Action Park, formerly known as River Valley Speedway, was originally built in the 60's as an asphalt oval and road course for Go-karts, and cars. In 1982, Jiri Nechleba bought the property and leased it to Joe Morello, who built a Speedway track over the oval - Speedway became a major hit in Greene for eight years. Unfortunately, a divorce caused Morello to close and subsequently, Nechleba removed the Speedway dirt. Nechleba reopened the facility to Autocross and Go-karts. In September of 2001, JBR became the owner and quickly started to clean up the property with an elaborate plan to rebuild the dirt Speedway track and expand the roadcourse in an effort to keep all forms of racing at the facility. The early days of Action Park – Track Timeline – 1960's – An asphalt oval and roadcourse is built at the site for Go-karts and sports cars. 1982 – Jiri Nechleba and Joe Morello buy the property. Morello quickly sells his half back to Nechleba and proceeds to lease the premises from Nechleba with the idea of making it into a Speedway track to be known as "Action Park East". The track opens for the '82 racing season. 1983 – Action Park plays host to the first New York State Championship, won by Tuff McBride. 1984 – The facility is gaining popularity and the crowd is growing. Warren Diem wins the Track, and New York State titles. 1985 – Bruce Nelson wins the Track Championship. 1986 – George Lazor is crowned New York State Champion. Champion Speedway has closed, and the US Open moves to Greene, Diem is the victor. 1987 – Tom Burge puts his claim to the US Open. 1988 – The US Open weekend is hit with rain, and in the final day is run in dry and dusty conditions. Diem wins again on his powerful Godden. 1989 – The final season for Morello as impending personal problems will force his closure at years' end. A highlight occurs at mid summer as the track hosts the first Legends Night in quite some time. Many of the early East Coast legends come out for it, and Hank Bassett gets on a bike again - shocking everyone with a vintage performance, easily winning the legends division. 1990 to 2001 – At some point in the early 90's, owner Jiri Nechelba tears down the remains of the Speedway track and scrapes the dirt off the asphalt in order to let car clubs use it again. At this time he renames it "River Valley Speedway" and operates it until his death in 2000. 2001 – Jason Bonsignore purchases the site from Nechelba's estate in Spetember, and begins renovations with the goal of reviving Speedway Motorcycle racing at the well-known track. He switches the name back to "Action park", and intends to open it for the 2002 race year. 2002 – Action Park comes back from the dead after 13 years! The crowd slowly starts to build again. Tommy Sephton wins the first NY State Championship in quite some time and grabs the track points title as well. 2003 – Rain prevents the first three events from taking place but the largest crowd since reopening witnesses the July opener. Cam Rafferty nails his first state title but Sephton wins his second track championship in a row.
©2002 Jason Bonsignore Racing - All Rights Reserved - No part of this site may be reproduced without written consent of Jason Bonsignore. If you encounter any errors on the site, please contact the Webmaster. — Site design by Brad Avery.