Industry leader turned his life's love into a full-time vocation By Paul Schaefer, NASCAR
August 1, 2010 - 5:13pm

 
Ernie Saxton, behind the mike at Grandview Speedway, is a long-time short track racing fixture.
Chris Budihas/Racerboy Marketing

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ernie Saxton is one of short track racing’s best known go-to guys.

A marketing expert, track announcer, souvenir program editor and publisher, media relations, public relations, trade and daily newspaper columnist, radio and television program host, a presenter of “how to” sponsorship seminars for racing teams and tracks … you get the idea. Have a question? Need advice? Bounce an idea? Ernie’s The Man.

Saxton, 68, along with his wife and business partner Marilyn, operates Ernie Saxton Communications. After decades of absorbing and disseminating marketing and promotions knowledge Saxton is a leading all-around motorsports expert. His website is www.saxtonsponsormarket.com.

Saxton is probably best known for his Saturday night racing home of 43 years, Grandview Speedway, a banked and action packed .333-mile clay oval in Bechtelsville, Pa. The 48 year old facility, operated by the Rogers family, Bruce, Teresa, Ken, and Pat is known as “The Greatest Show On Dirt,” thanks both to its design and to the drivers and teams who compete there in the big-time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series dirt Modifieds and dirt Late Models.

Saxton is the track’s publicist, souvenir program editor and publisher, announcer, best friend and fan.

Saxton has also been out in the big American racing world, too. He’s announced races at 174 different speedways from coast to coast. He’s a prolific writer, columnist and electronic media correspondent, typically championing short track racing. He can also be a constructive critic and often concludes a written criticism with the words “just my opinion,” to indicate an openness to other points of view. He has the ear of other industry leaders, the media, those in the motorsports hierarchy, drivers, teams and fans at all levels. He was a founder of the Eastern Motorsports Press Association and retired as its 42-year president in January.

Yet, like most racing enthusiasts – and almost all long-timers in the sport who never lose that enthusiasm -- the memory of attending his first race is vivid.

“My cousin, Ben Baird, was an avid fan and wrote a column in the old Illustrated Speedway News. He’d have racing publications at his house and I’d go through them. Illustrated Speedway News had a wrap around sheet and it was all pictures.

“I was probably 18 when my cousin took me to my first race at Reading (Pa.) Fairgrounds Speedway in 1955,” Saxton said. "I remember Freddy Adams, one of the legendary drivers of that time, must have flipped as high as a light pole that night.”

He also remembers the first story he submitted for publication, too. It was a dispatch from racing at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.

“I wrote an article – two pages double spaced – and sent it to Chris Economaki at National Speed Sport News,” Saxton said. “I was so excited waiting to see if my story was in the paper. It was there with my by-line, but my two-page story ended up being two paragraphs. If Economaki had edited the Bible, it might have turned out being a pamphlet."

Saxton had a first “hero” driver, too.

“I mailed pictures of my favorite drivers to those drivers asking them to autograph them,” Saxton said. “I got very attached to Sprint Car driver named Johnny Thomson. He was the only one who sent back an autographed picture. I started a fan club form him and was an ardent fan. He got injured at the Allentown (Pa.) Fairgrounds and died from infection. I didn’t go to races for two years after that, but my cousin convinced me to start going again.”

Saxton lives in Langhorne, Pa., site of the former behemoth one-mile dirt circle aptly named Langhorne Speedway. For drivers, the track was a star maker and a star breaker.

The track and its facilities were primitive, but fans packed its hard, dirty bare plank grandstands.

“It was not a very nice place by today’s standards,” Saxton recalls. “The track was a maker of men. Because drivers were always turning in a circle it was hard on their bodies. Drivers got hurt there, or worse, pretty regularly. Drivers like Mario Andretti, Bobby and Al Unser, A.J. Foyt and Rodger Ward – all Indianapolis 500 winners -- dreaded going there. But you could make a name for yourself at Langhorne, too. If you went to Langhorne and won you were considered to be among the best drivers.

“The promoters at the time, Irving Fried and Al Gerber knew how to promote,” Saxton said. They put up posters and passed out flyers everywhere. When you got there, you got a hard dirty seat, but they packed ‘em in.

“I was in there in what I laughingly refer to as their press box. It was the top row of seats with a little table pressed against the back of the seats in front of us with a canopy over us. A guy came up there to deliver hot dogs and orange juice to the press, and at the time, people got all dressed up to go to the races. We reporters weren’t wearing jackets and ties, so he left with the food. He gave the hot dogs and orange juice to the restroom attendants, who were in uniform including ties.”

Such were the formalities of big time racing back then.

While Grandview Speedway will always be close to Saxton’s heart, he really liked the former Ascot Park, a quarter-mile dirt oval in Gardena, Calif., near Los Angeles.

“On the eve of Ontario (Calif.) Motor Speedway closing (in 1980), J.C. Agajanian offered me a job announcing at Ascot five nights a week. I didn’t want to move to California and I didn’t like the commute. But I got done announcing there one night and a group of fans was waiting for me. They were Grandview fans who had moved to California from Pennsylvania and they remembered my voice. They thought they had gotten away from me.”

He announced his first race, three-quarter Midgets, at Atlantic City Speedway in New Jersey in the early 1970s when the announcer didn’t show up. The promoter drafted him for duty because Saxton was a race-savvy publicity man who knew the cars and drivers. He said he thinks he did OK for the most part, except when a potato bug flew into his mouth in mid-sentence.

Short tracks and the short-track experience are much improved today, although some of the good old days were really good.

“In the days of Langhorne, fans were not looking for fan friendly facilities," Saxton said. "They went to see who could win at Langhorne. If the Langhorne facility existed today, it would fail.

“You don’t have to have the fanciest place today to be successful. Provide clean restrooms, some corporate boxes for the sponsors and entertain the fans with a fast paced three-hour show. Give them good food at reasonable prices

“Your die-hard fans that you see every week will be there for you. They’re your foundation. Tracks need to attract what I call the “fringe” fans … the fans you see five or six times a year. They’re the ones who are going to ball games, concerts, shows and other forms of entertainment. Do something different to keep them coming back.

“An announcer should have some fan appeal, personality and some knowledge of marketing and sponsorship. Every announcer has a style. Grandview is a unique track with a unique show, and sometimes I let the action speak for itself. I don’t yell and jump up and down.

“A track operator has to create a whole experience to keep the fans happy and wanting to come back.

“I give the credit for the success of Grandview Speedway to Bruce Rogers. As a businessman, he’s always done what he said he’d do. I give credit to the racers. On any given Saturday night we have 50 Modifieds and at least 25 to 30 of them could win. In the Late Models, half of them could win on any night.”

Asked to pick one of the many all-time outstanding drivers he’s seen race at Grandview, Saxton selects Sprint Car driver Fred Rahmer.

“At Grandview, Fast Freddy could point his car anywhere and find an opening. He’s a very talented guy. I’d watch him drive a car in traffic to where there was no opening, and by the time he got there, the opening he anticipated was there, and he made the pass.”

While Saxton never desired to own a race track or race cars, he admits to driving in a race once.

“We had a Philadelphia television sportscaster, Don Tollefson, come to Grandview to do a five lap match race with me. After three laps, I was leading. Then I started thinking about the PR from the race. If I won, we’d get 15 seconds in his sports coverage about the race. On the last lap, I drifted high in turns three and four and he dove low and won the race.

“The crowd booed me. Apparently they felt I could have done better. The guy who owned the car I drove wouldn’t talk to me.

“But the story got two, two and a half minutes of TV coverage on Don’s sports report at his TV station. Today that’s the length of a whole local TV sports segment.”