Apr 26, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Lee Speedway, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News
photo by Rich Hayes
Lee, NH – Lee USA Speedway swung open the gates Sunday afternoon to drop the green flag on the 2016 season with the annual running of the New Hampshire Governor’s Cup 150 American Canadian Tour (ACT) Late Model event. The traditional season-opener also featured the NEMST Mini Stocks and Northeast Classic Lites doing battle at “New Hampshire‘s Center of Speed“.
Many special guests were on hand for the season-opening activities, including New Hampshire’s Governor Maggie Hassan, and legendary local rocker Charlie Farren, who sang the national anthem before the afternoon’s main event.
The Northeast Mini Stock Tour got the honor of being the first feature that took to the fast 3/8th’s mile for the new season, with Zach Audet claiming a convincing victory in the 50-lap feature event. 2014 Lee USA Late Model Sportsman champ Niko Maniatis came up just short for the second straight year scoring runner-up ahead of Haywood Herriot.
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Apr 26, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Lee Speedway, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News
photo by RPM 360
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – Seems a mid-week decision to run the 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels car at Lee USA Speedway this past Sunday was the right call for Emily Packard and her team as she posted a sixth place finish in the Governor’s Cup 150. “I think us working together (with the Polewarczyk’s) again this weekend was a great way to keep the momentum going for the season,” said Packard. “The more fun we have together and the more we work together and get use to each other the better we are going to be and that showed in this weekend’s results with our sixth place finish.”
On Saturday, taking advantage of an entire day to practice, the team spent much of the day working the set-up of the car, while Emily logged laps, providing feedback to the crew on the adjustments that would help to make the car better. “Saturday we started the off the day not quite where we wanted to be on the time sheet. We were running too soft in the springs and we were bottoming out bad, combined with running on old tires,” said the 19-year old. “The guys kept making small adjustments to the car throughout practice, making sure not to go too far. Finally, they gave me some new tires and got me up off the track and we were second fast on the sheet in the fourth practice of the day.” In the last practice, Emily found herself to be eighth on the time sheet as she ran lap after lap to see how the car would change under a long green flag run. “I decided that there was a half hour of practice left, let’s put some older tires back on and go run a 50 lap run,” said Packard. “So we did, and we were able to get a feel for how the tires would hold up, and we found that there wasn’t too much fall of as far as our lap times went.”
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Apr 25, 2016 | Lee Speedway, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News
Waterbury, VT – Milton, VT’s Scott Payea took the lead for the second time of then afternoon on lap 117 and never looked back winning the NH Governor’s Cup 150 at Lee USA Speedway.
Payea drove a smart and patient race from his third starting spot, running upfront all day, the leading laps 49-54 and saving his tires for the late run sprint to the finish. Defending race winner and 2015 ACT Champion Wayne Helliwell Jr., raced to a second place finish coming from the 9th starting spot with Rhode Island’s Ray Parent ending a strong weekend in third. St-Albert, Quebec’s Alex Labbe finished fourth with Quinny Welch of Lancaster, NH rounding out the top 5. Nineteen year-old Emily Packard raced to a sixth place finish with last weeks Oxford 100 winner Bobby Therrien finishing seventh. The “outlaw” Eddie MacDonald was eighth with Kyle Welch and Brad Babb rounding out the top ten.
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Apr 25, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Lee Speedway, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News
photo by RPM 360
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – After leaving the American Canadian Tour season opener last weekend with the car relatively unscathed, Emily Packard and the 9x Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels team made a mid-week decision to add the Governor’s Cup 150 to their season schedule. “After Oxford we talked it over and decided that we would benefit from running the Lee race,” said Packard. “Last week was a learning curve, and we believe that running this week would help us to continue to gel and work towards getting the car more comfortable for me.”
The 19-year old returns to the 3/8 mile track for only the third time in her late model career, where she has had two top-15 finishes. This year she hopes to better her best finish of twelfth, and is looking for a top-5 finish. “Last year I finished fifteenth,” Packard said. “Hopefully, this year I can finish in the top-5, and if not, at least a top-10 would be great. I like running Lee, I am really glad that we decided to add this one to our race schedule this season. Although I haven’t had the success at Lee USA Speedway that I would like, I feel confident going into this race that we are going to have a really great car, so I am excited to be racing this weekend.” (more…)
Apr 20, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Lee Speedway, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News
Therrien Leads Charge into Lee USA Speedway. (Heather Aube photo)
Waterbury, VT – After a convincing victory at Oxford Plains Speedway last Sunday, Bobby Therrien is looking to continue his hot start as American-Canadian Tour (ACT) takes the green flag this Sunday, April 24 at Lee USA Speedway with the annual New Hampshire Governor’s Cup 150. The NH Governor’s Cup, which was postponed due to weather in early April to start 2016 racing season, has been the traditional ACT opener since 2008, and with 12 different winners in the previous 13 ACT Late Model Tour events at the 1/3-mile speedway, the stage is set for another unpredictable and exciting event.
Four of the last six NH Governor’s Cup winners – Miles Chipman (2010), Jimmy Hebert (2013), Eddie MacDonald (2014), and Wayne Helliwell, Jr. (2015) – have entered the event. Each hopes to become just the second repeat ACT Late Model winner at Lee.
The four will have plenty of challengers trying to add their names to the Lee USA record books. Colchester, VT’s Scott Payea now pilots the RPM Motorsports car that Brian Hoar drove to back-to-back NH Governor’s Cup wins in 2011 and 2012. Windham, ME’s Brad Babb was the runner-up in the 2015 Governor’s Cup and hopes to do one spot better in 2016. Kyle Welch and Rich Dubeau also turned in impressive performances at Lee in 2015 and could challenge for the win.
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