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Special Awards to Salerno, Conroy, Cathell, Voorhees and Cella
By Buffy Swanson
Weedsport, NY (January 22, 2025) — Pennsylvania powerhouse and 34-time titleholder Duane Howard, the late New York pro Dale Planck, a multi-time NASCAR and DIRTcar Series champion, and Twin Tier titan Billy Van Pelt, who rewrote every record at Woodhull Raceway, will officially be inducted into the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame in July. These three racing legends add their names to a stellar list of Modified standouts that was started in 1992 when the Hall of Fame was established on the Cayuga County Fairgrounds in Weedsport, NY.
The 33rd annual induction ceremonies honoring the Class of 2025 will take place Thursday, July 24 at 7 pm in the Northeast Dirt Modified Museum and Hall of Fame, on the grounds of the state-of-the-art Weedsport Speedway. The event is free and open to the public and will feature pre- and post-program festivities sponsored by the track. Two days later, Weedsport Speedway will kick off a blockbuster weekend featuring the Super DIRTcar Series Hall of Fame 100 and World of Outlaws Sprint Cars.
For anyone from Central PA, it always starts at Reading. Duane Howard’s family had box seats at the old Fairgrounds Speedway so he got to see Hall of Famers named Chamberlain, Brightbill and Tobias mix it up each week as a kid. At 18 he started racing Go-Karts, with help from Alan Finch who worked alongside Duane at the Howard family farm. In 1983, the pair procured a Late Model—and promptly won at Grandview. They made the move to the headlining small-block Modifieds in 1985 and found out fast just how big a jump that was. Putting finances together, learning the ropes, the team went winless for almost three seasons. But once Howard scored that first one, at Big Diamond in ’87, there was no stopping him. Local car owners took notice: by 1989, first Dick then Buddy Biever hired both Howard and Finch. Through 1993, Howard won 25 races and five championships for Buddy, including a Penn National 100 and his first Freedom 76 at Grandview. Exhausted, Howard sat out 1994, returning in ’95 driving for Craig Hirthler, then Cary Duncan before landing a pro-level ride with Hall of Fame car owner Glenn Hyneman in late 1997. Hyneman wanted to race big-blocks so Howard became a regular at Bridgeport Speedway, notching three Modified titles in the No. 126. When Glenn stepped back after the 2005 season, Howard smoothly switched to another high-profile ride—the Chad Sinon No. 4, with his old friend Al Finch as crew chief. They won right away and kept on winning through 2013. Rides with the Petruska team, Norm Hansell and Hyneman again followed. Since 2021, Howard drives for Butch Getz on a more limited basis. Known as “The Diamond Cutter” for his mastery of Big Diamond, Howard pulled seven Coalcracker victories and nine championships out of that track. He’s won the Freedom 76 five times, as well as six titles at Grandview, one at Penn National and four at Bridgeport. Howard is a four-time champion in both the PA Tri-Track/Dual-Track Series and American Racer Cup Modified Series. He was named NASCAR PA State Champion five times and was third in the country in 2010. His career win list stands at 277 at 14 tracks in PA, NJ, DE and NY.
