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By Robin Yasinsac-Gillespie
When the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame honors its Class of 2024 on July 10, colorful longtime Capital District team owner Jake Spraker will be the recipient of the annual Gene DeWitt Car Owner Award. The ceremonies, which are free and open to the public, will be held at the Hall of Fame Museum on the grounds of Weedsport Speedway in New York.
It’s human nature: if you have done something remarkable you hope it was noticed. Spraker wasn’t sure all the wins and championships he’d accumulated over almost 40 years in the sport were enough to make the grade—so the phone call from the Hall of Fame committee chairperson was a moment to remember.
“I was a Fonda guy but I did run a lot of [DIRT founder] Glenn Donnelly’s shows back in the day,” recalled Spraker after he got the good news. “I always kind of hoped I would be recognized like that but I didn’t expect it—it was a nice surprise and it means a lot to me. Car owners are a dying breed; there aren’t many left.”
Spraker certainly wasn’t your typical car owner—he had some product sponsors but in his spotty four-decade involvement in racing he was probably lucky if he collected 20 grand in sponsorship dollars. He did it mostly on his own.
Why a car owner and not a driver?
“I did try it! I was racing Mini Stocks and had two of them in 1983,” said Spraker, whose dad started bringing him to Fonda Speedway at a young age. “I was a big C.D. Coville fan so they were copies of the Cliff Barcomb No. 11 that C.D. was driving. He was in the process of taking over the Barcomb car but he wrecked it at Fonda. There was no money to fix the car so I gave him one of my Mini Stocks to raffle off to help fix his car—and that’s how it all started.”
Over time, he had cars in several divisions. And as the years added up so did the talent that Spraker attracted—names like Ronnie Johnson, Stewart Friesen, Rocky Warner, Bobby Varin, Ray Dalmata, Jack Johnson and brothers Alan and Danny Johnson all had turns driving for the Gloversville, NY, native.
“I would pick drivers that I knew could win or had talent enough to win,” said Spraker, who would have liked to have had racing sensation Brett Hearn on his impressive list of drivers.
He won track championship titles at Fonda Speedway with Mike Romano [Modified, 1989], Bobby Varin [Modified, 2005, 2006, 2008], Ronnie Johnson [Modified, 2016] and Steve Welch [Pro Stock, 1999]; and at Utica-Rome and Rolling Wheels Raceway with Tim Clemons [Sportsman, 2001 and 2003]. With Rocky Warner, Spraker connected for close to 100 wins in Crate Sportsman and Modified competition and a dozen championship titles at Fonda, Glen Ridge, Utica-Rome, Albany-Saratoga and on the GRIT Series.
“We did a lot of racing and we won a lot for a small team,” said Spraker. “I ran a taxi business—I did a lot of medical transport, taking people to doctor’s appointments—and I sold used cars. We weren’t high-financed but we had good stuff.”
That he did. The volume of success with Alan Johnson alone was impressive—the duo won Fulton’s Victoria 200 [2003] and the Eastern States Small Block Modified 150 the same year. They also secured numerous DIRT 358 Series events at Weedsport, Canandaigua, Rolling Wheels, Frogtown, Merrittville and Ransomville speedways, as well as a rain-shortened Rolling Wheels 200 in ’08.
Spraker was even more prolific with Rocky Warner in the seat, starting in 2015.
“Rocky won a lot of races for me,” said Spraker. “That was a good time for us. He was the driver that I had the longest in my cars and we accomplished a lot in our years together. When Rocky and Alan were in the car, we were the car to beat wherever we went—we did very well.”
Like all car owners, Jake wishes he had landed himself on that “big ole” familiar stage at the New York State Fairgrounds with a Modified win credit to his name. However, Spraker and Warner were awarded a win in the prestigious Sportsman event during Super DIRT Week 2015—but were cheated from their visit to the stage after the race winner was declared illegal. They celebrated the following week at Weedsport Speedway.
Spraker was a car owner who also vacated the sport numerous times—selling out only to buy back in a short time later.
“I retired about three times,” laughed the 68-year-old Spraker. “The first time I retired was because I owned a bar that was shut down [due to too many fights] so I didn’t have the money to keep it going. Then I would go to the races and somebody that I liked would need something and I would help them out and buy it for them and the next thing you know I’m ordering a motor—and it goes from there.”
He doesn’t attend any racing events anymore—he hasn’t since 2021, ending with Rocky Warner’s Fonda Modified championship.
“We bought an ice cream store in Johnstown [NY] so my wife is running that and I just bought another bar so I guess I’m back in the bar business again. I sold my taxi business and I guess I didn’t know what to do with myself.”
Spraker is very thankful for the experience—he loved the adventure.
“I’m proud of what we’ve done over the years. For a guy that had a small taxi business or bar, we won a lot of races. I studied the sport and I was always lucky in picking the right things to do,” said Spraker. “Surprisingly, I’m back in the bar business! But I’m not getting back in the car owner business.”
