Tom O'Rorke

Tom O'Rorke , in the grandstands at that speedway.Obviously , Marian's involvement with.auto racing grew from there as she eventually became Wall Stadium's office manager ,.while Tom worked in Wall Stadium's pit area and has served as the chief pit steward for.many years.Marian's son Dennis is also very active as a Modified stock car driver and her.
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Tommy and Marian are both very special to Liz and I. I just don't know what to say.

Special thanks for the contributions of Chief Pit Steward Tom O'Rorke.

So you can image how the discussion went when Marian and Tom O'Rorke, Tom and Jennie Nicol and public relations director Ed Walsh kicked around the idea of extending the racing season with races in late November.
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"The weather is always good here because you're close to the beach," said Tom O'Rorke, in on the decision-making process that created Wall Stadium's fabled Turkey Derby, which will be staged for the 30th consecutive year today.

Because the other asphalt tracks, mostly all north of Wall Stadium, were in a different climate, they were all shut down tight for the season, fueling Wall Stadium's desire to race into November, about a month and a half after the regular season ended.

"The first year, I believe, the weather was beautiful," recalls Tom O'Rorke, whose late first wife, Marian, was the office manager at the track for over 30 years.

"As I remember, we had a good show.

"The next year, I think, the weather was bad," he said, but the track got the racing in.

"The third year," said O'Rorke, "Stafford Springs decided they were going to run against us because we had done so good for the first two years because we had done so well drawing cars and the weather was good."

With Stafford Springs opening in Connecticut, running their own version of Turkey Derby, naturally many drivers from that region went there to race.

That year, O'Rorke said, was the year of the pigeons.A year, O'Rorke said, he will never, ever forget.
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Of course, O'Rorke said, "they didn't go to Stafford, they went back to his coup," but the fans didn't know that.They only knew what they heard over the public address system at the track.

While O'Rorke still laughs today at that night, the track actually had the last laugh on Stafford Springs, which abandon the race after only one year.

Oddly enough, Wall has had great success with Turkey Derby.It was well received and thrived, O'Rorke said, "because it was another chance to race."
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And then the next week, when the weather was much better, O'Rorke had to plow the snow, which had been pushed against the outside wall.

"When the snow was melting, there was water on the track.And, as you know, we couldn't have that," he said.

"We got the racing in," O'Rorke said.

Tom O'Rorke , as chief pit steward at Wall , oversees safety issues , from making sure the cars meet the rules of competition to checking the fire-safe clothing.

TANYA BREEN photoNew guardrails border the expanded racing surface at New Egypt Speedway in Plumsted.

Another thing to remember is that Chief Pit Steward Tom O'Rorke has told me that all cars must have a stone guard on the front of the roll cage.This is not a complicated fixture.It need only be as simple as 1/2" chicken wire.I suggest that you spray it flat black to avoid any glare.

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Pit steward Tom O'Rorke threw in the towel at that point and called the race official at 28 laps.

For more than 30 years , O'Rorke was the glue at the track , the office manager , and the wife of Tom O'Rorke , who will retire as the track's pit steward after a distinguished career spanning more than 30 years.