8th Annual Danny Martinez, Jr. Memorial Races and Law Enforcement, EMT and Firefighters Night

This weekend at Tri-State Speedway is the 8th Annual Danny Martinez, Jr. Memorial Races. It is also Law Enforcement, EMT and Firefighters night. All of the above will get in FREE with identification this weekend!

For those that do not know the story about Danny, the following is a brief summary.

Officer Daniel C. Martinez Jr., 33, had been with the Fort Smith Police Department for eight months when on March 23, 2007, he was dispatched to responded to a call to help a desperate mother get her 3yr old child from a residence where she had a run in with her ex-boyfriend earlier in the day.

The ex-boyfriend had been arrested and the mother had returned to pick up her child. She met Officer Martinez in the parking lot. They went to the front door and the brother of the man arrested earlier answered and told them to wait a minute, then shut the door. He returned with a 9 mm handgun and shot Officer Martinez, then shot the mother in the back, shoulder, and elbow as she fled.

The shooter fled from the home in a car and killed himself before Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers found him near Spiro, Oklahoma.

Officer Martinez had served for several years with the Poteau Police Department, Panama Police Department, Shady Point Police Department, and Wister Police Department, all of which are in Oklahoma. He joined the Fort Smith Police Department on July 3, 2006. He is survived by his wife Alice and five children.

Not only was Danny a revered and well respected police officer but he was also a life-long race fan and later became a racer right here with us at Tri-State Speedway. He was also in the process of building a car to race with us just over eight years ago when he was tragically killed.

Please come out and support not only the memory of Danny, but come out and help us raise funds for the Officer Daniel C. Martinez Memorial Scholarship Fund, which is was founded in 2007 and is sponsored by the River Valley Marine Corp League Detachment # 1248 in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The scholarship, once funded, will be open to college students who demonstrate a financial need. Scholarship applicants must have maintained a 3.0 grade-point average, but can be studying any college major. The scholarship fund awarded it's first scholarship last fall.

The goal of the scholarship is to eventually make this a full-ride scholarship to cover tuition, books and room and board. It will be awarded by the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith which will decide on a recipient each semester. We are very much on way to our goal of a fully funding scholarship!

Don't forget that all donations are tax deductible.

If paying by check, please make donations payable to:

"UA Fort Smith Foundation" or "FSP Officer Martinez Memorial Scholarship" and on the memo line please include: "Officer Martinez Memorial Endowment Scholarship".