Brent Dragon: ACT Late Model Tour
Twin State Speedway Race Preview
Brent Dragon of Milton, Vt., joins the rest of the ACT Late Model Tour when he heads to the Twin State 100 at Twin State Speedway in Claremont, N.H., on Friday, July 30. Dragon, whose 181 career ACT Late Model Tour starts rank first all-time, is the defending champion of the event. At the midway point of the season, Dragon is second in the ACT standings, just 111 points behind multi-time champion Brian Hoar with several tracks where he owns victories soon to appear on the schedule. Dragon was running in the top-5 last weekend at Beech Ridge just past the halfway mark before being caught in another competitor’s accident — but the No. 55 team rallied through a pit stop to repair damage and ended up in eighth place by night’s end.
WHO: Brent Dragon, Milton, Vt.
TEAM: No. 55 Beverage Mart/Furniture World of VT/Charlesbois Freightliner/Newton Pellets Chevrolet
BEST CAREER TWIN STATE SPEEDWAY FINISH: 1st (September 2009)
LAST RACE AT TWIN STATE SPEEDWAY: 1st (September 2009)
WHAT: ACT Late Model Tour Twin State 100
WHERE: Twin State Speedway, Claremont, N.H. (.333-mile oval)
WHEN: 7 p.m., Friday, July 30
ACT Late Model Tour
LAST RACE: Saturday, July 24, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Maine. (8th-place)
NEXT RACE: Saturday, August 14, Circuit Riverside Speedway, St. Croix, Que.
POINTS POSITION: 2nd
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BRENT, WHAT’S IT LIKE GOING BACK TO A TRACK WHERE YOU’RE THE DEFENDING RACE CHAMPION?
It helps the confidence, but the competition is so strong in this series. Last year, we went to Beech Ridge and Brian (Hoar) was the car to beat and then last week he was way off. Then we go last year and we’re pretty good and run the same setup we left with this year, and we were way off in the first two practices.
It just goes to show how hard things can be. It’s the little changes that make the biggest differences.That’s how close the cars are. It’s a little more confidence going back to a track where you’ve won, but at the same time I realize how close the competition is.
WHAT’S TWIN STATE SPEEDWAY LIKE?
There used to be a track in Malone, N.Y., that (Twin State) reminds me of a lot. I think I won the last eight races they ever had there. (Twin State’s) a pretty tricky little place. You’ve got to be able to make the car turn really well, because the corners are so tight.
The corners are really, really tight — tighter than anyplace else we go.
IS THE TEAM AT THAT POINT WHERE YOU’RE ON THE VERGE OF PUTTING TOGETHER A COUPLE OF WINS?
I would say we are. It’s about that time (of the year). Most people would love to have the year we’ve had. We haven’t finished out of the top-10 hardly at all. I thought we had a pretty good car at Beech Ridge. I don’t know if we would have beaten Joey, but I think we’d have been second easy enough because I’d saved my car before getting into (a lap 89 incident).
I think we’re pretty close to winning, and we’ve started to figure out the tires a little bit. They’re different than what we had last year, and we’re getting better with those now.