BlingxBling
07-10-2006, 11:15 PM
Gene Ostrowski Re-routes His Racing Career
By Dino Oberto… “Keeping Track”
It wasn’t too long ago that Gene Ostrowski had thoughts of a racing career. As a youngster he traveled to Mountain Speedway, then Evergreen Raceway, with Wapwallowpen’s Kirk Buchanan, the 1992 Street Stock champion.
Fast forward a decade. It was 2003 when the 31-year old from Berwick put together an enduro car for competition at Mountain and even donated his winnings to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He did that in order to help his niece, Camillia Stiller of Mountaintop, who suffers from disease.
But what started out as running in races has since changed direction. He instead has found success in calling and writing about them as Ostrowski has settled into the role of announcer and media relations for the St. Johns speedway.
“Originally in 2003 I drove in some of the enduros at Mountain Speedway and also a few at Mahoning Valley Speedway. Then in 2004 I ran the 4-Cylinder Thriller cars at Mountain,” said the Ostrowski, an engineer by trade for Crispin Value of Berwick.
“As far as the announcing it all came about in July of 2004 when the track announcer couldn’t make it for one reason or another. So I told Billy Bartley, (co-promoter) jokingly, that if you need someone up in the tower to announce and that I don’t know if I’d do a good job, but I’ll do it.
“So one thing led to another and I guess I did a half decent job. He (Bartley) asked me after that if I wanted to do the remainder of the enduro races for the rest of the year, which I did.”
That first gig was for a NEETS enduro race. But for Ostrowski there was more then just the announcing. He also offered to take care of the PR as well.
“Even prior to that I was writing a lot of press releases for NEETS just because they didn’t really have anyone to do them,” he recalled.
“At that same time, 2004, my wife Jeralyn, was expecting our second child and our daughter Rose was born that August. I pretty much knew then that I wouldn’t be racing full time after that.
“I was still planning to maybe run a little bit in 2005 but my car really wasn’t competitive being that it was rear-wheel drive and most of the better cars are front-wheel and plus my car was over 20-years old.
“After that season (promoter) Joe Callavini and Billy Bartley asked me if I’d like to be the announcer for 2005. At first I told them that I was planning on racing and that I’d have to think about it for a while.
“But I thought instead of spending money to race it wouldn’t be a bad idea to accept the job and that way I could still get to the race track and enjoy myself.”
As they say the rest is history. Ostrowski now is the person that fans and drivers as well as media outlets rely on for up-to-date information. He also provides the info that goes into the tracks program book and web site.
As the voice of Mountain Speedway, Ostrowski has nurtured into a great race caller and earned the respect of the fans and drivers who look forward to his smooth vocals when calling all the action.
“It was definitely a learning experience and I think it went pretty well. A lot of people helped me out including some other announcers and even Earl Krause over at Area Auto Racing News. They all just kind of helped me through with things as far as writing press releases,” he said.
Some of his work with the microphone can be attributed to past experience before race announcing. From 1990 to 2000 he had a popular DJ business known as Sound EFX Entertainment.
“As far as the week-to-week announcing I was OK with public speaking it’s just that I’m kind of quite. It took a while but once I got use to everyone and they got use to me everything worked out good.
“Just like anything some weeks are better than others but no matter what I’m having fun and enjoy it.”
He admits that having the experience from behind the wheel has also been beneficial when calling a race.
“I think it does. My car, unlike some of the other 4-Cylinder cars, at least now, was rear-wheel drive. So a lot of the cars on the track now, with the exception of the front-wheel drive 4-cylinder cars, are rear-wheel drive. So just knowing how the car reacts like any rear-wheel car would, I think I have more of a feel in making calls in that respect.
“I think that just having been in a car and knowing the feel of the car and actually seeing what happens on the race track, I think that helps me make a call a little bit better.”
After the night of racing is over Ostrowski’s night is still in gear as he then has to put together the race report for release and also prepare the weekly program book.
“I guess it was back in 2004 when I was talking to Joan Dancho who does the track program book. We were talking about some guys like Kirk Buchanan, Russ Frantz, Don Kepping, and some of the other guys who ran at the track back in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s.
“She said she didn’t know anything about them and would love to know more so I told her I would write some things and she put them in the book. We’ve been friends ever since and I’ve been writing for the book ever since then too.”
With his newfound career Ostrowski says he’s content to keep at it but would not completely rule out ever getting behind the wheel of a race car again.
“As of right now I don’t plan on driving anymore. I sold my car and it’s now running down at Mahoning Valley.
“Maybe someday if I wasn’t doing the announcing and a ride happened to poop up or somebody would want me behind the wheel for some odd reason I’d probably do it. I missed it (driving) at the beginning of last season but after one or two races I didn’t.
“I really like announcing. It’s a blast, especially with the kids. They all love racing. They like crashing but most of all they love their drivers.”
