(Thompson, CT) – The learning curve at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park for young racer Derek Griffith was a short one as the Hudson, New Hampshire native made his first ever trip to the Northeastern Connecticut race track and came away with an impressive eighth-place finish
Participating in the 40th Annual Ice Breaker Saturday qualifying heat races, Derek get into a little incident during his race, which resulted in some bent up suspension parts and with less than a day to complete the repairs, the No. 12 Motorcycles of Manchester/LCM Racing/Tyngsboro Motors Toyota Camry crew had quite a bit of work to do.
The night was short for the Derek Griffith race team as repairs to the race car were being made; as repairs were completed the team was confident that the race car was ready to go for the Sunday feature event. Derek felt they have a good car for the race.
As the Pro Stocks rolled on to the race track, the heat race incident from the day before relegated Derek to an 18th starting spot for the 50-lap event. The green flag waved and Derek quickly showed why he is a great young prospect in the Pro Stock ranks by moving in to the top-10 with the first 25 laps.
Running in 10th for the next 15 laps as the cars spread out, Griffith was feeling comfortable in the new car and felt he could get a little bit more, he remarked, “We had a great car from the onset, I can’t thank the guys enough. They worked hard after the heat race wreck.”
Griffith ended up taking two more spots during the final 10 laps to secure an impressive 8th place finish in his first ever visit to the historic 5/8-mile speedway. “I can’t wait to come back here for the World Series in October; we learned a lot this past weekend.” Griffith stated.
Derek and crew will be back in action at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH on Saturday, May 24th