Charlie Donk DIRT Modified Driver News
2007 Season
by Ben Graham "Former Australian V8 Dirt Modified Champion Mark Robinson scored an historic win in Round Two of the Summer Slam Series on Saturday night (Dec 8) at Sydney’s Tyrepower Parramatta City Raceway (TPCR). Robinson’s win in the Coastal Driveline Specialist-backed event was the his first aboard his recently acquired, American-built Teo entry. A restart with 16 laps to run brought runaway leader Herne back to the field and unfortunately saw the retirement of Tomkins who had been black-flagged for excessive noise." read more |
MARYBOROUGH, AUSTRALIA. -- Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series racer Gary Tomkins won on Saturday night (Dec 1), taking out Round Two of the Roosters Cup Series at Maryborough Speedway. It was a reversal of fortune for Tomkins, who was leading the Feature last weekend in Brisbane until brake problems brought his night to a premature end. “We fixed the brake problem but we came here with pretty much the same setup we had last week” Tomkins revealed. “But we changed it a bunch during the night trying to tighten the car up a little. I think that really played in my favour a little bit compared to what these guys are used to, I knew what to do for this kind of track where the guys don’t run on it so much” The racetrack was slick but Tomkins felt right at home. “Some of the tracks we race on back home, that’s what it looked like. It was one groove on the bottom and at home it wouldn’t be good cause everybody would be stuck down there but here there were still a couple of guys trying to make the top work. I kept hearing everybody tell me ‘you’ve got to run the top here, you’ve got to run the top’ but for some reason it didn’t really want to come in tonight, the bottom just seemed to be the place to be” Top Five: Gary is down there with his wife Sue and Son Justin.“We went down the Gold Coast, stayed right on the beach at Surfers Paradise. We went to Dreamworld (themepark) and checked that out a little bit and tried to be a tourist. Really I’m taking this as a vacation too for my family, I figure I race every weekend all summer long and we don’t get the chance to go away and do things as a family so to bring them over here with me we get a chance to do that” Tomkins has one more race next Saturday at Sydney. For the full story with pictures click here. |
DIRT Modifieds
Charlie tells Dougs Dirt Diary about all of the racecars he is working on for 2008, the new one he is assembling right now for Paul Habeck, sump systems, the new “big bearing” style rear end he is installing over the winter. |
Charlie is the featured driver on the Leaf Racewear website. He can be found at www.leafracewear.com. Be sure to check it out. |
Charlie started his race in 3rd position and finished taking 2nd. |
| September 22nd, 2007 |
| 33 Midgets signed in Saturday night at the Paradise Speedway for the 19th NYMM race of the 2007 season. The 99D car of Charlie Donk came in third place. For More information on this race, click here. Pictures of his Modified Midget car will be posted here shortly. |
Democrat And Chronical Interview
"Charlie Donk of Macedon has been trading paint on the dirt track at Canandaigua Speedway for more than 20 years. Nearly every summer Saturday night he, his wife Wanda and son Cory can be found at the track getting ready for the feature event." Video story by Jeffrey Blackwell.
FEATURE #1 (35-laps): GARY TOMKINS, Steve Paine, Charlie Donk, Chuck Bower, Ron Cartwright Jr., Derrick Podsiadlo, Chad Homan, Eldon Payne Jr., Pete Taylor, Phil Vigneri, Paul Habeck, Mike Johnson, Mike Ward, Gil Tegg Jr., Fran Hilton, Shannon Whaley, Dave Rauscher, Russ Hefti, Butch Tittle, Neil Onderdonk, Don Slover, Ed Monroe, Dan McDonald, Mike Bowman. FEATURE #2 (35-laps): GARY TOMKINS, Charlie Donk, Derrick Podsiadlo, Steve Paine, Ron Cartwright Jr., Chuck Bower, Russ Hefti, Gil Tegg Jr., Phil Vigneri, Chad Homan, Dave Rauscher, Eldon Payne Jr., Butch Tittle, Mike Ward, Shannon Whaley, Pete Taylor, Mike Johnson, Ed Monroe, Paul Habeck, Mike Bowman, Fran Hilton, Neil Onderdonk, Don Slover, Dan McDonald. |