By Dino Oberto… “Keeping Track”
It wasn’t too long ago that Gene Ostrowski had thoughts of a racing career. As a youngster he traveled to Mountain Speedway, then Evergreen Raceway, with Wapwallowpen’s Kirk Buchanan, the 1992 Street Stock champion.
Fast forward a decade. It was 2003 when the 31-year old from Berwick put together an enduro car for competition at Mountain and even donated his winnings to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He did that in order to help his niece, Camillia Stiller of Mountaintop, who suffers from disease.
But what started out as running in races has since changed direction. He instead has found success in calling and writing about them as Ostrowski has settled into the role of announcer and media relations for the St. Johns speedway.
“Originally in 2003 I drove in some of the enduros at Mountain Speedway and also a few at Mahoning Valley Speedway. Then in 2004 I ran the 4-Cylinder Thriller cars at Mountain,” said the Ostrowski, an engineer by trade for Crispin Value of Berwick.
“As far as the announcing it all came about in July of 2004 when the track announcer couldn’t make it for one reason or another. So I told Billy Bartley, (co-promoter) jokingly, that if you need someone up in the tower to announce and that I don’t know if I’d do a good job, but I’ll do it.
“So one thing led to another and I guess I did a half decent job. He (Bartley) asked me after that if I wanted to do the remainder of the enduro races for the rest of the year, which I did.”
That first gig was for a NEETS enduro race. But for Ostrowski there was more then just the announcing. He also offered to take care of the PR as well.
“Even prior to that I was writing a lot of press releases for NEETS just because they didn’t really have anyone to do them,” he recalled.
“At that same time, 2004, my wife Jeralyn, was expecting our second child and our daughter Rose was born that August. I pretty much knew then that I wouldn’t be racing full time after that.
“I was still planning to maybe run a little bit in 2005 but my car really wasn’t competitive being that it was rear-wheel drive and most of the better cars are front-wheel and plus my car was over 20-years old.
“After that season (promoter) Joe Callavini and Billy Bartley asked me if I’d like to be the announcer for 2005. At first I told them that I was planning on racing and that I’d have to think about it for a while.
“But I thought instead of spending money to race it wouldn’t be a bad idea to accept the job and that way I could still get to the race track and enjoy myself.”
As they say the rest is history. Ostrowski now is the person that fans and drivers as well as media outlets rely on for up-to-date information. He also provides the info that goes into the tracks program book and web site.
As the voice of Mountain Speedway, Ostrowski has nurtured into a great race caller and earned the respect of the fans and drivers who look forward to his smooth vocals when calling all the action.
“It was definitely a learning experience and I think it went pretty well. A lot of people helped me out including some other announcers and even Earl Krause over at Area Auto Racing News. They all just kind of helped me through with things as far as writing press releases,” he said.
Some of his work with the microphone can be attributed to past experience before race announcing. From 1990 to 2000 he had a popular DJ business known as Sound EFX Entertainment.
“As far as the week-to-week announcing I was OK with public speaking it’s just that I’m kind of quite. It took a while but once I got use to everyone and they got use to me everything worked out good.
“Just like anything some weeks are better than others but no matter what I’m having fun and enjoy it.”
He admits that having the experience from behind the wheel has also been beneficial when calling a race.
“I think it does. My car, unlike some of the other 4-Cylinder cars, at least now, was rear-wheel drive. So a lot of the cars on the track now, with the exception of the front-wheel drive 4-cylinder cars, are rear-wheel drive. So just knowing how the car reacts like any rear-wheel car would, I think I have more of a feel in making calls in that respect.
“I think that just having been in a car and knowing the feel of the car and actually seeing what happens on the race track, I think that helps me make a call a little bit better.”
After the night of racing is over Ostrowski’s night is still in gear as he then has to put together the race report for release and also prepare the weekly program book.
“I guess it was back in 2004 when I was talking to Joan Dancho who does the track program book. We were talking about some guys like Kirk Buchanan, Russ Frantz, Don Kepping, and some of the other guys who ran at the track back in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s.
“She said she didn’t know anything about them and would love to know more so I told her I would write some things and she put them in the book. We’ve been friends ever since and I’ve been writing for the book ever since then too.”
With his newfound career Ostrowski says he’s content to keep at it but would not completely rule out ever getting behind the wheel of a race car again.
“As of right now I don’t plan on driving anymore. I sold my car and it’s now running down at Mahoning Valley.
“Maybe someday if I wasn’t doing the announcing and a ride happened to poop up or somebody would want me behind the wheel for some odd reason I’d probably do it. I missed it (driving) at the beginning of last season but after one or two races I didn’t.
“I really like announcing. It’s a blast, especially with the kids. They all love racing. They like crashing but most of all they love their drivers.”