On May 3, the New York State Stock Car Association will hold its induction ceremony for the class of 2025 at the Fonda Speedway Hall of Fame & Museum.
Inductees are drivers Don Ronca, Alan Johnson, Danny Johnson and Billy Van Pelt; announcers Dan Martin and John Stanley; and mechanic and car builder Doug Rundel.
On June 20, 2025, 66-year-old Don Ronca added another win to his historic résumé with his 15th career win at the Albany Saratoga Speedway where he was the track champion in 1989 and 1992. In 1989, even though he didn’t win a race that season, his consistency played a huge role when he chalked up his first modified championship at Albany-Saratoga and also won the overall Champlain Valley Racing Association championship.
Ronca also has a total of nine wins at the Devils Bowl Speedway in Vermont with three track championships there back in 1986 (tie with Matt Waite), 1992 and 1993.
At the age of 66, Don is the oldest driver to win a modified feature at Albany Saratoga. He’s won modified features in five consecutive decades (1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s). And if you add in his three hobby stock wins in 1979, he’s been to victory lane in six consecutive decades. In fact, the first four modified wins of his career came at Drummondville Canada in 1982 and 1983.
Ronca suffered a broken back in a freak accident in the shop while working on his race car which put him out of racing from 2000-2004. Ronca now joins his father Nick (inducted in 1991) and brother Mike (inducted in 2012) as inductees into the New York State Stock Car Association (NYSSCA) Hall of Fame.
Alan Johnson was born on October 3, 1957, and grew up in the rural town of Middlesex, New York. He has amassed 563 feature wins at 39 different tracks since his debut in 1974.
Alan’s first hands-on exposures came through attending races at nearby dirt tracks, such as Canandaigua Speedway. His 1974 debut at age 16 involved adapting a big-block Modified, with support from family resources, though his youth required navigating logistical hurdles like obtaining necessary permissions and integrating racing into his teenage routine.
He secured his first career feature victory the following year in 1975 on May 3 at Canandaigua Speedway in a Corvair-bodied No. 14J car.
Known as “A.J. Slideways” for his smooth, consistent style, Johnson’s major achievements include five Super DIRTcar Series/Mr. DIRT Series championships in 1981, 1983, 2002, 2003 and 2006 alongside four Mr. DIRT 358 titles and four Super DIRT 358 Series championships in 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2005. He has claimed 37 track championships at nine different tracks.
Johnson’s iconic triumphs at Super Dirt Week at the Syracuse mile in the Super Dirt Week 300 at the Syracuse Mile further defined his era, with victories in 1989, leading 188 laps ahead of Dave Blaney and 2003, where he outdueled Kenny Tremont over 200 laps to claim the crown jewel event.
His contributions to the sport have been honored with induction into the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame in 2017 as an active driver and the Eastern Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 2025. Alan joins his father Milt Johnson (inducted in 2012) and brother Danny (inducted in 2025) as inductees into the New York State Stock Car Association Hall of Fame.
Danny Johnson was born on March 3, 1960 and his racing career spans more than four decades. He has amassed 607 feature wins at 56 different tracks since his debut in 1979.
Danny’s brother Alan’s pursuit of racing further reinforced this family dynamic, serving as a role model and idol for Danny from a young age. The brothers frequently traveled together to local races and collaborated on car preparation, with Danny assisting on Alan’s machine while aspiring to match his sibling’s achievements. These shared activities, including attending events at Central New York tracks and working in the family shop, ignited Danny’s interest in dirt track racing during his teenage years, culminating in his professional debut at age 18 with parental assistance in securing sponsorship and a race car.
By 1979, this foundation led to his first victory at Canandaigua Speedway on July 14, marking the beginning of a storied racing career.
Danny secured four Super DIRTcar Big-Block Modified Series championships in 1989, 1992, 1997 and 1999, along with runner-up finishes in 1986 and 2000. In the 358 Modified division, Johnson captured five Mr. DIRT 358 Modified Champion titles in 1996, 1999, 2000, 2010 and 2011.
One of Danny Johnson’s most iconic achievements came in the 1997 Fay’s 300 at Super DIRT Week, held on October 12 at the New York State Fairgrounds Syracuse Mile in the Freightliner Trucks No. 6. He also won the 358-Modified main event in the same year on Saturday of Super DIRT Week.
Danny has 21 track championships at five different tracks. In 2019, Danny Johnson was inducted into the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame as part of the organization’s 28th annual class, recognizing his lifetime contributions to the sport. He joins his brother Alan as an inductee into the New York State Stock Car Association Hall of Fame class of 2025 along with his father Milt who was inducted in 2012.
