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On Saturday July 27 USSGP Round 2 will take place at the re-opened, legendary and now resurfaced Action Park East facility in Greene NY. Voytek Racing along with East Coast Speedway TV are co-sponsoring up to the first $250 raisaed dollar for dollar.
Voytek Racing is operated by speedway fan and amateur flat track rider Voytek Dojka who aims to help promote speedway throughout the US, and has been instrumental in helping build up the sport on the East Coast through the 2019 season.
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McBride and Donholt top USSGP Rd 1
Champion Speedway, Owego NY The Qualifying format for the the US Open Speedway Championships, hosted each Labor Day weekend in New York State, has become more challenging as East Coast Speedway promoter Jason Bonsignore has come up with a qualifier series for this season, known as the United States Speedway Grand Prix (USSGP) which he feels is more fair and puts several more higher level events on the calendar for both riders and spectators. The 3 round USSGP series kicked off at the legendary Champion Speedway in Owego, NY June 22nd and the top 7 riders in Points from last year were automatically seeded into the event with 3 Wild Cards being chosen and then an open round of qualifiers heats ran prior to the meeting to determine the last 6 riders for the 16 rider GP format race. The last 2 series rounds will take place at Action Park East in Greene, NY and if completed in time, the all-new Seneca Speedway in Waterloo, NY, later in the summer. Should Seneca Speedway not be finish in time, the final event will be changed to Champion Speedway. At the conclusion of the Series, the top 8 riders in the Standings will gain berths in the First Round of the US Open Championships Labor Day weekend along with the top riders from Florida, Indianapolis, Colorado, California and possibly Europe! The June 22nd event at Champion Speedway was run in honor and memory of Kevin Thrift, an avid rider, and track worker in British Speedway, who passed in recent years and is the father of East Coast Speedway staff supporter, Richard Thrift. The Thrift family helped raise a generous amount of money that was added into the purse and the riders were very appreciative! The series would be run like the World GP format with the rider accumulating points through heats, semis and the final and the overall points leader from the evening not necessarily being the rider who wins the final. As the pre-event qualifiers took place, the top 7 in East Coast Points from 2018...Casey Donholt, Adam Mittl, Len McBride, Jeremy Parsons, Spencer Portararo, Dan Oakden and Dave Oakden, plus Wild Cards...Brian Hollenbeck, Tuff McBride and Alex Heath, waited to see who would be the final competitors. Coming through the pre-heats were Jerry Harman, Jesse Diem, Mike Cortese, Jonny Oakden, Dalton Oakden and Mason Higely. When Mittl's spot became open, the "Doctor of Dirt" Russ Cornell defeated Pat Cliff in a runoff for the final position! Four-time track Champion, Len McBride and Three-time Champ, Casey Donholt, looked very strong in the first several heat rounds, both remaining unbeaten. They would meet head to head next and great battle ensued which Donholt seemed to have control of but spun around in front of McBride on the 3rd lap leaving McBride nowhere to go but to ride right over the top of Donholt's bike and go airborne! McBride did an excellent job of saving it barely and scrubbing enough speed to softly hit the wall in what could have been a much more serious crash. McBride was accordingly credited with the win with Donholt getting a zero. Donholt on his Ministry Clothing Jawa would redeem himself and handily win the first semifinal with Parsons, Diem and Dan Oakden finishing in that order. McBride would keep his perfect score alive in the second semi on his Justice Bros/Oury Grip/Moonbeam/Scott's Headers/Cobra powered GM. He lept out of the gate and did not look back as he outdistanced Hollenbeck, Portararo and Harman. In the 4 rider final, Donholt would make a perfect start and use it to hold the lead for the checkered flag and the big money just ahead of McBride while Parsons and Hollenbeck would have good pressure between them for the last rostrum step with Parsons taking it to conclude a great night of racing at the Kevin Thrift Memorial USSGP RD 1! The next event's on the East Coast Speedway schedule are July 19th at Action Park East and July 20th at Champion Speedway! USSGP Round One/Kevin Thrift Memorial Speedway Results Heat Points: Len McBride 12 Casey Donholt 9 Jeremy Parsons 9 Spencer Portararo 9 Jesse Diem 8 Brian Hollenbeck 8 Dan Oakden 8 Jerry Harman 8 Dave Oakden 6 Jonny Oakden 5 Mike Cortese 5 Russ Cornell 3 Alex Heath 3 Mason Higley 2 Dalton Oakden 1 Tuff McBride 0 Semi 1 1. Casey Donholt 2. Jeremy Parsons 3. Jesse Diem 4. Dan Oakden Semi 2 1. Len McBride 2. Brian Hollenbeck 3. Spencer Portararo 4. Jerry Harman FINAL 1. Donholt 2. McBride 3. Parsons 4. Hollenbeck Division 2 1. Mason Higley 2. Pat Cliff 3. Mike Hunt Division 3 1. Ray Schweiger 2. Jamal Kelly 3. Thad Cotter JR 1. Levi Harris 2. Caleb Stewart OVERALL USSGP SERIES STANDINGS AFTER RD 1
Without your help in the way of sponsorship we are not going to be able to continue beyond the end of the 2019 season. The Thrift family will sponsor the Kevin Thrift Memorial Trophy but will no longer operate as East Coast Speedway TV.
