Super DIRT Week: 'round and 'round with race fans
Upstate racing fans are as old as the straightaways on Route 11, as young as teenagers cruising on Saturday night.
They are fixed in their opinions, rabid in their loyalties, driven in their traditions and defiant about their bad habits, which include a love for things that move too fast for their own good.
"The race fan is the heartbeat of America," says Lakeland's Joe Marotta, the dean of Upstate track announcers, with 47 years of calling races. "Whether it's a dirt track in Florida or right here, they're pretty much the same. If you asked half of them on a Friday night, 'What would you do if the race track wasn't here?' they couldn't tell you. They'd just have a disappointed look on their faces."
This is the 40th annual Super DIRT Week, one of Syracuse's biggest annual tourism events. Fans from across the Northeast will gather to watch their heroes tear around the track at the state fairgrounds. Meanwhile, folks living just down the road will say, "Super what?
Pink for a purpose
Graybill said that he was sick and tired of people saying “Someone’s gotta do something” without doing anything and that this was his chance to take action. He sold everything and now lives in his mother’s guesthouse.
“I wasn’t put here to make money,” Graybill said. “I was put here to inspire people and help their friends, their people, their families, their actions.
“I wanted to make a difference before I die.”
And so starting with just $3,000, Graybill painted a fire truck pink and began traversing the nation with other firefighters who agreed to take more than two weeks of work off to help the cause.
Firefighters from Utah, Oklahoma and Rhode Island all joined Graybill during his stop in Old Bridge, including Matthew J. Medeiros, a full-time firefighter from Central Coventry, R.I., whose mom is currently battling cancer.
“We fell in love with it,” said Medieros, the treasurer of the Rhode Island Chapter of the Pink Heals. “It’s kind of my way to give back.
"You are so close, the wind that is generated, it's like tornadoes coming by," says Harvey Fink, 71, a former owner of Brewerton Speedway, who fell in love with the sport as a teen in Rhode Island. "I think it's always been the speed.
