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By Buffy Swanson
When the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame honors its Class of 2025 on July 24, the annual Gene DeWitt Car Owner Award will be presented to Vinny Salerno of Hellertown, PA, whose signature 4* cars have carried some of the biggest names in the business to many of their greatest victories. 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.
In the late 1980s, Salerno started helping a friend at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, NY—and it all snowballed from there. Through a local engine builder he got hooked up with Bobby Hayes Jr. in 1994—and got his first taste of success.
“The first year we were together we won a race with an old Olsen car. The following year I bought a new Teo chassis and we ended up winning the 358 points in ’96,” Salerno recalled. “Then, Orange County decided to do away with the 358 class. We had nowhere to go, so we built a big-block and went big-block racing the following year.
“If I remember right, the first night was pretty rough and we didn’t qualify. And then the second night Bobby started on the pole in the feature—and won his first Modified feature in just his second race.”
They picked off a few more wins but by 1998 “we were going in opposite directions,” Salerno admitted. “Bobby had just had a baby. I was getting more into it and he was less into it.”
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, as well as nine events at OCFS, Albany-Saratoga, Utica-Rome and Lebanon Valley.
But taking on the tour proved to be a lot. “With Andy, I probably overextended myself,” Salerno recognized. “We raced too much for the crew that we had and the amount of money that we had, and I got pretty burnt out.”
So he broke with Bachetti and stepped back for two years, fielding a single small-block car for Jerry Higbie at Middletown.
It all stayed pretty low-key until Hall of Famer Brett Hearn came calling in 2004, looking to augment his existing big-block program with a full-blown schedule in Salerno’s small-blocks.
Vinny was up for the challenge—with some apprehension. “The pressure was on—I can remember that. Andy was no slouch—but back in 2004, Andy wasn’t Brett Hearn either,” he made clear. “It was the equivalent of putting Matt Sheppard in your car right now—you’re expected to win.”
There was no need to worry: For the next six seasons, Hearn won everything there was to win in Salerno’s small-block cars—a dozen DIRTcar 358 Series races, three Eastern States SB victories, the 2007 358 Super DIRT Week 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.
But, like everything in this world, it ran its course: after stacking up 76 wins in 200 starts, Hearn and Salerno split in 2009.
That season, with a young Michael Storms in the seat, Salerno headed to a series race in Canada, parked the race car rig at a motel—and woke up the next morning to find it gone.
“They found the truck and trailer 30 miles away, empty. We lost two cars, two motors, every tool we owned, every spare part, 40 wheels and tires. Everything,” Salerno despaired. Trying to work with the authorities in Quebec was another nightmare, as no one spoke English. “I felt like I was on an island all by myself. I stayed up there for two weeks, driving around trying to find my stuff. Kept getting tips but we never even found a lug nut.”
It was like starting over—completely. “I had my Syracuse car at the shop and a brand-new car that was halfway done. I got a little bit of money back from my homeowner’s insurance for the tools but they wouldn’t cover anything else,” Salerno said. “It was really hard. I had gotten to know people like Scott Jeffery when we were racing up there, the Wights had a silent auction to raise money for us…everybody helped a little bit. We never got back what we lost but it got us back crawling again and we could go racing.”
The team doggedly regrouped and rebuilt—and against all odds, less than a month after losing his entire race operation, Salerno was standing in victory lane with driver Tim McCreadie, triumphant after a big 100-lap 358 Series win at Brewerton.
Tucking appearances for the 4* team into his chock-full Late Model schedule, Timmy won 14 majors at 10 tracks in four states for Vinny, including Utica-Rome’s New Yorker 200, the 2010 Eastern States 200, a pair of Hagerstown Octoberfest events, the 2012 Super DIRT Week 358 race, a $20K 100 at New Egypt, and three in a row at Charlotte.
From 2013-14, Pennsy driver Jeff Strunk added a Big Diamond Coalcracker, Grandview’s Freedom 76, 11 total wins and a Grandview championship to Salerno’s car owner stats. Along the way, Storms and Kevin Root also contributed victories.
Vinny had again tried to take a break in 2015. “I sold out of racing, sold mostly everything. I had one big-block motor left. Jeff Heotzler and I were friends and Jeff asked if we could partner up—he’d own the car, I’d own the motor. Won three races at Middletown with the 17 car,” in 2017 and 2018.
And Salerno couldn’t stay away. He built a big-block car for the $100,000-to-win Centennial at Orange County in 2019. Ran again with Brett Hearn in a joint effort with the Madsen team, sharing crew members and shop space. Dabbled at Accord and Middletown with Michael Storms through the COVID shutdown.
It all ramped up again in 2022, when Salerno hired promising up-and-comer Anthony Perrego. Racing a limited pick-and-choose schedule of mostly bigger shows, the team has connected to claim two Super DIRTcar Series events, a Charlotte World Final and three other five-figure scores.
At 59, Salerno is in a good place—he commutes a couple times a week to Four Star Transmissions, his business in Stony Point, NY; sells wheels and springs through Four Star Racing Products, based in PA. He accepts that he’s not walking away from the sport anytime soon.
“It becomes like your family. So if you stop racing—you lose part of your family! You have no friends! Everybody you know is involved in racing,” Salerno realized.
“In this sport, you’re disappointed 90 percent of the time. So it burns you out,” he weighed the negatives. “But the best part? There’s always a race tomorrow that you can get better at! So instead of dwelling on how bad you did today—let’s work harder and do better tomorrow.”
