Posted Apr 25, 2019 at 8:18 PM
Updated Apr 25, 2019 at 8:18 PM
The racing season will begin at the quarter-mile clay oval in Accord this weekend.
Andy Bachetti will once again be one of the main attractions at Accord Speedway.
Bachetti is returning to Friday night racing on a full-time basis at the Ulster County track. He has his sights set on more than another Accord modified championship.
The 43-year-old Bachetti has designated Accord as his home track for the American Racer Cup. Bachetti’s 10 best Accord finishes will be ranked against the top 10 races of other drivers from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The competition runs from mid-April to Labor Day.
“The track has been one of those little bullrings that we have been really successful at,” said Bachetti, a repeat modified points champion at Accord.
Racing is back at Accord, starting Friday and running until November 30 with The Gobbler.
Bachetti, who has 180 career modified feature victories, won three of his seven starts at Accord in 2018. He ran I-88 Speedway in Afton on most Friday nights the past two years. A partnership with Jimmy Winchell and sponsors Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming and Howard Jarvis Contractors helped bring Bachetti back to Accord every Friday. Bachetti will race Winchell’s No. 17 car and service it at his home garage in Sheffield, Mass.
“I think it’s going to work out real well because we are maintaining the equipment and he’s paying the bills,” Bachetti said. “It’s going to be a win-win for us because we are not going to be running our cars on Friday nights and heading to a $10,000 show on Tuesday and rushing it.
“Our cars will be real fresh and I think we will be a lot fresher for our big-block program Saturday nights (at Lebanon Valley Speedway).”
Bachetti’s return is one of the many highlights of the Accord season, which includes two Kenny Wallace Driving Experience days on June 22 and Oct. 5. Fans can rent the former NASCAR driver’s modified and sprint cars and race them in exhibitions.
Accord will also run slingshots, a smaller modified car, on a more regular basis, every other Friday, track owner Gary Palmer said.
“It’s something that we got away from but people have been calling to see them come back,” Palmer said.
The track will host the Battle of the Bullring on July 9, the Monsters in the Catskills Monster Truck show on August 10 and First Responder & 9/11 Night on Sept. 6.
“Fire trucks fill the whole infield,” Palmer said. “The place is packed. We have bagpipes, echo bugles. It’s real tearjerker of a night.”
Palmer said what sets racing at Accord apart from other local speedways is its three-car-wide track.
“The other bigger tracks are a little more follow-the-leader type of racing,” Palmer said. “Where here, you have to make stuff happen. It’s like a caged fight compared to a polo match. It’s pretty exciting. A guy can go from the back to the front here. The track is the roast beef of the dinner. That’s what brings people to see good racing.”