Throwback track a stone's throw from Watkins Glen

You know that crappy ol' four-cylinder car your friends are always giving you grief about -- the one you never wanted anybody to see you driving back in high school or college? Throw some roll bars in the beast and tow it to the Finger Lakes region of New York come early November.

Black Rock Speedway in Dundee has a deal that's just too good to pass up.

• Track Web site

The clay, semi-banked oval, all 4/10ths of a mile of it, is featuring a 100-lap Enduro race on Nov. 7 that pays $10,000 to win. That's right -- 10 grand. Even better, quite possibly, is the payout to second and third place. The runner-up gets 200 bucks; third place, $100. Talk about an incentive to win, that's it.

There will be no points racing that night. Nobody has to worry about making the Chase; 12th-place in this deal gets a big, fat load of nothing.

This Friday night, while the Sprint Cup tour is in Watkins Glen, just 12 miles from Black Rock, the track will play host to Buzzy and David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose, A.J. Allmendinger, Brendan Gaughan and Michael McDowell.

Not to be left out, a number of Sprint Cup Series crew chiefs and crew members will throw down in Enduro races. Scheduled to appear are Mike Ford and Kevin Manion, crew chiefs for Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. SPEED's Bob Dillner will race, as will Jenn Chappell, Ambrose's public relations representative. There's also a chance that drivers' wives and girlfriends could have a race of their own.

It should be a night to see. A dollar from every ticket sold and half of a 50/50 raffle will benefit Milly's Pantry in nearby Penn Yan, N.Y., as well as Motor Racing Outreach.

"I'd like for people at Watkins Glen to know we're only 12 miles away," track owner Dean Hoag said. "So they can get in their cars at 6 o'clock on Friday night and be up here. It's 6:45 when we start. They can enjoy a very good show and get back to the track in plenty of time to get a decent night's rest. It should be a part of their whole weekend to come see us."

Another cool program at the track allows drivers aged 12-15 to race. Often, the car will be turned over to dad for a second race and then to mom for a third. Between all its divisions, Black Rock tends to get an overall car count of about 100. The facility has been around for 51 years, with Hoag at the helm for five.

"We're just continually trying to improve it and make it more entertaining and make more inroads to having a family atmosphere," Hoag said. "[Having the Cup circuit at Watkins Glen] is a big help if you do it right. ... It's like anything else in business. It takes time, and you have to prove to the people that you're for real, and that they can come here, have a good time and not get harassed. We've got some neat stuff they can do with their own race cars. It's a growing relationship. It seems to work real well."