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By Buffy Swanson
The Jack Burgess Memorial Award, periodically bestowed on an announcer who has made a lasting impact on the sport, will be presented to Oswego, NY’s Roy Sova on Wednesday, July 10, in ceremonies at the Northeast Dirt Modified Museum and Hall of Fame on the grounds of Weedsport Speedway in New York.
Sova got his start at Oswego Speedway in 1966. He was a radio guy at WOSC out of Syracuse, working for station manager Wally Tucker. When track owner Harry Caruso expanded his announcing staff to include an infield reporter, he recruited Tucker—with Sova in tow.
Roy had been a fan even as a child in the early 1950s; his uncle had owned a race car and competed at Oswego.
“Wally told Harry that I knew more about local racing and he should hire me. So Harry hired both of us,” Sova recalled.
The great Jack Burgess occupied first chair in Oswego’s announcer’s tower, with Leo Lagoe—nicknamed ‘Poley’—as his sidekick. When Burgess took a rare night off in the summer of ’67, Sova was brought upstairs. “Poley was supposed to do two heats, one semi and the feature. But at the end of the heats, Harry Caruso told him he wanted me to announce the feature,” remembered Roy.
The following year, Sova took over second chair on the Oswego announcing team, working elbow to elbow with Burgess until 1986, when Jack made the decision to spend his final years working on the DIRT circuit. Sova has held Oswego’s lead mic ever since.
“I learned an awful lot from Jack. He was a good teacher and he never hesitated to help,” Sova said. “Jack would always say, ‘Don’t spend your time in the announcer’s booth. Go to the pits, meet the drivers, meet the owners, meet the crews. Find out information so you can impart that to the crowd.’
“Even now at Oswego, where I know everyone and what they’re doing—I still go to the pits every single week, stay there talking to people through the entire practice session. I do the same thing at Penn Can,” where he’s been announcing for the past four years.
“I think that paying attention to the crowd is very important. Jack was very, very good at that. Having the roof on at Oswego does takes away some of that,” Sova admitted. “But at Penn Can, for instance, you can see what’s going on, you can tease somebody, you can talk to someone in the grandstands. We always acknowledge birthdays and anniversaries and special events. The personal end of it plays a big part.”
And so does dedication—an attribute Sova has in spades. Working for radio and TV affiliates, his job moved him out of the Oswego area the same year he took over Burgess’ slot. He was a television newsman in the Binghamton, NY market… Relocated to North Carolina in 1989 to run the biggest station in a radio group… Spent the early 2000s in Massachusetts… Didn’t move back to the area until 2007.
During all those years, “I’ve only missed two races at Oswego. I commuted for 10 years from North Carolina. I commuted six years from Cape Cod,” Roy noted. “I certainly wasn’t getting paid as much as it cost me to fly up from North Carolina every week! But that’s what I like. I would announce at the Wayne County Speedway in North Carolina on Friday night, then fly up Saturday morning to announce at Oswego.”
And Sova didn’t confine himself to Oswego’s tower. He worked the first Super DIRT Week at the NY State Fairgrounds, among other events at the mile, with mentor Jack Burgess and his longtime and current Oswego cohort Joe Marotta. Through his radio connections back in Binghamton in 1979, he’d partnered to present New York’s first World of Outlaws Sprint Car race at Five Mile Point Speedway. That got the attention of DIRT president Glenn Donnelly, who then tapped Roy to co-announce at Rolling Wheels, Weedsport and a couple of tracks on the DIRT Florida tour. He’s also anchored the action at Utica-Rome, and was the voice of the Victoria 200 at Fulton Speedway in the 1980s and ’90s.
“I did the Vic for 10 years. The Billy Pauch tribute!” Sova chuckled, referencing the six-time winner of the event. He got the offer after Fulton promoter Eric Kingsley attended Oswego’s Classic weekend. “After the Classic, Eric called me up, asking me to do the Vic. He said he had never heard anyone else do a driver introduction like I did.”
Using Pauch’s Vic dominance as an example, Sova gave insight into how he calls a race.
“The Victoria 200 with Billy Pauch—you don’t pay total attention to him during the race. Sure, if he’s the leader, you have to say he’s the leader; if he’s coming up through the field, you follow him,” he outlined. “But there’s a lot of other action going on! And you’re better off trying to find a good race for third or eighth than to concentrate on a guy who’s got a full straightaway lead. You concentrate on the race itself—not just one individual.
“Periodically, every few laps, you run down the top five, the top 10. So you keep those leaders in the picture. But in terms of calling the action—there’s no action there. So you find the action and call that.”
Over a 58-year career, Sova estimates that he’s announced at 35-40 speedways, both asphalt and dirt. Still working the mic weekly at both Oswego and Penn Can, at age 79 he shows no inkling of slowing down.
“I’m still there and he’s still there!” said Oswego’s George Caruso Jr., who’s worked at his family’s track almost his entire life. He, too, marvels at Sova’s enthusiasm after all these decades.
“Roy’s always had a high energy level—always trying to make even a heat race that has two cars separated by five car lengths exciting!” Caruso commented. “A lot of announcers, their style is conversational. Roy has always taken it to a high level, trying to make the racing exciting. He’s always been ‘on the chip,’ so to speak.
“Like Classic weekend: He’s screaming all through time trials! And we have to tell him, ‘Roy, this is Friday. You’ve gotta go ’til Sunday night. Tone it down for your own sake, so you keep your voice!’ But he’s always been on the chip. He still is!”
