The Dustlap Dispatch

The Dustlap Dispatch Racing stories, race-day reports, pictures, videos, and interviews.
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08/23/2026

Enjoy slow-motion from Thunder Mountain Speedway and tag your racers.

New track unlocked: Thunder Mountain Speedway, Center Lisle, NY.Long haul from NYC. Worth every mile.Thunder Mountain is...
08/23/2026

New track unlocked: Thunder Mountain Speedway, Center Lisle, NY.

Long haul from NYC. Worth every mile.

Thunder Mountain is a 3/8 mile local track with maybe the most beautiful backdrop I’ve seen behind a race track. The racing is only part of the show here — green fields, hills, and forest wrapped around a high-banked clay oval. That’s what race fans up here get to enjoy every Saturday night.

The grandstand was lively and the pits were stacked: big-block Modifieds, 358 Modifieds, DIRTcar Crate Sportsman, Factory Stocks, 600 Sprints, and the Hustling the Highway 600cc Modifieds. Six divisions rolling through hot laps back to back — plus Powerwheels drag races for the little ones.

I couldn’t stay for the features, but I caught the heats — and even the heats were worth the drive.

Big thank you to Ric Ryder for introducing me to the local crowd. That kind of welcome means a lot when you roll into a new place cold.

Chasing race tracks is a fascinating adventure. You find pearls like this one — beautiful scenery behind the fence, and even better people along the way.

Thunder Mountain Speedway Ric Ryder

08/22/2026

The Rene Downes Memorial ran under the lights at Accord last night. 🏁
Cars older than most of the people watching them, still turning laps on a quarter-mile bullring in Ulster County.

08/21/2026

Caught up with Sophia Spear in the pits at Accord Friday night, fresh off a second-place run in her heat. Car’s fast — but it’s stepping out on her off the corner, and she’s got one shot to get it right before the feature.

She also spent eight laps side by side with Travis Green and had a blast doing it. “Rubbin’s racing, so we’ll see.”

*Click the picture to see the full chartFIVE DIVISIONS. ONE RUNAWAY. FOUR STREET FIGHTS.I put every Accord Speedway poin...
08/21/2026

*Click the picture to see the full chart

FIVE DIVISIONS. ONE RUNAWAY. FOUR STREET FIGHTS.

I put every Accord Speedway points sheet side by side, and the picture is wild.

Start with the Modifieds, because that’s the outlier. Dan Creeden is up 82 points on Tyler Johnston. That’s not a championship battle, that’s a guy who shows up every single week and takes what the night gives him. He’s got two wins. Johnston’s got two wins. The difference is Creeden hasn’t had a bad Friday since May.

Now look at the other four.

Limited Sportsman: two points between Scott Jennings and Lane Krupinski. Two. Jeff Tubbs is 13 back in third after leading this thing earlier in the year. Forty-four points covers the whole top five. Somebody is going to win this championship on a restart in September.

4-Cylinders: six points between Tim Brown and Brandon Conklin. Three wins apiece. They’ve been trading haymakers all summer and nobody’s landed the knockout.

Sportsman: ten points — and it’s two brothers. Travis Green leads Randy Green. Four wins to two. I talked to Travis in the pits last Friday and he was pretty calm about racing his own brother for a title. I’m not sure I’d be.

Pure Stock: Walt Henry by 19 over Wayne Taylor. But here’s the one that gets me — Shawn Williams sits SIXTH with four wins. Most wins in the class. 143 points off the lead. That’s a season of speed with nothing to show for it, and I’d love to know what happened.

Who’s your pick? Drop it below. The Official Accord Speedway

08/20/2026

Same shop. Same dad and uncle turning the wrenches. Same Sportsman field every week.

Travis Green and his brother Randy roll out of one building at Accord Speedway — then go race each other for a living. Travis is on Penske shocks, Randy’s on Integra, and Travis will admit he keeps a couple speed secrets to himself.

He’ll also tell you straight that Randy’s had the better year and consistency has been his problem. That’s a hard thing to say into a camera in your own pit.

08/20/2026

One Volkswagen. A whole field of Chevys and Fords. 🇩🇪
’90 VW, 2-liter 16-valve, light and mean off the corner. Down on top speed, up on fun.
$40 to get in at Accord. You get it back if you start the feature.
Up here it isn’t money. It’s skill.

08/19/2026

I talked to three drivers before the big money race. Lane Krupinski Jr. Jeffrey Tubbs. Donnie Campbell. Three separate conversations, and every one of them told me the same thing without knowing the others had said it.
Lane: “stay out of all the carnage.”
Jeff: “I have a bad habit of getting a little too aggressive.”
Donnie: “just stay out of trouble, biggest thing here.”
Nobody talked about winning. They all talked about surviving the first ten laps. That tells you everything about what a big money night does to a field.

Learning from the best: Chris Economaki.
08/19/2026

Learning from the best: Chris Economaki.

08/19/2026

“Nervous. Very nervous.”

That’s Gary Plass, talking about watching his 16-year-old son Austin roll out at Accord Speedway — with a brand new cam in the #11 street stock and a little more power under his right foot than last week.

His advice? Remember there’s an egg under the gas pedal.

Austin and the Monte Carlo came down from Hyde Park, NY. The goal for the night was simple: take the green, take the checkered, come home on the trailer in one piece. Everything after that is seat time.

This is what grassroots racing actually looks like — a kid learning, a dad holding his breath, and an original bottom end doing its best.

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