6/24/2025
Fonda Speedway
LEGENDS KENNY SHOEMAKER AND FRANK TRINKAUS HONORED AT THE FONDA SPEEDWAY
By: Ron Szczerba
Fonda, NY – Last Saturday evening (June 21) at the Fonda Speedway, Parks Companies sponsored a racing program full of racing memories, one being Kenny Gates 100th career win in the Leatherstocking Credit Union Pro Stock division, the other Rocky Warner’s emotional win over Stewart Friesen in the Amsterdam Truck Canter Modified feature, holding off Friesen after a caution closed up the field with just three laps to go in the event, among others.
History was made as well with Kenny Shoemaker and Frank Trinkaus being honored by the Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series with a first ever memorial night for both, hosted by Laurie Fallis and her MVVDMS organization. On the flag stand was none other than legendary Hall of Fame starter Kenny Marshall, flagging all of the vintage feature events. During opening ceremonies, all of the vintage drivers stood on victory lane to honor Shoemaker and Trinkaus.
Melissa Shoemaker-Pigliavento spoke about her father while Ron Moshier, author of the Lou Lazzaro book, spoke of the close friendship that he and his family had with the Trinkaus family.
“I’d like to thank everybody for coming out tonight,” Melissa said to the crowd. “My dad would be 96 years old this year. His first win at the Fonda Speedway was in 1995 and he won his last feature in 1975. If you look at the list of the drivers that have the most wins at Fonda, he is still sixth on the list with 54. You know who bumped him out, and that is okay with me, were Stewy (Stewart Friesen) and Bobby (Varin) and they deserve that. So, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate each and every one of the vintage program drivers and everybody that came out tonight.”
“This is a special night for me, my brother, my sister, and our family,” Moshier said. “Today would be our fathers 92nd birthday and we are celebrating it here at the Fonda Speedway because our parents would bring us here every Saturday night in the 60’s. Together as a group we would always root for whoever was driving the yellow and blue #62 owned by our family friend Frank Trinkaus.”
“He was a speed shop owner in Fly Creek, NY near Cooperstown and I can tell you my grandfather did a lot of work on the car and Frank would let him drive it a few times as payment for doing the paint job or whatever my grandfather did on the car. I can also tell you that Frank Trinkaus was one of dirt track racing’s real good guys.”
“He was a likeable, you can pay me later kind of speed shop owner who after he was a car owner would come here with his parts truck and say okay you can pay me later. I’m sure, pretty sure a lot of those drivers never paid him, but Frank didn’t care. That speed shop later became Jumpin’ Jack’s Speed Shop when Frank sold the business.”
“As a Hall of Fame car owner, eight different drivers won Fonda features in Frank’s #62, one of them was Kenny Shoemaker. As a kid my favorite driver was Kenny Shoemaker in the #24 because of his all out aggressive style that made him a winner here in several different race cars, at least eight of them, including the #62, #111, #24, #2X, #50, #97S, #63, and a Ford powered #81A. I was here for most of those.”
“Thank you Frank and Kenny for the memories. Thank you Brett Deyo, Fonda Speedway, Laurie Fallis, and the MVVDMS for honoring two more reasons why Fonda will always be to us the Track of Champions. And thank you dad, Happy Birthday.”
Shoemaker-Pigliavento presented a special plaque to Laurie Fallis which said: special thanks to Laurie Fallis and the MVVDMS for the Kenny Shoemaker, Frank Trinkaus Night at the Fonda Speedway June 21, 2025.
Fallis then thanked all of the MVVDMS drivers for coming out to Fonda on Saturday, “We have a total of 40 cars,” she said. “This is because of you guys (pointing to the drivers), not because of me and thank you to all the fans,” she said.
Monetary awards were also provided to the MVVDMS drivers as follows:
In honor of Frank Trinkaus $1050.00 cash was distributed to drivers. JOHN CANKAR
In honor of Kenny Shoemaker $1075.00 was be distributed to drivers plus trophies presented by Melissa Shoemaker-Pigliavento.
In honor of Frank Trinkaus, New York’s Butcher Brothers added $200.00 cash bonuses.
$300.00 was added to our next race of choice for drivers bonuses. Also $500.00 will be added to our Will Cagle Night on Friday, September 12th at the Fonda Speedway.
Northeast Stock Car Old Timers (NESCOT) drivers membership lucky pot winners totaling $160.00 will go to 8 lucky MVVDMS drivers that are members of NESCOT.
Each MVVDMS division was sponsored by different companies including:
MVVDMS M2 Metals LLC Sportsman Division
MVVDMS Mangino Chevrolet, Buick, GMC Modified Division
MVVDMS JK Signworks Late Model Division
MVVDMA Prime Signs Mystique Division
MVVDMS Race Printing & Packaging Center Antique Division
Submitted By: Brett Deyo