Imagine, if you will the sight. Here it was 1988 and the little quarter mile race track located in the Cortland-Blodgett Mills Area, known as Skyline Speedway, which had laid dormant since 1980 was a mess. Nearly every building on the property had fallen down; brush and debris were everywhere and the pits were filled with junk. \u201cWe were very na\u00efve,\u201d Audrey Payne commented about the track that her and her husband Frank had just purchased. Frank, who owned a repair shop was never a driver but had fielded a late model for years, racing at Dundee, Woodhall, Utica-Rome and Weedsport Speedways, among others,. \u201cI was twenty-five years old when we got married,\u201d Audrey reminisces. \u201cI had never been to race before I met Frank so I knew nothing about the sport until we started dating.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sold the car at the end of the 1986,\u201d Audrey reflected. \u201cWe ended up sitting out the 1987 season but we couldn\u2019t sit still so when the opportunity came up to purchase Skyline in 1988 we jumped at it.\u00a0 We had to rebuild nearly everything on the grounds. Concession stand, towers, bleachers. You name it, we rebuilt it, and we also built new too\u2026It has been a team approach between<\/p>\n
The Payne\u2019s were really starting from scratch in every facet. With the track being dormant for so long not only was the track infrastructure in a sad state of repair there really was no built in supply of cars and fans to tap into.\u00a0 \u201cWe decided at the very beginning to only run divisions that for other tracks would be a support class,\u201d Audrey said \u201cand we have never regretted that decision.\u201d Today the track has six divisions, sportsman, IMCA Modifieds, Pure stock\/street stock, eight cylinders, four cylinders and Empire Sports Trucks. Frank and Audrey\u2019s adult children Heather and Andrew are also involved with the track. \u201cHeather is available whenever I need her while Andrew is a tech inspector.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now days the couple split duties with the track surface and scoring being the focus of Frank\u2019s attention, \u201cand I do everything else,\u201d Audrey said. \u201cI do the paper work, ordering food for the concessions, picking up the trash and cleaning the rest rooms. \u201c\u00a0 In other words she is the face of Skyline Speedway making all of the off track decisions.\u00a0 \u201cSaturday\u2019s are a long day,\u201d she continued saying. \u201cWe are typically at the track by 9 Am and most of the times do not leave until well after midnight, even as late as 1 Am Sunday morning. But I just love being involved with the sport.\u201d\u00a0 It is because of her hands on involvement and leadership that the DIRTcar Hall of Fame is please to recognize as a co- recipient of the 2011 Gater News \u201cOutstanding Women in Racing Award.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imagine, if you will the sight. Here it was 1988 and the little quarter mile race track located in the Cortland-Blodgett Mills Area, known as Skyline Speedway, which had laid dormant since 1980 was a mess. Nearly every building on the property had fallen down; brush and debris were everywhere and the pits were filled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,158,6,160],"tags":[304,113],"division":[],"series":[],"regions":[],"class_list":["post-7530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-358-modifieds","category-big-block-modifieds","category-pro-stocks","category-sportsman-modifieds","tag-dirtcar","tag-tracks-2"],"yoast_head":"\n