Riverside Speedway Salutes Its Champions : Raceway Media

Riverside Speedway put its final touches on the 2004 racing season on Saturday night, November 6th, as they saluted their racers with the 40th Annual, Banquet of Champions. Over 300 racers, crew members, family and track employees gathered at the Cabot Motor Inn in Lancaster, New Hampshire, to celebrate the end of the 40th year of racing at Riverside Speedway.

Track owner CJ Robinson took to the podium first, welcoming all the guests and champions on their special night. Next up was the introduction of new track General Manager, Dick Therrien to the crowd. Therrien acted as Master of Ceremonies over the event for the remainder of the night.

Several special awards were presented to the drivers before dinner. Those awards included Rookies of the Year, Sportsmanship, Hard Luck and Hard Charger. Rookies of the Year were Mike Hoitt in the Dwarf Cars, Walter Daniels in the Street Stocks, Reggie Theroux in the Super Stocks and Brooks Clark in the Late Models. The Sportsmanship award went to the Bill Stebbins Racing Team. The Hard Charger Award was given to Street Stock driver Joe Simpson, while Jeff Marshall hesitantly accepted the Hard Luck reward which included a $200.00 gift certificate from D&M Graphics.

After a delicious buffet dinner, the second round of awards were presented to the Riverside racing family. The top five and top ten in the divisions were honored with some first class trophies and nice point fund checks. Tim Sherman took home top honors in the Dwarf Car division, Mike Kennison in the Street Stocks, Jeff Fysh in the Super Stocks, Mike Bailey in the Tiger / Sportsman and Owen Wimble in the Late Models. Mike Bailey also grabbed top honors in the Coca Cola Triple Crown Series for the Tiger / Sportsman. During his acceptance speech, Bailey announced that he had just purchased a Late Model and will be moving up to that division in 2005. The Enduro divisions also crowned 2004 champions at the celebration. Steve Queeneville secured the gold in the Four Cylinder class, Floyd Bennett Jr. captured the top spot in the V8's, while Jennie Dion was the queen of the Ladies Class. Also honored were the Riverside Speedway staff and management team.

After the awards, Therrien gave an overview of the 2005, a season he claimed would be where Riverside Speedway went back and took care of their own. "Riverside Speedway is going to take and concentrate on their own divisions and drivers in 2005. The only outside shows next season will be the P.A.S.S. Tour. We are going to do everything possible to bring back the glory days to Riverside" stated Therrien. This drew a resounding applause amongst the crowd. Several of the new marketing plans were introduced, and many a smile came across those in attendance. The ceremony wrapped up with a final message from CJ Robinson. He stated that 2005 will be a pivotal season at the track, but already the enthusiasm he has seen tonight, makes him excited about the upcoming year. His goal is to shorten up his weekly program, and provide a quality night of family entertainment. He also received very favorable comments about shortening the race schedule to thirteen events in 2005, hopefully allowing more teams to compete for the entire season.

The next event on the Riverside Speedway calendar is the Annual Rules Meetings. These meetings will be held at the Cabot Motor Inn on Sunday, November 21. The time schedule will be as follows: 12:30pm - 1:30pm, Street Stocks, 1:45pm - 2:30pm, Super Stocks, and 2:45pm - 4pm, Late Models. Since there are no major changes scheduled for the Enduro classes at this time, no meeting has been scheduled for this date.

Keep up with all the latest information about Riverside Speedway on their new website. Log on to www.riversidespeedway.org. You can also contact the track at 603-636-2005. General Manager, Dick Therrien can be reached at 802-626-9617 or e-mail him at dprdick@charter.net.

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