Jul 16, 2014 | American Canadian Tour, NE Racing News, NHMS, Touring Series News
photo by Alan Ward
Hebert, Therrien, Welch, Packard, Atkins
Waterbury, VT – The International 300 this weekend (July 20, 2014) at Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh, New York will be full of ACT young stars who are making big statements on the American Canadian Tour (ACT) short tracks around the region. As a group, they have won some Tour races and weekly track events; they are also the future of short track stock car racing in the Northeast.
Vermonters Jimmy Hebert and Bobby Therrien are both former Thunder Road Tiger Sportsman Champions. They each won Rookie of the Year honors on the ACT US Tour and have also won ACT US races; in fact, Hebert has two wins in the record book in his first two years of competition.
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Jul 16, 2014 | Granite State Series, Touring Series News
Walpole, NH- With four races into the books on the 2014 season, it’s time for the resident stat-geek to take a look at the numbers for the Granite State Pro Stock Series.
The series has already raced at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, Monadnock Speedway, Hudson International Speedway, and Star Speedway all before July. The schedule continues July 25th, as the series heads to Lee for the first time ever, and continues at Monadnock, Star, Hudson, White Mountain Motorsports Park, and concludes at the World Series at Thompson once more. With Lee and WMMP being the wildcards in the chase for the championship, as the series has never visited either facility, each race left is more important than ever.
There have been four different winners in four races to begin 2014. Mike O’Sullivan tied Matt Frahm’s career win total by picking up the win at the Icebreaker at TSMP, but Frahm upped the ante once more by winning the very next race at Monadnock. Larry Gelinas continued his torrid run by picking up the victory at Hudson, while Jeremy Davis returned to the GSPSS in style by grabbing the checkers at Star. This trend is actually the norm with the GSPSS, as there has only been one driver that has picked up more than one victory in a season. That driver? Matt Frahm in 2013.
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Jul 16, 2014 | NASCAR K&N Series, NE Racing News, NHMS, Touring Series News
photo by RPM
Eddie MacDonald’s debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway may not have ended in Victory Lane but for many the veteran driver from Rowley, Mass. exhibited the same effort and determination even to the final two laps in the green/white /checker finish as he has throughout his racing career.
After racing to an incredible second place finish in Friday night’s K&N Pro Series East event in the Granite State 100, Eddie Mac focused his attention on getting used to the #32 Go FAS Racing entry owned by fellow New Englanders Archie St. Hilaire and Frankie Stoddard and sponsored by TryAndrozene.com. Being the competitor that he is MacDonald was not completely satisfied with the 35th place run saying, “I had a blast driving in my first Cup ride and I have so many people to thank for the opportunity, I just wished I could have finished a few spots higher. I have to thank crew chief Ben Leslie, my spotter Curtis and the Go FAS crew for really helping me through my first Cup experience. I learned so much from them and they made it a lot of fun.”
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Jul 16, 2014 | American Canadian Tour, NE Racing News, NHMS, Touring Series News
Waterbury, VT – At the half-way mark of the 2014 race season, two of the best young stock car racing stars in the region, one from New Hampshire-Joey Polewarczky, Jr. (Pole) and the other from Quebec-Alex Labbe, will lead the way to the ACT Invitational at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, New York this Sunday, July 20. Both drivers also happen to be leading their respective ACT Tour and Série ACT in the US and Quebec.
Veteran Pole is finishing his best first half start of an ACT race season. He is also the defending Champion of the inaugural International and pocketed twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) for that effort in 2013.
“This is a great break at mid-season from chasing points on the Tour. Winning the first race was pretty cool for our team, but the competition gets tougher every year. We are having a little different format this year with the three segments being shortened. This kind of race takes as much luck as racing skill. The name of the game is to finish each segment in one piece. One bad segment means your chances of winning the $25,000.00 are pretty much gone. But then again there is $10,000 in lap money up for grabs, so you just keep digging,” said an enthusiastic Pole.
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Jul 16, 2014 | American Canadian Tour, Touring Series News
Emily Packard
Becomes First Female and Youngest Driver to win here
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt – History was made on Friday night, as Emily Packard found her way to victory lane at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, becoming the first female and youngest driver to win a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series event in the Late Model division feature race here. Following up her second place finish from the week before, Packard was hungry for her first win of the season, and drove her 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels car with determination to accomplish just that.
“The guys had the car set-up perfectly tonight and I was able to drive it to the front,” said Packard. Packard had started third in her heat race and won, giving her the outside pole for the feature race. When the green fell, Packard wasted no time driving to the lead, and never looked back. Packard dominated, leading all 30 laps of the race, and winning by three quarters of a straight away over the runner up.
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Jul 16, 2014 | NASCAR K&N Series, NE Racing News, NHMS, Touring Series News
Photo by RPM
Eddie MacDonald almost won his fourth career K&N Pro Series East race in the Granite State 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Friday night securing second place in a spectacular last lap duel that had the fans on their feet. The 100 lap event had three and four wide racing in turn one on the “Magic Mile” that most would agree is nearly impossible to achieve.
“That was a crazy race over the second half of the race right to the last lap,” said the Rowley, Mass. veteran. “I think the fans saw an exciting race with the winner not decided until the last turn of the last lap. On the last restart my spotter Logger (Dave Ricker) said I was on the bottom of four wide going into turn one and they were three wide behind us. The incredible thing is, no one wrecked. We are very happy with the second place finish since it looked like we were headed for a fourth place finish.”
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