Following in his older brother Curt’s footsteps, Billy Van Pelt got into big car racing in 1987. He had been racing three-wheelers and snowmobiles until then when his brother Curt, who was poised to win a Mr. DIRT 358 Series title for the Sherwood team, left the family-owned car and Billy and Curt’s father Jim put Billy in the seat.
The venue was Woodhull Raceway where Billy achieved his first career win in the 320-Modified division on May 28, 1988. In the ensuing 35 years, Billy not only dominated at the little third-mile bullring straddling the NY-PA border, he trashed every track record for all time.
Billy drove for his father, Ted White, Kevin Chilson, Grant Hilfiger, and finally for Chilson again during his career, racking up 198 documented wins and an incredible 23 championships at Woodhull alone.
But his success wasn’t confined to Woodhull, he holds 30 championship titles. In addition to the 23 at Woodhull, Van Pelt won two titles at Black Rock (now Outlaw Speedway) in 1995 and 1997; one at Freedom Motorsports Park in 2018; and four championships in the T3 All-Star Series for 358 Modifieds which took him to eight tracks in PA and NY.
He has 242 confirmed career victories at nine raceways.
Billy Van Pelt was inducted into the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame last year and joins his brother Curt as a member of the New York State Stock Car Association Hall of Fame after Curt was inducted in 2018.
Hall of Fame announcer Dan Martin grew up as a race fan, going to the races locally as a youngster with his dad. As a teenager, Dan raced Flat Track Motorcycles but still remained an avid stock car fan. In 1985, Dan started racing cars in the 4-Cylinder Mini-Modified division, which didn’t race weekly at any area tracks.
In 1987, Martin claimed the championship in the Pro Stock division at Albany Saratoga and was runner up in points in the Silver Crown Series celebrating the CVRA’s 25th anniversary.
In 1988, Dan ran a partial season in the Pro Stock division at Albany Saratoga, but after wrecking the car decided to move to an open wheel class the next year instead of rebuilding the Pro Stock. After the decision was made to move up to the Sportsman division, Martin made the move to the Fonda Speedway in 1989 as Albany Saratoga did not have a Sportsman division at that time, running the entire 1989 season at Fonda.
After a conversation with John Stanley at The Amsterdam Mall Car Show, Dan learned that John was taking the announcer position at Lebanon Valley and that there was an opening for an assistant announcer. He decided to pursue the opportunity.
Martin hosted a race results based radio show on a number of different radio stations.
In the past Dan has been awarded with The President’s Award by the New York State Stock Car Association along with the Arty McCarty Memorial Award for Contributions to NYSSCA. He also won the Media Award from the Lebanon Valley Speedway and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2024.
John Stanley grew up going to the races at Albany Saratoga and looked for ways to get more involved. In high school, he worked writing press releases for track manager Harry Hebenstreit. When he got to 107.7 WGNA-FM, he provided local area auto racing results on the air the morning after the races were held.
Next John approached C.J. Richards, who was going to be taking over Albany-Saratoga, about an announcing job there.
Stanley was the Malta track announcer for several years until the mid-1980s. In the winter of 1989-90, John got a call from Howard Commander who asked if he would be interested in announcing at Lebanon Valley. He took the job and asked who would be working with him. Howard said that was up to him. Dan Martin was a championship winning pro-stock and mini-stock driver who moved up to the sportsman class and then stepped out of the race car.
Dan decided to give it a try and became John’s announcing teammate at Lebanon Valley beginning in 1990.
Doug Rundel was probably best known for working with Fred DeCarr on the Dave McCredy owned cars that were driven by Bill Wimble, among others.
Rundel was a fan at first, a connection to racing with his wife while they were dating back then made it more interesting for him to be there.
Doug would get into racing himself in 1972, racing at places like Chemung and Utica Rome on the asphalt where he raced Mini-Stocks and was track champion at both tracks in his first year.
After 10 years of working on race cars, Rundel started building cars, one year taking a trip out to Michigan in the winter to pick up an assembly of a Late Model from Tommy Williams who used to run at both Fonda and Utica Rome.
He also built a couple of Norton No. 3X cars for driver Benny Stevens, which made news when he went out the first turn at Trenton according to Rundel. Doug’s son Bob raced Limited Supers at Oswego, and Doug’s latest racing experience was with his grandson Alex Hughes who raced at Utica Rome in the 602 Sportsman class until Hughes bought a house and got out of racing three years ago.
