Even though there is snow on the ground, it has been a busy couple of weeks for the club!

New Website

As you have no doubt noticed, there is a new club website up.  This was a collaboration of club members Alan Delimon, Ben Atkinson, and the PRA board.  Our club is comprised of a diverse group of people with a wide range of careers and skills.  You know we have we have members who know how to build a track, run a bulldozer, and promote an event.  We also have people who know how to build state of the art websites.

The new site will be updated much more frequently, and you will likely hear from many of the board members as anyone can create content.  We migrated over all the old pages and content, as well as adding some new.  There is a YouTube videos page, and some track overhead shots (including some from the late 1970s!) among other highlights.  And there is plenty more to come.

The new website will work on your mobile phone, in a format that is specific to mobile devices.  And, you will be able to sign up for text message updates from our site.

We will have online signup for work day and race day jobs soon too!   Don’t worry, the old way will still work, but now you will be able to sign up beforehand if you want to.

2012 Race Schedule and Event schedule

Our 2012 race schedule is now online.  And, for club members, the 2012 event schedule will be coming soon.

WNYRacing and PRA Banquet

The Banquet was also a success.  Over 400 WNYRacing friends, family, supporters, and sponsors attended the year end MX bash this past Saturday.

Also, congratulations to PRA’s Chris LaDelfa.  Chris is the lucky guy that rolled away WNYRacing’s brand new 2011 Yamaha YZ250F courtesy of Yamaha Motor Corp., Don George’s Sports Center, Lanes Yamaha, Arkport Cycles, Pioneer Motorsports, Hollink Motorsports, and WNYRacing.  That is a great prize that any of us would be glad to have!

PRA Members:

This Saturday at 3pm is our Palmyra Racing Association Banquet at the DoubleTree in Henrietta!  This is a big year for our club as we celebrate 50 years of riding on the hill!  This special occasion will be marked by some huge prize giveaways including a new YZ250F, a gigantic Chinese auction, a ton of raffles/door prizes, and some big announcements for next year!

We will also be honoring a man that was one of the founding fathers of Palmyra Racing Association, Mr. Fred Ford.  After Fred’s racing career he opened Forfam’s, a very successful and well known Yamaha dealership in Newark, NY. Later Fred was instrumental in purchasing current Palmyra racetrack from Karl Koester for $2500 and with the help of Bill Scheemaker and other volunteers the raceway began its trek to becoming one of the most successful tracks in western New York.  It began with match races with the New England hot shoes including the Natiional champion Charlie Vincent.  Western NY riders gave them all the race they could handle and even won a couple of years but some great racing took place even in the early years.  In the interim Fred became first a Triumph dealer and then a Yamaha dealer in a barn in Macedon Center before he moved to Palmyra and before the Palmyra racetrack became a reality.  While it started as a part time business it became full time in 1964 on Rt 31 in Palmyra and thereafter the realization of the track began……….the business was moved to Newark, NY in 1970. While all this was going on Fred continually raced scrambles in Palmyra and Dillman’s in Victor.

Come out and meet Fred who is making the long trip up from Tennessee to be with us and catch up on the club he helped build.

We will have seating together, a great meal and some good company with our fellow club members.  The Supercross race is also going to be shown on the big screen after the awards.  Discounted tickets are still available, but you have to hurry as they are running low.  For more information or to purchase tickets visit http://www.wnyracing.com .
We hope you see you all there.

The Board

The 2011 PRA Camp & Ride weekend turned out to be a lot of fun for everyone! One of the highlights, was the trail bike races held on the Pee-Wee track, complete with prizes for the winners. There was a lot of intense friendly competition as bragging rights were hotly sought after. Bill McMahon was kind enough to supply some PICTURES (Bill’s) from the morning activities and Jay Bond took some PICTURES (Jay’s) later in the day as well. Hope everyone enjoys them!

Greetings to all. The Camp and Ride is this weekend, and it looks to be a beauty. We will need some assistance with rock picking and watering Friday night, so all those that can help please do. Also we plan on a large community bonfire, so if you have spare wood laying around, bring it up for Saturday night. It will be positioned in front of the mini-track entrance. The catered affair will commence with riding at 11:00, a industrial slip and slide, games and dinner at 4:00 with door prizes.. Look forward to seeing you there.

Wow what an exciting and exhausting day out at the park. With the temperature peaking at about 92, and the racing getting very hot, I have to start out for thanking all those that helped the day go so smoothly. With a small electrical problem hampering our efforts first thing in the morning, we had a variety of assistance from members and visitors alike to get power to the tower and the rest rooms.. Again a very sincere thanks to all that assisted in this small dilemma. Through all the drama, we lost only 15 minutes and were extremely happy with the turnout on such a tropical day. Just an excellent demonstration of mx throughout the day on a very difficult track. The senior mini class, amateur class and novice class were just exciting. I would like to remind all members, that the Camp and Ride is approaching. Make sure to include the weekend of August 6th and 7th in your plans for the park. We have some fun ideas for the weekend, including a catered affair, a massive slip and slide, and a “custom” bonfire. Thank you again to all those involved with a great race day, from the flaggers, to the riders, to the track crews that made a dust track that hadn’t seen rain for a month, into a very rideable, enjoyable day. See you at the track!