Dirt Track Diaries Vol 6: Shelby-Jo Murphy- "Heart of the Track: Finding Family, Love, and Purpose at OCFS"

Hello everyone my names Shelby-Jo Murphy ! I'm from Pine Bush NY. My home track is Orange County Fair Speedway. I got involved with dirt track racing since I was very young, I was about 2 years old when my mom started to bring me to the races.

My family has been involved with OCFS for many years and this is our home. At the age of 10 I started my first year of selling 50/50 tickets with my mom and now this coming season I’ll be on my 13th year selling tickets. My current involvement at the track includes being Ms. OCFS 2023 & 2024 , it’s been a blast. Us Ms OCFS girls have been involved from being trophy girls to making connections with drivers to meet all the fans to doing kids club. Rilee our Junior Miss and Renee our Little Miss have so much help with coming up with ideas to do for the fan. We have collected over 55 donation in the past two years from race fans and drivers for the kids club to raffle off to the kids , we did a bike night that had over 110 bikes raffled off to kids , we also did a backpack night and had over 75 backpacks given away to all the kids!

We can’t thank all the fans and drivers coming through every week for the kids! The racing community means the world to me because it’s my happy place and no matter how much time has passed during the off season it’s like you don’t miss a beat once we’re back . Everyone in the racing community has become family. If it wasn’t for racing I wouldn't have the friends and family I have. They saved me during my darkest times . I couldn’t ever repay them enough. I lost my nana and dad within a 6 week period in 2022 and to see how much the racing community did for my mom and I was amazing, week in and week out someone always checked in on us and still 3 years later still make sure we’re doing good . We can’t say thank you enough.

There so many reasons why I do what I do with being MS. OCFS because I grew up there and remember the excitement every week and meeting all the drivers and that’s how you fall in love with the sport in making those connections. The kids keep this sport alive. So I felt I wanted to make a mark more than just getting in the photos with the winners . I took the title and made it a job and brought to a level that it’s never been. I wanted to bring back the fan and driver interaction and get the drivers involved and see those smiles again and keep the joy going and hope to keep the kids and parents comes back for more and fall in love with the sport just like I did when I was younger! Kids are the future of racing so I feel you gotta keep them involved to keep the sport alive!

I’m so grateful for OCFS it’s my home away from home ! If it wasn’t for that track wouldn’t have met my boyfriend Daniel Morgiewicz. Now I get to travel with him and see all these new tracks and I’m so grateful for that. But there no place like your home track and you regular fans

! I can’t wait to see what this season brings and many more! Make sure to always bring a friend to a race to get more people involved!!