Martino Motorsports lauded for top drag racing honors

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Forty-five years of drag racing; a six-month 2018 racing season; a 12-hour drive to Virginia Motorsports Park for the season’s last race; hours more of pre-race tuning and tweaking – all of it came down to just six seconds that clinched a world championship for Youngstown’s Martino Motorsports.

It’s moonlighting for the crew’s younger half, race engineer Ryan Martino, who’s the full-time bailiff in Judge R. Scott Krichbaum’s Mahoning County courtroom. Martino, who said he “grew up on the racetrack,” said it’s something he’s been able to share with his father, 45-year drag-car driver Tom Martino, who started Martino Motorsports in his backyard as a teen.

That special bond didn’t sink in until the Professional Drag Racers Association handed up its Lucas Oil Top Dragster World Championship trophy.

“How many people came to us crying that we raced with – that were grown adults and kids – saying that they wished they could do this with their father or their son,” Ryan Martino said. “It’s something remarkable I was able to do this with my father, and I was able to bring this home to the community.

“We’ve won at every level, and this is just icing on the cake – to win this world championship. ... This is the top honor you can receive in drag racing.”

Mahoning County commissioners honored Martino Motorsports during a Thursday meeting – not just for the win, but for community involvement, with the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Beatitude House, Friends of Fido and local school districts and Scout troops.

The city’s “Welcome to Youngstown” sign was updated this month to acknowledge the Martinos’ win.

“We competed all season against drivers of race teams from all over the country and the world, and to come home and be welcomed so warmly from our community means the world to us,” Ryan Martino said.