Brian Hoar White Mountain Motorsports Park Preview
THE STORY
Brian Hoar of Williston, Vt., returns to ACT Late Model Tour competition this week for the White Mountain 150 at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, N.H., on Saturday, June 23. The eight-time ACT champion has three career wins at White Mountain in the RPM Motorsports No. 37 GossCars.com Dodge on his resume, and he’s hoping that past experience will help catapult him back into the series points lead this weekend. Hoar sits third in the standings, just 11 points out of the lead, with six races remaining in the season. After battling tire issues in his most recent ACT outing, Hoar got things back on track with a second-place finish last weekend in the I Am Vermont Strong 100 at Devil’s Bowl Speedway – the second of four races this season in the Vermont State Championship Late Model Series.
THE FACTS
WHO: Brian Hoar, Williston, Vt.
TEAM: RPM Motorsports No. 37 GossCars.com Dodge Charger
CREW CHIEF: Rick Paya, Georgia, Vt.
BEST CAREER FINISH AT WMMP: 1st (3 times – most recently, June 2010)
LAST FINISH AT WMMP: 4th (June 2011)
WHAT: ACT Late Model Tour White Mountain 150
WHERE: White Mountain Motorsports Park, North Woodstock, N.H. (.25-mile banked oval)
WHEN: 5 p.m., Saturday, June 23
ACT Late Model Tour
LAST RACE: May 20, Armed Forces Day 150, Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Maine (13th)
NEXT RACE: July 28, ACT 150, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Maine (.333-mile oval)
CURRENT POINTS POSITION: 3rd
DID YOU KNOW?
Brian Hoar and RPM Motorsports have won the last three ACT Late Model Tour championships as a team (2009-2011) and have each won eight ACT championships overall.
Brian Hoar won back-to-back ACT races at White Mountain Motorsports Park in 1998-1999.
Brian Hoar won the first two ACT races of the 2012 season – at Lee USA Speedway and at Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl – marking the sixth time in his career that he’s won consecutive points races.
Brian Hoar holds the ACT record for most career victories as a driver (35), while RPM Motorsports owner Rick Paya holds the ACT record for career victories as an owner (28). The duo has 10 victories together as a team.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
BRIAN HOAR, Driver of the RPM Motorsports No. 37 GossCars.com Dodge Charger, On if his team has fully rebounded from back-to-back finishes outside the Top-10: “I think we’re all right. It’s not that I think we were bad before. I don’t think all the extra training I was doing for the (Vermont City Marathon on March 27) necessarily helped me come race day. It didn’t necessarily effect me in the races, but it was definitely a big distraction both physically and mentally and with all the 18-, 20- and 21-mile runs I was putting in the day before some of the races.
“We’ve still got a great race car. Certainly, we missed it a little bit at Devil’s Bowl on the setup (in mid-May), but we were really good there last weekend and we’re better now than we were. If we were to go there again this weekend, we’d feel pretty confident.”
On the challenges that White Mountain Motorsports Park presents: “What makes White Mountain different, sitting down in that little bowl, is the straightaways. There’s not a drastic change from the corners to the straightaways, which makes it fun. The straightaways still have some banking. It’s kind of downhill into the corners and then uphill onto the straightaways. It is a little bit different than a place like Thunder Road – which has big banking in the corners and then goes completely flat on the straightaway. It has a really nasty transition there.
“White Mountain’s a nice little rhythm track with an outside groove. There’s a bunch of guys that get around that place pretty well, having raced there for a lot of years. It takes a lot to have all your ducks in a row there and get to Victory Lane.”
On whether or not it’s too soon to start worrying about the point standings after four races: “It’s such a short season, we’ve got to keep points right there in the forefront of our minds. If you’re not chasing points at this point, it’s because you’re probably not in the points (hunt).
“Whoever gets it right and has fewer bad days from now until the end will be the one who comes out on top.”
UP NEXT
The ACT Late Model Tour returns to Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, for the ACT 150 on Saturday, July 28… After a seven-year hiatus from the Tour while he competed in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, Brian Hoar returned to ACT Victory Lane at Beech Ridge in 2009.
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