MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. – After Airborne Speedway announced they will no longer have modifieds on the schedule full-time this season, it left Mike Mahaney and car owners George and Julie Huttig without a Saturday night home track.
“We didn’t know where we were going to race on Saturday nights so we’ve just been working hard on our big block program up here in Elizabethtown knowing that if the cars are ready, then we will be competitive no matter where we end up,” Mahaney said.
It was a tough decision for the No. 35 team to decide where they will compete on Saturday nights, but with a new sponsor coming on board, it made the decision much easier.
Tony Monaco Landscaping, based out of Orange County, N.Y., has joined the No. 35 team as a sponsor. With the sponsorship, the team has decided to make Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, N.Y., it’s home track this year.
“In racing it helps to have a lot of support to get ahead in competition,” Mahaney said. “I feel like this will improve our program a lot along with a tremendous amount of changes we have made throughout the off season.”
With Tony Monaco Landscaping coming on board and all of the improvements that have been made to Orange County Fair Speedway, it made the team’s decision much easier to call Orange County Fair Speedway their new home.
“Orange County has always been a historic modified racetrack to me,” Mahaney said. “I’ve always enjoyed my time there in the big events, but I think with the recent improvements to the race surface will make the weekly racing a lot more worthwhile.”
Mahaney and the team will be making their return to Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Friday nights, with Marcellas Appliance Center coming on board with the support of Bosch.
“Albany is the closest big block track to our shop,” Mahaney noted. “They have a phenomenal facility. Lyle and his team run a very professional operation. We made big improvements throughout last year racing there with seven heat race wins and two feature wins. Prior to last year, I struggled to even qualify there so to lead the heat race wins last season is something to really build on heading into this year. We hope to turn that into more feature wins this year with the extra support from Marcellas and Bosch.”
Mahaney and the Adirondack team will once again be following the Super DIRTcar Series full-time this season.
“The big block tour has been a real challenge for me to see any consistent success,” noted Mahaney. “I feel the only way to improve is to force ourselves to keep running it. It’s a challenge to travel to races and to not consistently have success, but in order to get there we have to keep going.”
With a busy schedule on tap for Mahaney, they still plan to run select Short Track Super Series events.
“We will run select shows this year that make sense for the equipment we have in our shop,” he said. “I feel that these races can be very lucrative, and I’ve enjoyed some of the success we’ve had running the series. I look forward to getting to as many STSS events as we can this season.”