IHRA Track Profile: Empire Dragway

Let's get one thing clear: Jerry and Clara Scaccia knew exactly what they were getting into. Both had been drag racers for decades, so when they took over Empire Dragway in Leicester, N.Y. – about an hour east of Buffalo – there weren't many surprises.

Well, maybe a couple. One of them: The internet, and chat forums, where often anonymous posters take shots and the track and the management. It's a problem every promoter, regardless of the kind of racing they do, is facing today. And it's something Jerry acknowledges: Those internet forums, he says, "are a pain in my ass!"

Yeah, that's Jerry Scaccia. He doesn't pull any punches – that's why, at age 66, he was able to walk away from a successful auto collision repair and towing business he ran for 50 years, and try something different. And that something was to buy Empire Dragway from the Metcalfe family, which owned it for 27 years.

"We were looking for something to do," Jerry says. "I'm just not the type to sit around."

He missed racing – he competed in Top Sportsman, and Clara drove in Super Pro – and Empire Dragway had been their home track for years. When he heard it was for sale, and that some area farmers were looking to buy the land and shut down the track, he stepped up. To those naysayers: "I tell them that if we hadn't taken over the place, it could be corn fields right now."

So not only did Jerry and Clara buy Empire, they invested in it, some $200,000 the first year alone, in 2014. They added a new ambulance, a second concession stand, improved the lighting and outfitted a four-wheel-drive vehicle with an updated fire extinguisher and a track dryer. They remodeled the tower, added a new timing system, improved the sound system, and fixed the poor drainage that had plagued the track, which was built in 1970, for years. Everything that doesn't move has a coat of fresh paint.

And for those who have a problem, Jerry Scaccia isn't hard to find – "I'm out there on the line staging cars. People say, 'You belong up there in the tower!' But that's not me. If somebody has an issue, I want them to bring it to me."

The Scaccias have a good relationship with the town, and are working with the Chamber of Commerce to share expenses on advertising this year. Opening day is April 22, with a full schedule all the way through October.

"It's a testament to how hard work, dedication and the willingness to invest can turn a facility from surviving to thriving," says IHRA Division Director Jon O'Neal. "There are three sides to Jerry – a successful businessman, a racer and a friendly and understanding manager. The customers to his facility see a combination of those three elements in everything he does."

And as for the IHRA, "They've been right there for everything I've needed. I just pick up the phone and Jon handles it." It's the kind of relationship that earned Empire the IHRA Summit Racing Equipment Super Series Track of the Year honor for 2016.

And, just once in a while, even those internet forums can be uncharacteristically kind. From "Uncle Paul" at Yellowbullet.com: "If you have ever been to Empire Dragway you surely have seen Jeffrey Schillinger in his wheelchair parked tower side, right next to the guard rail watching every car. Now imagine if you sit in a wheelchair – you don't exactly have the best view. Well, the staff at Empire Dragway stepped up to the plate and built Jeffrey his own personal ramp so he can get a better view of the track. That's the sign of a track owner who cares."