Story By: FIVE MILE POINT SPEEDWAY – KIRKWOOD, NY – Five Mile Point Speedway will honor the memory of legendary local driver Mike Colsten next Monday, July 17th. The “Gary’s U-Pull It” sponsored, Mike Colsten Remembered 51 will honor the all-time Five Mile Point Speedway great.
The Modified race will be 51 laps commemorating the number that he raced his entire career and will pay a minimum of $5,151 to win. There has also been over $2,500 in bonus lap money put together for the race. Racing begins at 7:15 p.m. on Monday evening and will include point events for the Factory Stocks, 600 c.c. Modifieds and Four Cylinders.
The race on Monday, July 17th is one of three currently on the Five Mile Point Speedway remaining schedule. The Heath Memorial honors track founders Irving and Anna Heath and will take place on Sunday, July 30th. On Sunday, August 13th the speedway is scheduled to host the final race of the Summer Series Schedule. A limited race schedule was put together in mid-April as delays in the closing on the potential sale of the speedway took place. As of this writing, a firm closing date on the sale has not been established but is expected in the fall as an ongoing re-zoning process is taking place with the Town of Kirkwood regarding the speedway property.
The race was first held in 2020. That season saw the event held without spectators being permitted to attend due to the covid pandemic. Stewart Friesen bested the talented field in that first race honoring the legendary Colsten. In 2021 the race was first postponed due to the ongoing race car tire shortage and the second time due to weather. Last year, weekly Modified Driver Nick Rochinski from Dickson City, PA bested a star-studded field to record the victory in the Mike Colsten Remembered event.
Colsten, was one of the winningest and most popular drivers of all time at Five Mile Point Speedway over his legendary career. On the track he raced to over one hundred feature wins in the Late Model and Modified divisions and recorded five Modified Track Championships. Colsten was also a Late Model Track Champion and captured big Modified wins in the Southern Tier 100 in 1993 and won the Southern Tier Open in 2001 and 2008 and was a four-time Heath Memorial race winner. He was also one of the original All-Time 50 Greatest Drivers at Five Mile Point Speedway as announced back in 2000. His first Modified victory at the speedway occurred on July 15, 1978 and his final win at the speedway took place on opening day – April 9, 2017. He continued to race weekly at Five Mile Point Speedway through the 2018 racing season.
Mike Colsten held the nicknames “The Recycler” and “Mr. Ford Power” as the majority of his racing career he utilized Ford powered Modifieds to success. He seemed to have a leg up on the competition when it came to opening day at Five Mile Point Speedway with six opening day Modified victories. Colsten, passed away in January of 2020. His son Joey Colsten will be driving the famous #51 on his Modified Monday evening. Joey has five career feature wins at Five Mile Point Speedway and would certainly love to add to that total in the race remembering his dad.
Over $2,500 in lap sponsorships have been put together for the Modified feature event. The majority of the 51 laps having bonus money posted of at least $51. Drivers running in the top five positions on each lap will be randomly drawn to collect the bonus laps. Lap 26, the halfway point of the race will see the race leader earn $251 from Dale and Sue Smith. Other extra incentive laps are lap 7 ($100), lap 17 ($171), lap 33 ($133) and lap 51 ($100). Those laps in order have been put up by Ron Doebler, Signworks Custom Fleet Graphics, Binghamton Truck & Tire Center and Worthing Racing in respective order.
Modified heat race winners will also earn $151 each from Signworks Custom Fleet Graphics.
Joining the Modifieds will be the Factory Stocks as they run in their biggest paying event of the season. The Factory Stock “Shirley Shootout” will pay $700 to the winner of the 25 lap event. The race sponsored by Signworks Custom Fleet Graphics honors the Memory of Shirley Zacharias. The 600 c.c. Modifieds and Four Cylinders will be in action as well.