CLEARFIELD – Todd and Brenda Orsich along with Sherry Glace will be taking a special walk the weekend of Sept. 9Â and 10 to raise funds for the Hahne Regional Cancer Center located in DuBois. The fourth annual walk is in memory of Mick Orsich, who was the track manager and flagman at Hummingbird Speedway until his passing on Sept. 21, 2004.
The trio will be walking from Clearfield to DuBois on day one and resume in DuBois the next day and end their walk at the speedway located in Reynoldsville, PA. The walk is estimated at 28 miles. “As the announcer at the track I was trying to come up with a different way to raise money, and just blurted out that Brenda and I were going to walk to the speedway one weekend, Todd Orsich says.” “The reaction from some of the fans was that they thought that we were crazy, and I thought the same thing when we reached the end of Turnpike Avenue, and looked up Rockton Mountain the first year.” “But after we got to the track with many fans watching us walk in we said to each other that we are going to keep up this walk as a tradition, Orsich stated.”
The trio will start their walk on Friday morning walking through Clearfield via Turnpike Avenue and up Rockton Mountain on Route 153. When they reach the top of the mountain they will continue on Route 322. They will continue their walk through Rockton and end at Sheetz in downtown DuBois. The trio will joined by Tom Glace on Saturday afternoon in downtown DuBois and continue into Falls Creek. When in Falls Creek they will take Smithtown Road and continue on to the speedway later in the day.
The speedway will hold the 6th Mick Orsich Memorial race on Sept. 17 with a rain date set for September 24. Gates will open at 3:30pm with racing at 6 for a four-division program. Gate admission for this event will be $15 and pit admission will be $25. The late model class will highlight the evening’s program paying $2,000 to win plus lap money in the 35-lap feature event. There will also be a dash for cash, and a newly added king of the hill race for late models sponsored by Kutsel’s 322 Auto Sales and Hummingbird Speedway. Drivers will also be competing for special trophies made for this event. Also included is lap money for the street stock class. A special four-wide salute by all the drivers will start the evening honoring Orsich as the man who was a friend to all at the speedway. “Dave Resinger, the track’s program director, had the idea of the four-wide salute, and it still sends chills up and down my spine when all of the cars are on the track at the same time to honor dad,” Orsich said.
A Chinese Auction will also be held the night of the memorial race. “We have done an auction every year during the race and it has gone over well with the fans and has been a great success in raising nearly $17,000 in the past five years,” Brenda Orsich stated. “We would like to thank everyone who have donated items for these auctions over the past years, and those who have donated monetarily. It means so much to us that people are helping the cancer center in trying to eradicate this terrible disease,” Orsich said.
Mick Orsich suffered from esophageal cancer and according to the National Cancer Institute in 2010 the estimated new cases of esophageal cancer in the United States was 16,640 and 14,500 deaths. “We hope to continue our efforts for years to come,” Orsich said. “Like dad said, you have to keep up the fight, and we have taken that to heart, and we don’t want to disappoint him.” ” The two main reasons we started this memorial walk was to honor dad, and to help the others that are being treated at the cancer center.”
The Orsich’s will gladly accept donations during their walk or they can be made by contacting them at 814-765-2840. Donations of Chinese auction items can also be dropped off at the speedway or contacting the Orsich’s for pick up. For more information about the race folks can call the track office at 814-653-8400, by visiting the track’s Web site or by email at dave@hummingbirdspeedway.com.
