November 9, 2005

NEW YORK STATE STOCK CAR ASSOCIATION ELECTS DIVERSE GROUP TO HALL OF FAME

Clifton Park, NY - The New York Stock Car Association's 2006 Hall of Fame induction ceremony will honor a broad spectrum of achievement in the sport, with the honorees including the Empire State's most prominent NASCAR Winston Cup driver, a longtime modified owner, a top regional racer and a husband/wife team of officials.

Known as Geoff Bodine rather than the late career "Geoffrey" in his days as a top competitor in the cutting edge #99 Valiant bodied modified, the skilled fabricator/mechanic won major events at Pocono, Oswego, Stafford Springs, Thompson and Martinsville along with dozens of weekly events. Bodine moved steadily upward, winning some 55 races in New Englander Dick Armstrong's #1 Pinto in 1978 before advancing to the southern Grand National (6 wins) and Winston Cup series. There he won 18 races, with the first coming at Martinsville, VA in 1984 to make him the only driver to win in all three of Martinsville's divisions. The Chemung native claimed four Cup, two Busch and seven modified wins at the paperclip shaped speedway. Other highlights in a career that saw him drive for NASCAR giants Bud Moore, Rick Hendrick and Junior Johnson included winning the 1986 Daytona 500 and the 1987 IROC championship.

Bodine's competitive fires still burn today, as he is just as passionate about his world-class Bo-Dyn Olympic bobsled program as he was about his Chemung to Daytona journey.

Potsdam's Ed Cloce first fielded a car at Plattsburgh's Airborne Park Speedway in the early 1960's and soon rose to prominence as owner of the Jean Guy Chartrand driven Hemi-Cuda #69,with the big engine and unusual styling capturing the hearts of scores of fans. Chartrand, a steady winner at Airborne and Albany-Saratoga, later dominated the action at Owego's Shangri-La Speedway. His retirement brought a cast of all-star replacements, with such notable talents as Jimmy Shampine, Reggie Ruggiero, Chuck Ciprich, Jerry Cook, Mike Ewanitsko and Brian Ross filling the #69's seat over the years.

Major wins included Ross' triumph in the Race of Champions at Pocono, the Oswego Bud 200 with Shampine, a trio of Oswego titles with Ross and three second place finishes on the NASCAR modified tour with Ruggiero. Cloce remains active, fielding modifieds for son Tommy in NASCAR and Race of Champions events.

Dick Schoonover was the epitome of the low dollar/high results weekly racer and was known for his achievements in both late models and modifieds. He was a feature winner at such diverse speedways as Morris, Brookfield, Penn-Can, Utica-Rome, Fulton and Fonda as well as a top competitor on the far-flung Mid-Atlantic Racing Series for late models, where he recorded ten wins.

Schoonover's list of achievements is topped by his record at Fonda Speedway, where he is the only driver to claim wins in the 320 modified, modified and late model divisions, with his chart topping 32 LM wins beating another Hall of Fame talent, the late Harry Peek, by nine. Jim Frye was a racer in the early 50's but found his true calling in 1955 when he began flagging with another Hall of Fame member, the late Chet Hames. The duo worked speedways from New Jersey to Canada together, with a stint at Vermont's Fairmont Speedway bringing Frye to the attention of promoter CJ Richards.

Frye was soon the NASCAR starter at Plattsburgh and the Devil's Bowl and moved to Albany-Saratoga with the CVRA when Richards covered the speedway's asphalt surface with dirt. Always in command of the racing action, Frye was known for fairness and a concern for the safety of the drivers in the days when the starter worked without radio assistance from above and had to watch everything himself. After leaving the flagstand in the late 80's, Frye continues to be involved with the CVRA, handling tire and fuel sales despite serious health issues.

Wife Barb, who says she is not a big race fan but truly loves the people involved in the sport, took up scoring in the mid-60's under the tutelage of NASCAR North's Doc Neilson at the Devil's Bowl. She soon ranked among the best in the business and is known for being able to carry on a conversation over the radio with the race director and record dropouts and lapped cars while never missing a car no matter how many are flying past the scoring tower.

An "old-time" talent, Frye has adopted to the use of transponders and computers well, using the technology to speed up the result recording process without giving up her proven hand-scoring, which never suffers power failures, transponder breakdowns or software problems.

Both Jim and Barb have also been active in NYSSCA, having served as Sergeant at Arms and Treasurer, respectively, for a number of years.

The 2006 Hall of Fame inductees will be honored at the annual NYSSCA Awards Banquet, set for Saturday, January 21st at the Polish-American Club on Washington Avenue Extension in Albany.