Scheduled for Hall of Fame induction in the Class of 2025, Cortland, NY’s Dale Planck tragically didn’t make it: at the age of 53, he died suddenly on his way home from Brewerton Speedway on June 22, 2024. Prior to his passing, he made his mark. A second-generation driver, Dale watched his dad Denny wheel to small-block championships at Weedsport, Brewerton and Skyline in the 1970s. He was born into it—“a natural,” as they say, earning that fitting nickname. Planck started young, a little kid running Karts against the adults in the four-stroke class—and winning regularly. At 14, he graduated to a 4-cylinder Mini-Mod; the following year, 1985, he was standing in victory lane at Five Mile Point and Dundee. The move up to small-block Modifieds, in ’86, didn’t produce results right away. For two years, Dale didn’t even qualify for a feature event. It wasn’t until the team towed into Fulton in 1989 that things began to click. And Planck found his home: on the Fulton high-banks he took down 61 victories in his career, four track championships and the 1994 Victoria 200. The Outlaw Circuit—consisting of Fulton, Brewerton and Utica-Rome in the ’80s and ’90s—was Dale’s playground. He was a 42-time winner and five-time champion at Utica-Rome. Competing under NASCAR sanction at Fulton and U-R, Planck was regional champion in NASCAR’s Winston Racing Series three years running, from 1994–96. Later on, he stormed the rival DIRTcar ranks with equal success, claiming Mr. DIRTcar 358 Series titles in both 2009 and 2012. Dale was a rare entity: with one foot on the Outlaw Circuit and the other planted on DIRT turf, he deftly straddled that deep divide. He showed well everywhere he went: across the Northern border, he was a star at Cornwall Speedway, a three-time track champ. At PA’s Grandview Speedway, he outright stole a $6,000 special from the regulars. Ultimately, Planck is credited with 203 certified wins at 21 tracks in three states and two Canadian provinces. He gave up the wheel to launch Dig Race Products in 2016 with his son Brandon, specializing in shock absorbers and suspension tuning for the Modified trade.
Following in his older brother Curt’s footsteps, Westfield, PA’s Billy Van Pelt got into a big car in 1987. Billy had been racing three-wheelers and snowmobiles until then; Curt—poised to win a Mr. DIRT 358 Series title for the Sherwood team—had left the family car. So Dad Jim tapped the younger son for the seat. The venue was Woodhull Raceway. In the ensuing 35 years, Billy not only dominated at the little third-mile bullring straddling the NY-PA border—he trashed every track record for all time. Driving for his father, Ted White, Kevin Chilson, Grant Hilfiger, and finally for Chilson again, Van Pelt racked up 198 documented wins and an incredible 23 championships at Woodhull alone. He absolutely understood every nuance of the track: where it could get slick…where there was bite…the color of the clay…the shadows off the wall…where the room was to complete a pass. No other driver came close. Fans remember a “Man or Mouse” challenge instituted by former track promoter Vern Wasson in the mid 2000s: Van Pelt could choose to be a “man” and elect to start last; or be a “mouse” and draw for starting position. Billy opted to fall in at the tail of the feature—and collected a publicized bonus for the win. But BVP’s success wasn’t confined to Woodhull. All total, he holds 30 championship titles—in addition to the 23 at Woodhull, Van Pelt won two titles at Black Rock (now Outlaw Speedway) in 1995 and 1997; one at Freedom Motorsports Park in 2018; and four championships in the T3 All-Star Series for 358 Modifieds which took him to eight tracks in PA and NY. He has 242 confirmed career victories at eight raceways in NY and PA, with probably another dozen outliers still unverified. Following a big $5,500 win at Woodhull, his final for Chilson on August 6, 2022, Van Pelt retired on the spot. “If I go out on top, then they never beat me,” was his thinking. Billy still helps upcoming drivers with setups, which he loves doing, and took over as race director at Freedom Motorsports Park in 2024.
Also being honored at the July 24 induction ceremonies are Vinny Salerno, Tommy Conroy, Charlie and Joyce Cathell, Fred Voorhees and Jane Cella.
