Lifter; Main Event Offers $500 Just To Take The Green!

MIDDLETOWN, NY – Orange County Fair Speedway is well-known for its annual season-ending Eastern States Weekend, an autumn tradition for the last 52 years.

In 2014, the venerable ‘Hard Clay’ five-eighths-mile oval will play host to a major spring event. On Sunday afternoon, March 23, the first-ever ‘Hard Clay Open’ is set for the Middletown, N.Y., facility promoted by Brett Deyo of BD Motorsports Media LLC. An agreement was forged with speedway promoters Michael Gurda IV and Howard Commander for the early season Modified showcase, which will serve as the first on-track activity at Orange County in ’14.

The ‘Hard Clay Open’ will be headlined by a 50-lap Modified event paying a minimum of $5,000 to win. The strength of the purse is its balance through the field: second-place pays $4,000, with $1,000 reserved for the 10^th-place finisher and $500 just to take the green flag. A base payout of $30,000 has been outlined for the first ‘Hard Clay Open’ Modified event.

The ‘Hard Clay Open’ will be run as an unsanctioned program. A mix of weight rules will work to even the playing field for big- and small-block engine combinations. A full rules package – including a liberal tire rule and the use of sail panels for the first time at Orange County – will be announced in the coming weeks.

This event will mark the first-ever BD Motorsports Media promotion at Orange County.

“It’s definitely the realization of a childhood dream to promote a race at Orange County,” Deyo, 30, a native of Cornwall, N.Y. (roughly 30 minutes from the track), who now resides in Boyertown, Pa., said. “From the time I was two or three years old through my college years, Orange County was my Saturday night home. It was a tradition for my family every Saturday for years. We sat in the same seat, near the top of the half-covered grandstands, week after week. As a kid, racing at Orange County was my life.

“As I got older, I spent some time working at Orange County with handicapper Bob Delaney, wrote a column for the Dirt Trackin’ magazine and covered the 358-Modified, Sportsman and Pro Stock races there for Area Auto Racing News in high school and college. It’s definitely hallowed ground for me. The opportunity to put together a major event there is something I wouldn’t pass up.”

The ‘Hard Clay Open’ will be contested on a date that is conflict-free on the dirt Modified landscape. The Sunday afternoon lid-lifter should attract a cross-section of cars from the north, south, east and west. On Saturday of the weekend (March 22), New Egypt (N.J.) Speedway hosts an event, setting up a potential two-day swing south for traveling teams from Central New York and further north.

“We have set up a purse structure that will be very attractive for all race teams,” Deyo said. “It’s a short distance, with a great payout, liberal rules so drivers from a variety of tracks and series can compete. Early in the season, teams are typically looking for races to run. They’re refreshed and ready to go. We’re hoping to capture that excitement.

“For fans, they’ll be able to see a unique blend of drivers at an affordable price. As the New York State dirt Modified opener, it will be a nice Sunday afternoon to relieve the ‘cabin fever’ and get back out to the track.”

Fans can be assured pit-area parking will be laid out carefully to keep larger haulers toward the center, with only smaller trucks and trailers in the corners to ensure maximum visibility. The show will be fast-paced to allow fans and racers ample travel time on a Sunday night.

Crate 602 Sportsman will serve as the event’s undercard in a 25-lap event paying $1,000 to the winner. The Crate 602 Sportsman race is slated to kick off the SUNY Canton GRIT Series for ’14.

Michael Gurda IV, the lead member of the Orange County promotional team, is supportive of the March venture.

“We were looking to do something a little different,” Gurda said. “It’s an early start, but we’ll have the track ready for what should be a great start to the season at Orange County.”

For the 2014 ‘Hard Clay Open’ event, pit gates open at 10 a.m. Grandstand gates open at 11 a.m. A drivers’ meeting will take place at 1 p.m., with hot laps at 1:30 p.m. and racing at 2 p.m. Fans can expect a pre-race autograph session/meet and greet in both the grandstand and drive-in areas.

Admission for the ‘Hard Clay Open’ is $20 for Adults, $18 for Seniors and $2 for Kids 12 and under. Pit admission is $35, with no license required.

The ‘Hard Clay Open’ will mark the second earliest Orange County opener since the speedway began hosting stock cars regularly in 1948, eclipsed only by March 18, 1984 when Larry Brolsma drove to victory.

Marketing opportunities – including primary and supporting sponsorship, lap sponsorship and bonus/contingency award sponsorship – are available now by contacting Brett Deyo of BD Motorsports Media at Deyo99H@aol.com or by phone at 845.728.2781. BD Motorsports Media is on the web at www.bdmotorsportsmedia.com. “Like” BD Motorsports Media on Facebook of follow @BrettDeyo on Twitter.

Orange County becomes the seventh different venue to play host a BD Motorsports Media event since the inaugural event in ‘06, joining I-88, Five Mile Point and Accord speedways in New York; Penn Can and Big Diamond speedways in Pennsylvania and New Egypt Speedway in New Jersey.

Located at 239 Wisner Avenue Middletown, NY 10940 on the Orange County Fairgrounds, Orange County Fair Speedway is the oldest continuously operating dirt track in the United States. The first auto race was held at the speedway in 1919. The five-eighths-mile oval offers fully-covered and half-covered grandstands in addition to open bleacher seating on the frontstretch and turn one areas, with drive-in viewing on the backstretch. To learn more, contact the Orange County Fair Speedway office at 845.342.2573 or visit www.orangecountyfairspeedway.net.

In the event of inclement weather, the rain date is tentatively slated for Friday, March 28, 2014.

The regular season at Orange County is slated to get underway with an open practice on March 29 and the official Season Opener on April 5.