Kevin Thrift Memorial TrophyThis meeting had the "Big Event" feels. Division One riders took to the track with the intention of qualifying into the Main Event with $500 for 1st place up for grabs. The meeting was kicked off with Qualifiers and at the riders meeting it was announced that crowd favorite, Alex "the Hazard) Heath was given the opportunity of taking the last Wild Card position which meant he did not have to race in the qualifiers. Jesse Diem had taken a fall the night before at Action Park East and rode well at Champion but sadly failed to make the main event by one spot. Spencer Portararo was unable to find the form that had given him the victory at Action Park East. Casey blasted through the heats with one incident leading in his heat disqualification as former track champion Len McBride was left holding the wall for a moment as he composed himself. Tuff McBride had a tough meeting and couldn't find his form and instead found himself in the wall on the homestraight. Jeremy Parsons and Brian Hollenbeck were silently collecting the points and made it through the semis to be joined with Casey Donholt and Len McBride. Casey Donholt took the lead in the Main Event right out of the gate leaving a three way battle for second which became a two way battle finally ending in Len McBride claiming the spot across the line and Jeremy Parsons finishing 3rd. It was as huge night with fast bar-to-bar racing and the crowd enthralled and loving every minute of the on-track action. Action Park East Re-Opened! (21st June)History was made as a very successful re-opening of Action Park East happened in Greene NY. Under floodlights and with tricky conditions, riders battled it out with Spencer Portararo taking the victory. Division Three rider Alexis Heath had an on-track moment but escaped unscathed and with all nails in tact.
We are so sorry to have to cancel this Saturday's (June 15th) meeting. We ran out of time with the weather and construction delays. We are planning the opening night for Friday the 21st!
Scratch Main
1. Casey Donholt 2. Jeremy Parsons 3. Brian Hollenbeck 4. Len McBride 5. Adam Mittl Support 1. Alexis Heath 2. Ray Schweiger Junior Speedway 1. Caleb Stewart 2. Levi Harris 3. Joel Farwell ATV Pro 1.Shane Smith 2. Dylan Hawk 3. Donnie Archibald ATV Sportsman 1. Robert Ulrich 2. Hunter Singer 3. Dan Chandler ATV AM 1. Bruce Stauder 2. Jimmer Ulrich 3. Mike Bush Trikes 1. Mark Waddington 2. TJ Smith 3. Daniel Henninge Mini Expert 1. Talon Relyea 2. Ethan Ervay Mini B 1. Arielle Smith 2. Christian Hoeller 3. Makencie Hanbury Youth DB 1. Bentley Wilkes Patrick Ahlund Spring Classic Championship Speedway Results:
A FINAL 1. Adam Mittl 2. Brian Hollenbeck 3. Casey Donholt 4. Jeremy Parsons 5. Len McBride B Main (We had a 6 way tie on points so we ran 6 with the guy drawing the highest ball getting second row) 1. Spencer Portararo 2. Daniel Oakden 3. Alex Heath 4. Mike Cortese Jr 5. Mike Robinson 6. Jonny Oakden C Main 1. Jerry Harman 2. Dave Oakden 3. Jeffrey Garlinghouse 4. Russ J Cornell 5. Dalton Oakden Second Division Main 1. Chaz Meiman 2. Jonny Oakden 3. Mason Higley 4. Dalton Oakden Third Division Main 1. Ray Schweiger 2. Pat Farrell 3. Alexis Heath JR Speedway 1. Caleb Stewart 2. Levi Harris 3. Joel Farwell Yes! We have a Teespring store! You can find it by clicking the link on the bar above or HERE to find t-shirts and mugs created by East Coast Speedway TV. Right now we have some great designs for the up-coming Kevin Thrift Memorial Trophy event and the TENTH person to come through the gate wearing one of our t-shirts should come and see us to get a FULL refund of the $13 entry fee.
We are going to have more and more awesome items up soon, so, keep supporting us and we will keep our store up-to-date with more awesome merchandise. Coming Soon! We are going to have our DVD store open! Once it is open our YouTube channel will host highlights of the speedway events. That's right! Starting with the Kevin Thrift Memorial Trophy the East Coast Speedway GP series will kick off in the memory and honour of Kevin Thrift, late former speedway rider and track preparation specialist. It will also boast a reasonably sized bounty for the taking.
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