WEEDSPORT, NY - Canadian veteran Dave Heaslip, New Jersey standout Billy Osmun and transplanted New Yorker Dick May will be inducted into the DIRT Hall of Fame on Memorial Day Weekend ‘07. These three driving greats add their names to a growing list of Modified legends that was started in 1992 when the building was officially christened the DIRT MotorSports Hall of Fame and Classic Car Museum in Weedsport, N.Y.
The 2007 Induction Ceremonies will take place Sunday, May 27 at 2 p.m. in the Hall of Fame & Classic Car Museum. The evening race program at Cayuga County Fair Speedway will be highlighted by the Hall of Fame Classic, the third scheduled points event in the Advance Auto Parts Super DIRT Series for Big-Block Modifieds.
Still active today steering his signature no. 84 Modified machines, Smiths Falls, Ontario legend Heaslip continues to be competitive in his fifth decade of open-wheel racing. Beginning is driving career at the old Kingston (Ont.) Speedway in 1962, Heaslip has collected over 300 checkered flags behind the wheel, with 125 feature wins and nine track titles registered on the DIRTcar circuit. The “Slip” is the only driver to win at least one Small-Block main event every season since the first Mr. DIRT 358-Modified champion was crowned in 1983, today totaling 121 DIRT SB wins which rank him fifth all-time in the Northeast. Placing third in both the ‘83 & ’84 Mr. DIRT 358 title hunts, at the age of 62 Heaslip plans to follow a full schedule with weekly stops penciled in at Autodrome Edelweiss (Fri.), Frogtown Int’l Speedway (Sat.) and Cornwall Motor Speedway (Sun.) during his 2007 campaign.
Recognized behind the wheel of such acclaimed open-wheel entries as the Norcia #81, Statewide #3 and Ferraiuolo Bros. #73 during a stellar stock car racing career, Osmun scored his first career victory on home soil aboard his own #333 coupe in 1969 at East Windsor (NJ) Speedway. ‘Billy O’ made his debut at Flemington (NJ) Fair Speedway in the early 1960s and 10 years later was a dominating force at both Flemington and East Windsor. Osmun won the prestigious Eckerd 200 (then known as the Schaefer 100) for the Statewide Team in the first rain-shortened event held in 1974 and collected the first of three straight New York State Fair Labor Day Championships on the Syracuse Mile in 1978 driving the Ferraiuolo mount with teammate Gary Balough.
As the Pioneer Committee's selection for 2007, May spent 18 years racing in New York’s north country before moving down south where he spent another 15 seasons following the Grand National (today’s Nextel Cup) circuit. The popular Brownville, NY pilot debuted at the old Edgewood Speedway in Alexandria Bay in 1950 and collected his only track championship trophy at Watertown Speedway in 1962. A trucker by trade, May relocated to North Carolina at the end of the decade while his first NASCAR race was actually recorded in 1967 at the Permatex 300 in Daytona Beach, Florida. He continued in NASCAR's top series until 1986, posting eight career top-10 finishes and his best finish in the point standings was 15th in 1978. Because of the way he could handle the cars he became the top relief driver in Cup history during the '70s and early '80s. May's feat of driving five cars in one race ---the 1975 Mason Dixon 500 at Dover Downs Int’l Speedway--- will probably be in the history books for a long time.
Also receiving recognition during the induction ceremonies will be Ron Morin, Jeff Rudalavage and Mike Burdick, while the late Aaron Freshman will be honored posthumously on this special occasion.
Morin enters the Hall of Fame sharing with Freshman the Leonard J. Sammons, Jr. Award for Outstanding Contributions to Auto Racing. With Cornwall (Ont.) Motor Speedway facing closure at the time, former Mini Stock and Street Stock driver Ron Morin came to the rescue, leasing the facility for a couple years before securing the track deed in 1982. The following year Morin gained membership within the Weedsport, N.Y.-based DIRTcar organization with the Small-Block Modifieds taking center stage ever since. While Cornwall commemorated its 25th Anniversary in 1994, Morin celebrates his own ‘Silver Anniversary’ with the track as well as DIRT in 2007.