The 2025 Gene DeWitt Car Owner Award goes to Vinny Salerno, now of Hellertown, PA, whose signature 4* car has carried some of the biggest names in the business to many of their greatest victories. In the late 1980s, Salerno started helping a friend at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, NY—and it all escalated from there. He got hooked up with Bobby Hayes Jr., taking Orange County’s 1996 358 title before moving to Modified and winning in that class, too. After a brief winless stint with asphalt ace Earl Paules Jr., Salerno got serious: Andy Bachetti became the first of Vinny’s “heavy hitters,” winning back-to-back 358 championships at Orange County in 2000 and 2001. Looking to cut back, he fielded a single car for Jerry Higbie for two years. That is, until Brett Hearn came calling in 2004. For the next six seasons, Hearn won everything there was to win in Salerno’s small-block—a dozen DIRTcar 358 Series races, three Eastern States SB wins, the 2007 358 event on the Syracuse mile, Hagerstown’s Octoberfest, Five Mile Point’s Southern Tier 100, the 2006 Mr. DIRTcar 358 Series championship, a trio of titles at Albany-Saratoga, one at Lebanon Valley and another at Middletown. When Hearn and Salerno split in 2009, Tim McCreadie got the job done—against all odds, grabbing a big Brewerton victory less than a month after Salerno’s entire race operation was stolen in Canada. Tucking appearances for the 4* team into his full Late Model schedule, Timmy won 14 majors for Vinny, including Utica-Rome’s New Yorker 200, the 2010 Eastern States 200 and Hagerstown Octoberfest, the 2012 SDW 358 race, a $20K 100 at New Egypt, and three in a row at Charlotte. From 2013-14, Jeff Strunk added a Big Diamond Coalcracker, Grandview’s Freedom 76, 11 total wins and a Grandview championship. Michael Storms and Kevin Root also contributed victories. Since teaming with Anthony Perrego in 2022, Salerno’s secured two SDS events, a Charlotte World Final and three other five-figure scores.
The recipient of this year’s Mechanic/Engineering Award, Tommy Conroy of Esperance, NY, has had a wrench in his hand since he was 12 years old. That’s when he began apprenticing at fabricator Dick Hicks’ shop, helping Dick and his Fonda and Albany-Saratoga customers. It was through Hicks that Conroy connected with the Jody Gable team—and superstar Brett Hearn—when he was still a kid. He moved to New Jersey and went to work full-time for Hearn once he graduated high school in 2005. With Brett’s encouragement, Conroy spent a year at the NASCAR Technical Institute in North Carolina, bouncing back and forth for big races and also working in Ken Schrader’s shop. It was all a top-flight professional deal at the highest level—and the results showed. During the eight seasons he crewed for Hearn, they bagged all the biggies: big-block and small-block events at the Syracuse mile, three BB 200s and five SB races at Eastern States, a pair of 200s at Lebanon Valley, Fulton’s Outlaw 200, a Rolling Wheels 200, four at Hagerstown’s Octoberfest, 20 SDS wins, nine track championships, two Florida tour titles, the Mr. DIRTcar 358 Series in 2006, and two Mr. DIRTcar Modified Series crowns, in 2007 and ’09. Needing a change, Conroy moved back home to New York in 2013, working again for Dick Hicks and various Fonda and Albany runners for the next four years, until Stewart Friesen recruited him for his Modified effort. Together since 2017, filling in races around Friesen’s NASCAR Truck calendar, the team has dominated many of the “crown jewel” events on the circuit—Super DIRT Week big-block and 358 classics at Oswego, three BB 200s and two 358 100s at Eastern States, a pair of Fonda 200s, a $50,000 payday at Port Royal, and a 2021 sweep of the Modified card at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Charlie and Joyce Cathell, the former promotional team at the Delaware International Speedway complex, will receive the prestigious Leonard J. Sammons Jr. Award for Outstanding Contributions to Auto Racing. It began as a drag strip in 1963, built by Charlie’s parents, Bill and Juanita, on 97 acres in Delmar, DE. An oval dirt track was added in 1965, then was moved and reconfigured twice to create the current half-mile in 1976. The property now also features a Go-Kart facility and an off-road truck course. Charlie and Joyce, married the spring after the first timed run down the dragstrip, have been there since the start. None of it came easy: construction blunders, lawsuits, overextended finances, driver boycotts—they were hit with it all in the early years. And they were trying to do the impossible: race two premier classes, both Modifieds and Late Models, every week. The Cathells couldn’t afford to pay purses comparable to tracks with a single headlining division. So Charlie built his fields by concentrating on superior track conditions and tire wear. The word got out: Pennsy’s Reading Fairgrounds was running on Fridays and Sundays in the 1970s; soon Reading standouts like Dave Kelly, the Brightbills, John Kozak and others were calling Delmar home on Saturday nights. Along with a crackerjack lineup of locals—Bunting, Browning, Breeding, Wilkins—it was a hell of a show. Big-blocks with no cubic inch limit running fuel injection, alcohol and drag rubber! In the outskirts of Modified country! On nights when URC Sprints were added to the card, the place was busting at the seams. Over the years, Charlie suffered two major setbacks: a stroke in 1996 and serious burns in a 2017 track accident. He battled back both times. In 1999, he was named National Auto Racing Promoter of the Year in Daytona Beach. Currently, son Mark Cathell and his wife Denise have taken the reins.
