Memorial Day Enduros to Mark 28th Anniversary of Enduro Racing

It all started back on Memorial Day Weekend 1986 at Barbara & Jim Cromarty’s Riverhead Raceway and what was simply known as Enduro racing became very popular with the Long Island racing community and has grown into what competitors and fans alike refer to as “Enduromania”. This Sunday May 26th the Cromarty’s will again open their pit gates to the Enduro race teams on what will be their 28th Anniversary of racing excitement and entertainment.

Back in 1986 the Enduro concept was catching on at short tracks all across the country with Barbara and Jim Cromarty planning an 8-Cylinder race for the Sunday of the holiday weekend, the turnout was tremendous. Bob Finan, long time announcer and PR director recalls that first event, “The Cromarty’s along with race director Bob O’Rourke and Chief Steward Walt Edsall decided to have practice and let’s just say that was an adventure” Finan recalled. Then he vividly recalls the first green flag, “there were 200 cars plus on the quarter mile and my broadcast partner Mike Calinoff always started the call of a race with a loud and they are on their way! Well Mike gave it his usual great build-up but shortly looked over at me and said, Finan they are not moving. It was a ton of fun and the racing has certainly evolved since then”.

Pat Verwys Sr. of East Rockaway won that first race and since then the harder to find 8-Cylinder cars have been joined by the 4/6-Cylinder Trucks and Cars with the champagne division for this form of racing the Grand Enduros. The Grand Enduro class was the vision of the late Racin’ Rich Johnson who competed regularly in the 8-Cylinder class and thought this higher level race car would be a great class for those who didn’t want to race weekly.

The 8-Cylinder Enduro teams will surely be busy over this Memorial Day Weekend at Riverhead Raceway running a feature event in front of the Saturday night crowd during the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series fans and then two races on Sunday afternoon, as they are after all the class that started “Enduromania”. Sunday afternoon the 8’s will be joined by a Grand Enduro, 4/6-Cylinder Truck Enduro and a 4/6-Cylinder Car Enduro.

Enduro and Demolition Derby teams are reminded that their 2013 rules and entry blanks can be downloaded from www.riverheadraceway.com or by calling 631-842-RACE.

Source: Bob Finan/Riverhead Raceway PR