LEE USA SPEEDWAY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR 2017
Lee, NH – Lee USA Speedway still has a couple of on-track events to go before closing out the 2016 racing season, but it’s already time for the first big announcement regarding what’s in store for 2017 at “New Hampshire’s Center of Speed”.
Still celebrating their 30th year steering the LEE USA ship, track owners Red and Judy MacDonald are pleased to announce the return of Joe Bassett to the staff for the 2017 campaign. In preparation for next year, Bassett will be assuming the role of General Manager as soon as he can tie up a few loose ends at his current gig with the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
No stranger to Lee USA’s racers and fans, Joe is looking forward to the opportunity to continue to grow the highly-successful speedway operation in the coming years. Bassett will be assuming the position soon to be vacated by the retirement of Bill Callen, who’s been a familiar face and filled countless roles since joining the staff back before the turn of the century.
Lee USA is widely recognized as one of the cleanest, best-run facilities in the New England region, and things should only get better as plans for the 2017 season are finalized.
IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE – IT’S THE NEMAS: NEMA Lites & Midgets
Official Photography: Pete & Mary Taylor
Website: www.petespicks.smugmug.com
By Sophie D. Gabrion, Media Rep / Wiscasset Speedway
WISCASSET – The Northeastern Midget Association (NEMA) is the nation’s oldest race club of its kind, and last weekend, they rocked the house at Wiscasset Speedway! These cars are four cylinder, open-wheel racecars without starters or clutches. As the association states on their website, “If it is bolted into a midget, it serves one of only two purposes: safety or speed.”
To say that the NEMA Lites are impressive to watch would be a colossal understatement. Like surfboards with very severe buzz cuts, these microscopic machines paraded past the grand stands in lines 4-wide, like marching soldiers. Four laps into their 25-lap spotlight feature, Bethany Stoehr of the #15A stalled in the middle of turn two where Jim Cataldo of the #7 made contact and sent her into a violent pirouette. Alan Chambers of the #17 was also caught in the short-notice tangle, which ended the race early for all three.
Lee USA Speedway 9/9/16 Race Report
photo by Rich Hayes
Lee, NH – Lee USA Speedway closed out the regular Friday night season for the weekly competitors in the five NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions at “New Hampshire’s Center of Speed”, with all 16 of this year’s scheduled events making it into the record books dating back to opening night on May 27.
The 2016 champions were crowned in all divisions, with second-generation racer Dave “Hollywood” Helliwell of Pelham taking down the title in the Supermodifieds to close out his first year competing in the track’s headlining NASCAR Whelen All-American Series division.
Hollywood’s not the first member of the storied Helliwell clan to accomplish that feat, he follows in the footsteps of older brother Wayne, Jr., who although better known for his exploits aboard full-bodied racecars, culminated his Lee USA career with a title run in the famed Witkum Brothers Racing Super.
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Adam Pierson Knocking On Door of USAC History Competing With USAC Dirt Midget Association
USAC Dirt Midget Association
Ellington, CT: Bradford Vermont racer Adam Pierson, who races with the USAC Dirt Midget Association, is on the verge of matching a USAC record that has stood the test of time since 1995.
During the 1995 USAC race season, well known driver Billy Boat won eleven straight Western Midget races and that all-time single season record has been in the USAC history book ever since Boat accomplished it.
Now twenty one years after Boat made USAC racing history, Pierson is in range to join Boat in accomplishing the same record. With only two races left in the USAC Dirt Midget Association season, Pierson has nine wins and is aiming for that magic number of eleven.
2016 ACT BOND AUTO ACT INVITATIONAL FIELD ANNOUNCED
Waterbury, VT – The 2016 American Canadian Tour (ACT) has announced the forty-three (43) teams that will make up the 8th annual Bond Auto ACT Invitational race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) Saturday, September 24, 2016.
ACT teams from all six New England states and the Province of Quebec will compete in the 50-mile race on the traditional Fall NASCAR weekend in Loudon, NH. The field will be led by Rowley, Massachusetts’ four-time winner of the event, Eddie MacDonald.
Joining “The Outlaw” will be former winners of the event, including Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., (Hudson, NH), Ray Parent, (Tiverton, RI), and Wayne Helliwell, Jr., (Dover, NH). “Eddie (MacDonald) is always the favorite, but with the handicap system ACT uses to line up the 50-lap dash, things can be unpredictable. Last year it looked like nobody was going to be able to run down Jimmy Hebert of Williamstown, VT who had an early breakout, and a very fast car. It looked like nobody was going to be able to catch him until something broke and put him out of contention. It is a fun race for us, and a lot of fun for race fans to watch,” said three-time Thunder Road International Speedbowl winner Nick Sweet from Barre, VT.