Speedway on Ice 11/7/09

Indoor Ice Racing Championships head to Syracuse Oncenter Dec 27 !!!

Round number 3 of The Bully Dog / Fleetsource North American Indoor Speedway Motorcycle and ATV Championships heads to the Syracuse OnCenter this Sunday, December, 27, 2009.

The events will be supported by Bully Dog Technologies and the local BRP,Can-am, and Ski-Doo dealers and will serve as RD 2 and 3 of the North American Indoor Ice Championships for Speedway motorcycle racing and ATV's. Former local NHL hockey player, Jason Bonsignore, of Rochester, is the race operator and the series just came off a successful stop in Binghamton, NY in November where ice racing was held at the Broome County arena for the first time in 30 years! Bonsignore, who promotes dirt races all summer long at Action Park in Greene, NY and Champion Speedway in Owego, NY, promoted a very successful two day show at the Chenango Ice Rink in Chenango Bridge, NY last April. The Chenango rink will again host ice racing this April, 9th and 10th. Just last winter an outside touring event consisting of the same show came to Elmira's First Arena for two nights and the show sold out with capacity crowds of 4,000 both evenings.

The Speedway motorcycles and ATV's that will feature in these programs have over 1,000 razor sharp silver screws in each tire! The Speedway machines have absolutely no brakes, run on methanol, are capable of going from 0 to 60mph in less than 3 seconds and will be sliding totally sideways through the corners. The ATV races will culminate in an insane Main event each night where there will be 6 riders at once in the extremely tight confines and there will be sure to be plenty of bumping and passing. There will also be a flat-track Mad Dog motorcycle class.

Riders will be coming in from as far away as California and Canada to compete in the Championships that will also feature a full field of our local best. Headlining the Professional Speedway Division from out of State will be 3-Time US Open Speedway Champion on dirt and current Ice Racing star, Shawn "Mad Dog" McConnell of Brea, CA. McConnell won the Elmira races and is also a Hollywood stuntman who has appeared in such films as Terminator 3. Former US National ICE Champion, Jeff Orosz of ST Catharines, Ontario, Canada will also be in the field as will former Canadian National Champion, Aaron Hesmer, of Brantford and his cousin, former CSRA high points Champion, Gary "The Hitman" Hesmer of Toronto. They will face tough challenges locally as current East Coast, NY State, Action Park and Champion Speedway Track Champ, Adam Mittl of Endicott and 4-time East Coast Points Champion, Gene Bonsignore of Rochester are expected to compete along with speedway legend, Tuff McBride of Windsor, former track Champion at Owego, Mikey Buman, 16 year old sensation, Corey Brookes of Apalachin, plus local warriors Jerry Harman, Dave Clark, Russ Cornell, Shawn Engel and Josh Carr amongst others. Carl Bartlett, of the Utica area, is an early favorite on four wheels along with long-time star, Dave Kent of PA and former State Champion, Ed Reilly of Apalachin. Sean Neal, winner of the Broome event, Steve Tarsia, Tim Jackson and Stoney Ray lead another strong contingent of other racers from the tri-cities area. Tom Kuhn of Albany is a front runner as well.

Start time for the ice races in Utica and Syracuse will be 2pm. There will be an hour long amateur program open to locals at 10:30am at each event. Tickets will be available at the arena the night of the races but are available through ticketmaster.com online or by phone charge at 1-800-745-3000. More information can be found at www.eastcoastspeedway.com. The NAIIR series moves to Reading, PA January, 7, 2010 at 7pm and then stops in Albany, NY for the US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP at the Times Union Center, January, 17, 2010 AT 2pm. Champion Speedway in Owego, NY also plays host to mud and snow scrambles races for motorcycles and ATV's all winter and dates for that can also be found on the website.