Brett Hearn, Tim Fuller, Vic Coffey, Frank Cozze, Alan Johnson, Mitch Gibbs, Billy Decker, Dale Planck, Jimmy Phelps, Pat Ward, Danny Johnson, Steve Paine, Justin Haers, Billy Dunn, Derrick Podsiadlo, Vince Vitale, Charlie Donk, Shannon Whaley, Chad Homan, Eldon Payne,Jr, Matt Sheppard, Mike Bowman, Chad Brachmann, Russ Hefti, Chuck Bower, Kevin Bates, Gary Tomkins, Dave Rauscher, Brett Tonkin, Ryan Phelps. |
| August 4th, 2007 |
Charlie finished in third place at the DIRT Modified feature Saturday night at Canandaigua. It was quite the night as Charlie drove through an accident with only 1 small dent in the right rear panel.. Charlie drove his 2007 Teo Pro Car for the first time at this event, and said it handled great. |
Justin Haers, Chad Brachmann, Steve Hulsizer, Bob Henry Jr., Sean Beardsley, Roy Bresnahan, Charlie Donk, Randy Chrysler, Chad Phelps, Chuck Bower, Vince Vitale, Derrick Podsiadlo, Chad Homan, Jeff Isabell, Russ Hefti, Roger Chrysler, Shannon Whaley, John Pfeffer, Mike Johnson, Mike Bowman, Adam Roberts, Brian Murphy, Rob Bellinger. |
DANNY JOHNSON, Steve Paine, Gary Tomkins, Jimmy Phelps, Frankie Caprara Jr., Derrick Podsiadlo, Alan Johnson, Chuck Bower, Bob Henry Jr., Steve Hulsizer, Ryan Phelps, Charlie Donk, Dave Rauscher, John Pfeffer, Chad Homan, Shannon Whaley, Mike Bowman, Francisco Pereira, Ron Cartwright Jr., Russ Hefti, Pete Taylor, Kevin Bates, Justin Haers, Ron Smoker. |
July 7, 2007 |
Charlie Donk finished in third place at the Canandaigua DIRT Modified feature Saturday night after an intense battle with Steve Paine on the final lap of the race. |
Canandaigua Speedway June 16, 2007 |
Charlie brought his number 99 to victory lane on Saturday at the Canandaigua Speedway to record his second 35-lap DIRTcar Big-Block Modified feature win of the year on Canandaigua Chrysler Dodge night. Read More |
| STEVE PAINE, Vic Coffey, Chuck Bower, Gary Tomkins, Charlie Donk, Justin Haers, Chad Homan, Dave Rauscher, Phil Vigneri, Derrick Podsiadlo, Eldon Payne Jr., Pete Taylor, Butch Tittle, Mike Johnson, Greg Monica, Paul Habeck, Ed Monroe, Russ Hefti, Fran Hilton, Don Slover. |
Canandaigua Speedway May 5, 2007 |
Charlie Donk held on to claim the 35 lap DIRT car Big-Block Modified feature on Saturday at Canandaigua Speedway. Steve Paine, who took the lead on lap 18, suffered a broken magneto on lap 26 giving Donk back the lead and victory.This is Charlie's seventh career Modified win at Ontario County Fairgrounds. |
JUSTIN HAERS, Steve Paine, Danny Johnson, Vic Coffey, Chuck Bower, Russ Hefti, Eldon Payne Jr., Chad Homan, Mike Bowman, Dave Rauscher, Ron Cartwright Jr., Ed Monroe, Paul Habeck, Billy Cook, Robbie Grant, Gary Tomkins, Vince Vitale, Charlie Donk, Derrick Podsiadlo, Mike Johnson, Terry Knoblock. |
Charlie Donk is a Dirt modified race car driver who races every saturday night at Canandaigua Speedway. Charlie started his career off racing motorcycles, then he switched to street stock. Charlie drives a Troyer Race Car and a Teo Pro Car, both are new for the 2007 race season. Charlie repairs and rebuilds BERT dirt transmissions in his shop in Macedon NY. Charlie also builds race cars for other drivers. Charlie has started racing 600cc Sprint Cars this year at Paradise Speedway in Geneva NY. He races a King Brothers Sprint car, and his new 600 cc sprint car is on the way. His sponsor is Dan Wilmer of Fairport New York. Charlie says that he is going to paint the 600cc sprint car in the same color scheme as the Troyer Race Car, and the Teo Pro Car. Charlie would like to say thank you to all of his sponsors, escecially Pizza Logs, Turner Automotive, Ron Donk Excavating, Masten Engineering, Mangus Pumps, Northeastern Pools and Spa's, Fastenall, Eagle Automotive, K&D Disposal, Autogenesis, Shell's Pizzeria, Specialty Tools Inc., Mylo's Tree Service, Bristol Outdoors, TJ's Gun Shop, and Schaeffer's Specialized Lubricants.
