Many will remember Corey Comperatore for his last valiant act — shielding his family from bullets at the Trump Rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. For those in the community of Buffalo Township and at Lernerville Speedway, they’ll remember him for much more than that. Comperatore had served as fire chief for the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company as well in various capacities at the Sarver, Pennsylvania, dirt track.
“Corey was connected with us totally,” said Ted Tomson, one of the five brothers who own Lernerville Speedway. “He was involved in all of our safety stuff. He was instrumental in all of our safety planning and with our relationship with the fire hall.”
In addition to helping with the safety crew, he sold 50/50 raffle tickets at the track to raise funds for the fire department.
“I’ve known him since elementary school,” said track announcer Eric Westendorf. “Corey was a year older than me and I looked up to him and admired him. I knew him from Little League Baseball as a natural born leader.”
At the track, Westendorf witnessed Comperatore’s character in action.
“Corey was selfless — he was behind the scenes, ready to help,” Westendorf said. “He always had a presence at Lernerville Speedway.”
One of the track’s managers, and Buffalo Township Supervisor, Gary Risch Sr., knew him both from the track and as fire chief.
“He was an outstanding young man,” said Risch. “Corey was a very religious man and a great dad. He was there for us on the infield.”
Lernerville Speedway will host a candlelight vigil for Corey Comperatore on Wednesday, July 17, at 7 p.m. There, they’ll remember this man who served his community, racers and his family.
“He was a hero right up to the end,” said Tomson. “He saved his family and saved other people before he died. This has had so much of an impact on us it is unbelievable. I worked in the account room, and he would often come in with the 50/50 money for me to count. The people here loved him — he was always smiling.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
