Chasing a championship

TED WADDELL
Posted 9/6/17

NORTH BRANCH, NY — Mike Roth, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Sullivan West, is chasing a dream: to pick up an auto racing championship. On August 26, he took on 31 other young drivers in the …

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Chasing a championship

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NORTH BRANCH, NY — Mike Roth, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Sullivan West, is chasing a dream: to pick up an auto racing championship.

On August 26, he took on 31 other young drivers in the Outlaw class during the 20th annual ZMAX Bandolero Nationals at Bethel Motor Speedway (BMS), located in White Lake, a few spinouts from the site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival.

The young racer is currently ranked by points in first place at BMS, and second in the state.

On the previous day, the Bandolero and Legend-class competitors took to the quarter-mile oval track for practice and qualification runs, prior to the next day’s heats and feature races.

In a sense, Roth is following in his older brother’s tire tracks, as Rudy Roth IV garnered a couple of state track championships in 2012 and 2013 before moving up to the highly competitive dirt track circuit, making the leap from 30 horsepower cars to ones putting out 400-plus ponies under the hood.

“I got into this… it’s just a family thing, you know,” replied Mike when asked what got him into racing four years ago.

So what’s it like to go wheel-to-wheel and bumper-to-bumper, racing around a track at 60-some miles per hour in 15.2 some seconds?

“It’s hard to describe really,” said the young man of few words.

His father Rudy Roth III, owner of Sullivan County Engines, stepped in to offer an insider’s view of what auto racing is all about.

“It’s exciting to watch Mike race… it’s nerve-racking,” adding that their priorities are “safety” on the track “and school.”

“The kids’ got to do their schoolwork [and racing] teaches them respect… they learn how to grow up,” said the elder Roth, who by the way never raced, but caught the auto racing fever.

Seventy-eight-year old John Rhodes of Narrowsburg is a regular member of their pit crew.

“I love racing, I’m into it big time,” said the former boat, car and motorcycle racer.

“I met this guy Rudy… it’s great to help a young boy get going,” he added, putting down his wrench for a few minutes before resuming work on the race car, dialing it in for the local track.

During their weekend outing at Bethel Motor Speedway on August 25 and 26, Roth’s Bandolero car #8 went through three engines, as he started out in 10th place and by the time all was said and done at the final checkered flag, finished 10th in the field of 31 cars, from all points of the compass, as drivers came from as far away as Canada and Texas to neighboring Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut—not to forget several entries from North Carolina, the home of NASCAR, the big dog in American auto racing.

After the second engine blew, Rudy Roth said of the experience, “The motor just started rattling and she gave up the ghost.”

“We didn’t do as well as we hoped we were going to do… we’re going to work on it and come back next week, figure out another line with this car,” said the young speed racer in the wake of the final 50-lap feature race.

“It’s just another week,” he added.

And with that Mike Roth’s race to the checkered flag continues.

For more information about Bethel Motor Speedway, located at 361 Horseshoe Lake Rd., White Lake, NY 12786, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com of call 845/319-7908.

[This is the first installment of a series on Bethel Motor Speedway, Sullivan County’s premier quarter-mile oval asphalt racing track. Future editions (that will not run consecutively) will highlight a history of wheel-to-wheel racing at the historic track and a behind-the-scenes view from the pits.]

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