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SALEM – Saturday morning and early afternoon was sunny and in the mid-80’s. This offered the perfect weather for autocross racing at Salem High School.
The engines were revving and the cars were speeding around what is ordinarily the high school parking lot, but Saturday was set up as an autocross course, complete with lots of orange cones and a time tracker at the end of the race.
The person that got the autocross started at the Salem Super Cruise was Dominic Righetti, now a student at Akron University. He has loved the idea of a course and autocross since he was young.
“When I was little, I used to draw tracks on maps of our town,” Righetti said. “I had just started learning about autocross and I thought ‘We could do that on Cruise weekend.'”
Righetti loves the current location of the autocross. In 2013, the first year Salem held it, he managed to get everything set up at the Walmart parking lot. He considers himself lucky to obtain the Salem High School location when he did, which was his senior year because of a chance encounter.
“I was in shop class my senior year and the superintendent was visiting,” Righetti said. “I asked him how to get to use the school for something. He said there’s a form. I found the form, sent it through all the school people and they approved it. So, the people that put this on, they get the proper insurance forms and everything.”
This year, 25 drivers participated in the event. It wasn’t the biggest turnout they’ve ever had for the event, but according to Righeti, it was still a great turnout.
“The first year we had 15 people,” Righetti said. “The second year we had about 20. The third year we had like 35. They changed the day this year and I think some people didn’t quite catch it, so at 25, we’re a little shy, but it’s still a good turnout.”
The 25 people registered with the event had to pay $25 to run. The proceeds raised go toward a noble organization, Banquet of Salem that provides free meals to senior citizens every Monday night throughout the year.
When Righetti left for college in 2014, someone had to step up to help run the event. The people that took the responsibility were sponsor/owner of Stretch’s Rod Shop, Carl Roeger and Bob Bertelsen.
Roeger has been involved with autocross for a long time in one way or another.
“I’ve always enjoyed autocrossing,” Roeger said. “I started 40 years ago and stopped for a while when I had a family. I started getting back into autocrossing a bit ago and I built a ’68 El Camino to use this year. I’d have it here, but last night I blew a tire.”
Roeger may have been involved with autocrossing or interested in the sport for forty years, but he’s the first to admit that he is still not an extremely experienced driver.
“I’m learning still,” Roeger said. “I’m not necessarily a novice, but some of these guys have over 1,000 runs. I have about 200. Seat time matters.”
What’s changed over the time Roeger’s been around the sport one might ask? The idea hasn’t, but some of the cars have.
“It’s still the same orange cones,” Roeger said. “The new cars have ABS and computer controls, which makes a difference. Back then, we raced muscle cars. People were just learning how to use those. That was interesting. The sport’s grown a lot really within the last six or seven years.”
Saturday’s turnout was a bit of a disappointment for Roeger, but he was glad everyone was enjoying themselves. He could not narrow down exactly why the turnout wasn’t as big as he was expecting.
“This event was on three or four different websites, and there were a lot of chatter about the event, so I’m a bit disappointed by the turnout,” he said. “I thought we were gonna have a full house. I don’t know if it’s the weather or some people are afraid to try their car.”
Bertelsen has been bringing his orange Chevy C10 pickup truck to the autocross for the last two years. He offered Carl Roeger his help last year because of his experience with autocross events and running them in an effort to get racers more runs of the course.
“We made two changes,” Bertelsen said. “First, we’re running multiple cars and we’re also offering lessons to novice drivers for the first time.”
Those changes have made an impact to the people, but as noted, the turnout has not been what it’s been in previous years when the event was held on Sundays. Despite having fewer drivers, the event has brought the attention of multiple sponsors.
“We don’t have as many racers,” Bertelsen said. “What we do have is a lot more sponsors. Before, we had Carl’s company, Stretch’s Rod Shop. This year we’ve added A Plus Powder Coaters, Salem Chrysler Dodge, Elite Welding, Hepner Auto Appraisal and Orange Cone Racing.”
As for Righetti, he is sill studying diligently at Akron, still pursuing what he loves.
“I started out in mechanical engineering. I left that and now I’m going for media production,” Righetti said. “I want to do something involving cars when I’m finished.”