Deaf Teen Helped by Photographer

-Printed in Area Auto Racing News- 2009
By Robin Ervin

Racers are by their very nature, passion filled dreamers. This applies to not just drivers and their crews but to those who cover the sport as well. A person empowered by a passion- filled dream will rise to overcome every obstacle to achieve their dream. This Friday, I saw one such person at Bob Yurko’s photography seminar. 17-year-old Matt Ward from Newark Delaware came to the photography seminar because he wants to be a professional motorsports photographer. Ward is not letting his deafness keep him from doing what he loves.  Ward attended the professional photographer’s seminar because he was not able to come Saturday.

He attended the seminar aided by signer Marian Gallagher. As Yurko and the other professional photographers talked about the art and techniques of motorsports photography and their passion for their craft, Gallagher relayed the information to the eager ears of Ward.   The expression on the young man’s face spoke volumes. It was the face of someone who is starting to see his dream come to fruition; A dream of one day calling himself a professional racing photographer.

After the seminar was over, Yurko, aided by Gallagher, gave the young man a one-on-one session on the finer points and techniques that make separate a good photo from an award-winning motorsports photo. 

The Motorsports Expo helped this young man along the road to fulfilling his passion.

Ron John Koczon-Dirt Modified Driver

Q. How long have you been racing at New Egypt Speedway?
A. Ever since they changed it back to dirt in 1998. I ran a sportsman here three years until I won the (Sportsman track) championship here in 2000.  I raced previously in 1997 at East Windsor Speedway and I won a championship there.  After 2000, I moved up from Sportsman to Modifieds and I’ve been there ever since.

Q. How do you like the Modified division? 
A. I like it a lot. Very stiff competition. Unfortunately you need to be well finance to do good at it. We’re doing the best we can with what we got. I hurt my performance last week by not having the finances to fix some parts that should have been changed. We enjoy it though. It’s a passion.  You go out and give it your all with the best equipment you can afford. Sometimes we can’t afford to get new parts for the car but still go out there and compete.

Q. Why did you start racing? 
A. It was because of my uncle RJ Brown. He raced his #6 at Reading pa , Flemington, East Windsor, Bridgeport Speedway.  He built cars for (famed driver) Bud Olsen. My father Ron said that if I wanted to build a race car from the ground up with a few of my buddies, that he would help me with the financing of the effort.

Q. What has been your most memorable moment in racing so far?
A. Hmm, wow. That’s a good question.  Its hard to pick one, there’s been so many that stand out. I guess I would say it was my first feature win in 1996.  The Tri-State 50, which was held at east Windsor speedway. It was the biggest race of the year for street stocks at East Windsor. It paid a lot of money to win and that was my first feature  win ever. I also won most popular driver that night and finished high in the point standing for that year as well. The next year, I went on to win the track championship there.

Q.What would you do if you weren’t racing?
A. Hmm, I really don’t know what does a non-racing person does with their free time. Ha ha  Hmm. I guess if I wasn’t spending all those hours working in the garage, I would spend more time with my son and my wife. I really enjoy spending time with them.

Q. Would you like your son to follow in your footsteps?
A. I would really rather that he didn’t. I want to keep him around racing but not as a driver because of the financial difficulties involved in having and maintaining a competitive car. There’s a lot of heartache and sacrifice involved. (pause) In a way, I would want him to race but at the same time, I want to spare him the financial headaches involved with racing. I’d rather he became a professional golfer or a baseball player or something like that. ha ha. 

Q. Is this your favorite track?
A. I do love new Egypt. In fact I live just down the road from here. I ventured to Grandview speedway for a race and loved the high banks there but New Egypt is so close to my home and the competition here is great. I love coming here every week, racing with my buddies and seeing the local fans who come here every week.  I’ve been here so long that I know a lot of fans who come here.  The fans here are awesome. I think that’s why I stay here until the last car leaves.

Q. How does NJ racing compare to racing in Pa or NY?
A. I don’t believe that racing is as established in NJ. I can’t really compare to the other states because I don’t really race there but I think its because of how close we are to the shore. There are a lot of other things people can do on a Saturday night in NJ, so the tracks in NJ have to fight to attract fans and that makes it a bit tough. . 

Thank you for the interview.