jtortorete

I am just one racer who's home track has been pittsburgh raceway park (formally keystone raceway) since the 1960's. I have seen many changes over the years, but the changes made by the tedesco family, and now with greg miller as general manager has been incredible!! Only racers that have been around a long time know how the new owner's and manager have made prp one of the best safe places to race in this area, and on the east coast.

The older guys remember the bad surface with 3 inch cracks, the short track when 125 mph required a chute, no sand and gravel emergency stopping area, no catch fence and mound, and the complete transition of the pits with real paving roads, the moving of the starting line, the new bleachers, electricity, and on and on.

The last great effort was to repair a bad track surface that was only discovered after the 2014 racing season had started.

Being in the asphalt business for 17 years, i knew that task was going to be tough and expensive because of timing. It could not have come at a worse time. It did not give the track owners and manager many options. But instead of just doing a patch job the track team went all out including adding the expensive drainage that has been needed for a long time.

We racers have no idea how tough this operation is to run, manage, make safe, and pay for! What we are good at is bitching!!! As an old fart, i always bitched when the time slips were light and i could not easily read them.

I plan not to bitch as much in the future, because i what my home track to be around until i die, which may not be that far down the road.

Go to some other tracks in the area and you will be back saying thanks to the tedesco's and to the greg miller team.

I plan to say thanks more to the great track crew guys who get little to no recognition for their efforts to keep the track safe from "our" oil & water downs and the dirt rocks and car parts that keep falling of our cars. Also running as smooth as they can with the ("which way do i go racers") we sometimes have. Also i thank the announcers who keep us tuned into what is going on.

And lastly i have to say a big thanks to carmen for the best track food on the east coast, and i have been to most of them in my 69 years. We italians know good food!!!

So thank you "prp team" for what you have given us racer!

Jack tortorete (t-1818)