Racing journalist and historian Fred Voorhees, of Ringoes, NJ, will receive the Andrew S. Fusco Award for Media Excellence, in memory of Hall of Fame board member and legal counsel Andy Fusco. Voorhees was a wide-eyed five-year-old in 1963, perched in the Flemington Fair Speedway grandstands next to his grandfather, when he got hooked forever. His junior year in high school he wrote a letter to the local newspaper, Lambertville’s The Beacon, begging to write about racing. The publication gave him column space—with the stipulation that it must have a local interest. Fortunately, Flemington’s future driving star Billy Pauch lived right up the road—so he had a native hometown hero. Just for fun, Voorhees began documenting Pauch’s prolific win list in the 1990s, right about the time buddy Bill Braga Jr. started compiling rival driver Doug Hoffman’s records. Along with program publisher Steve Barrick and the late Flemington statistician Bill Hanna, Auto Racing Research Associates (ARRA) was born—an all-volunteer initiative to develop a free-to-use online reference library featuring driver, track, series and other racing statistics. Previously scattered in cyberspace or completely unaccounted for, Voorhees and crew painstakingly hunted down and organized all that information under one umbrella, creating a comprehensive database (https://sites.google.com/site/arradocumentingracinghistory/) that is thoroughly researched and diligently updated each week. Since it was launched with less than a dozen records in 1997, the ARRA site has exploded: at current count, 40 historians from across the country have contributed statistics on more than 600 subjects, preserving significant data that surely would have been lost to time. It has become a trusted, go-to resource for journalists, announcers and anyone who wants the facts. Along the way, Voorhees also wrote “The Last Lap” column which appeared in Gater Racing News for many years and handled PR duties for Flemington Fair Speedway.
Longtime racing photographer Jane Sauer Forcellina Cella—who has published under all three of her names—will be honored with this year’s Outstanding Woman in Racing Award. Growing up in Connecticut, Jane attended events at Danbury Racearena with her family from the time she was three. Everyone loved it: her older brother Skip bought a Limited Sportsman to race Orange County’s hard clay in 1968; Jane, at age 10, would ride her bike to his house after school, to help work on the car. She would have loved to race, too, when she came of age, but there wasn’t enough money. So she picked up a camera instead. A shy kid, Jane blossomed behind the lens. In 1978, as an amateur without press credentials, her photography gained notice at Orange County and fans began buying her images. That didn’t sit well with track photographer Bob Perran, who gave her an ultimatum: either work with him or be escorted off the property. It was an opportunity too good to pass up. Perran took her under his wing and got Jane her first press card from Area Auto Racing News in 1984. She began hitting the circuit hard, some years traveling to 100+ races, all while honing her craft, making the challenging transition from film to digital. Jane’s work has been featured in all the trade publications—AARN, Gater Racing News, Speedway Scene, National Speed Sport News, the magazines and in track programs, covering NASCAR and NHRA in addition to the local dirt. Shooting for 20+ years alongside fellow photographer Harry Cella, they eventually connected on a personal level, married in 2004 and Jane moved to his home in Rochelle Park, NJ. Nowadays, Cella finds herself at tracks like Fonda and Orange County, chronicling the racing careers of the third generation—the children and grandchildren of her 1980s subjects.
