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Riverhead, NY May 27th
By Bob Finan
Photo Michael Jaworecki/Myracenews
Thursday evening May 30th,2024 will be a very special one in the rich history of stock car racing on Long Island. Yet not an engine will be fired, nor a lap turned. The Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame will induct Barbara & Jim Cromarty into the hall recognizing their 39 years in racing as promoters of Islip Speedway and owners/promoters of Riverhead Raceway. The Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be hosted at Flowerfields of St. James.
A total of twenty-three Hall of Fame inductions will be celebrated Thursday. Joining Barbara & Jim as Class of 2024 inductees include Keith Hernandez, former New York Mets star and current broadcaster who resides in Sag Harbor. WFAN personality Gregg Giannotti, a Bellport native from the popular “Boomer & Gio” morning show will also take his place in the hall. Giannotti teams up with former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason of East Islip weekday mornings on WFAN.
The Cromarty’s will join “Charging” Charlie Jarzombek (1995), “The Flying Dutchman” Fred Harbach (1996), Steve Park (2004) and Wayne Anderson (2006) as racing members of the HOF. While the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame is not housed in a building, it provides many exhibits across Suffolk County, including Long Island MacArthur Airport and the Fairfield Properties Stadium, home of the Long Island Ducks. Unfortunately, Jim Cromarty passed away last August at 91 years young, Barbara regretfully will not make the trip from Florida for the ceremony.
With Islip Speedway facing a clouded future in the middle of the 1970’s decade, Barbara & Jim Cromarty came on the scene to lease the famed 1/5th of a mile starting with the 1977 season. The couple came to racing with vast experience in promotions including the Suffolk County Fair and Roll ‘N Ice Skating Rink in Copiague. Racing was totally a new venture to them, a challenge they welcomed and excepted. With Long Island NASCAR official “Big” Bob O’Rourke in their corner, Barbara & Jim started their 39-year love affair with racing and the racing family.
The Cromarty’s quickly on advice from O’Rourke, aligned themselves with NASCAR and so began a friendship with the late Bill France Jr. that lasted a lifetime. In 1984 the landowner that Islip Speedway sat on sold the parcel from under the Cromarty’s. Undaunted, Barbara & Jim quickly made a deal with Ed & Clara Hawkins to purchase Riverhead Raceway prior to the 1985 race season, having leased the Route 58 oval prior for Friday racing. Saturday night NASCAR racing moved east. During their later years at Riverhead with an eye towards retirement, Barbara & Jim turned down numerous lucrative offers from non-racing entities, all in the name of keeping the raceway a racetrack. The loyal dedication to their racing family found the husband & wife team working into their 80’s. During the summer of 2015, the Cromarty’s knew they had found the right family to keep racing alive on Long Island, selling the track to Eddie & Connie Partridge and Tom Gatz.
Over the span of their career, the Cromarty’s enjoyed important roles with NASCAR. For several years Barbara served on the NASCAR Competition Committee and up until they retired, both voted with the NASCAR Hall of Fame committee.
“While they came to the racing game as strangers, they left as the patriarchs of our racing family” long time Islip/Riverhead announcer Bob Finan recalled. “Right from the first season in 1977, Barbara & Jim made everyone who worked, raced or spectators of the races feel part of one big family. When it came time for them to rightfully step back and retire, they wouldn’t do so until they were certain the racetrack would be there for future generations to enjoy. It’s their legacy” Bob added.
As current Riverhead Raceway broadcaster Stephen Halpin pointed out, the decision to sell the facility as a racetrack by the Cromarty’s reaches beyond just racing. “When you look around, you realize how many people have met their spouses at Riverhead Raceway. I did, met my wife Meredith there and we have three boys, two of who race there. If Barbara & Jim would have sold the track to a source outside of racing, well who knows. I for one am forever grateful to them, as well to Eddie & Connie Partridge and Tom Gatz for keeping everything moving forward”.
On Thursday evening in St. James, the life’s work of Barbara and Jim Cromarty will be rightfully recognized and celebrated with induction into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame.