Known fondly as “Chief” on the DIRT of Central New York circuit, freshman was a familiar figure in the public relations office for DIRTcar from day one. A resident of the Syracuse suburb of Camillius, N.Y. for 40 years before his recent retirement, Freshman already held strong ties with group founder Glenn Donnelly when DIRT MotorSports was established in 1976. He was in the appliance retail business when K-Mart Stores first opened in the Salt City area and maintained a direct connection with Donnelly, himself an auditor for the General Electric Company at the time. As Donnelly’s DIRT empire grew, so did corporate sponsorship as Freshman landed many major accounts that included Wheels Discount Auto Supply Stores which evolved into today’s partnership with Big-Block Modified Series supporter Advance Auto Parts. Freshman passed away at age 84 on December 28, 2006 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
A respected driver/owner for nearly two decades, Gene DeWitt Outstanding Car Owner award recipient Rudalavage from Olyphant, Pennsylvania teamed up with veteran New Yorker Alan Johnson in 2005 and the combination clicked like no other the following season with an overall Hoosier Tire-Sunoco Race Fuels Mr. DIRT Championship the end result. In 2006 Rudalavage was responsible for keeping the wheels under ‘A.J. Slideways,’ who remains DIRTcar’s all-time Big-Block Modified feature winner with a division-high 15 scored last season to bring his career total to 344. Steering the no. 14J NativePoker.Com-Pine Line Auto Sales-Chiefs Tobacco&Gas Morrison-powered Bicknell entry, Johnson also captured ’06 season point titles at Brewerton, Cayuga County Fair and Fulton speedways, scoring another three feature wins in small-block competition. He is the only driver to win at least one Big-Block feature every year of DIRT’s existence.
Burdick will receive the Mechanic of the Year Award after spearheading the late-season resurgence of Modified superstar Danny Johnson on the DIRTcar NorthEast circuit in 2006. Johnson’s high-dollar win streak in Dave Thompson’s no. 27J Quality Concrete-King Ent.-Chiefs Tobacco & Gas/Troyer entry began with a $20,000 triumph in the Victoria 200 at Fulton Speedway in September. With Burdick turning the wrenches, the ‘Doctor’ completed a rare Super DIRT Week sweep with a $50,000 victory in the headline Eckerd 200 coming on the heels of another $20,000 win in the headline ITT Industries-Goulds Pumps 150-lap ‘Salute to the Troops’ Mr. DIRT 358-Modified Series showdown.
Co-recipients of the sixth annual "Outstanding Woman in Racing" award are former first lady of DIRT MotorSports, Annette Lutz, and Helen Martin, wife of the late Lernerville Speedway owner/promoter Don Martin.
National power DIRT MotorSports was initially created as DIRT of Central New York in 1976 and behind the scenes Lutz was the right-hand ‘woman’ serving alongside president and founder Glenn Donnelly. While Donnelly was busy on the road promoting the fledgling organization to fans and officials throughout the Northeast, Annette made sure the business functioned closer to home at the Weedsport, NY base as she stayed actively involved in the daily racing routine. A secretary when DIRT was launched, ‘Chickie’ eventually juggled sponsorship accounts, handled media affairs and on race day served as handicapper at founding member tracks Cayuga County Fair (Weedsport) and Canandaigua Speedway.
From a rather humble beginning in the fall of 1967, Lernerville evolved into one of the most revered weekly dirt tracks in the country under the care and guidance of the Martin family. Voted national "Promoter of the Year,” Don passed away in 1993 and Helen took over the reins continuing to promote the top three classes of cars recognized throughout the country ---Sprints, Late Models and Big-Block Modifieds--- on the Friday night card. After a decade of owning and leasing, in 2005 Helen sold Lernerville Speedway to DIRT MotorSports and today Gary Risch Jr. and Gary Risch Sr. guide the day-to-day track operations.
By Tom Skibinski, DIRTcar Racing PR Director
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