(Claremont, NH) – Joey Polewarczyk’s 2011 American-Canadian Tour Season may have just turned the corner Saturday Night at Twin State Speedway.
During the practice sessions in preparation for the Heat Races to determine the qualifying order for the ‘Twin State 100’ Joey was very happy with the performance of the Poles Automotive, NH Precision Ford Fusion, Joey would say, “We have a great car and hopefully we draw a good starting spot in the Heat Race”.
Joey would draw the fifth starting spot in the third heat race. During the early stages of the race, cars were sorting things out and then a driver a couple cars in front of Polewarczyk spun. The spin caused Joey to go low to avoid the car, when all of the sudden, the spun car accelerated and caught the side of the #97 Ford Fusion causing some damage to the fender and door panels.
On the restart, the front fender of Joey’s car became lodged under the right-front tire causing the Ford to lose traction coming out of turn four. The #97 went hard into the wall. “I really thought our day was done and then fellow competitor Joey Laquerre offered his car for us to compete in, which was very nice of him. Unfortunately this is outside the ACT Rules, so we were not allowed” Joey then says, “Our Crew was unbelievable today, they replaced both Ball Joints, A-Arm, Shock, Rotor, Caliper and the rest of the right-front moving assembly”
Joey was able to bring the car out in the Consolation race to ‘Shake’ the car down. “We didn’t know what to expect, we basically just threw everything on the car and we got it as close as we could to being right. Polewarczyk did not qualifying through the Consi. Race, so the team had the B Feature as the last resort to try to qualify for the main event.
Polewarczyk finished fifth in the B-Feature, which meant he made the show. The team worked feverously on the car and adjusted the car to the feedback that Joey was able to give them.
The Main Event rolled onto the uniquely shaped 1/3-mile racetrack with Joey starting 26th on the 28-car field. Joey knew he once again had a good car. Polewarczyk would quickly move through the field, advancing up ten spots in the first twenty laps. Joey says, “I couldn’t believe how good the car was, after all we went through”
As the laps continued to tick off the scoreboard, so were the cars that Joey was passing. Polewarczyk was in the top-10 on the lap 69 Caution. Restarting in the eighth position, Joey quickly moved to sixth and was catching the leaders.
Polewarczyk and the fifth place car of John Donahue battled for around five laps and Joey was able to clear the Donahue car. The last twenty laps saw Polewarczyk on a mission to chase down the lead cars. Polewarczyk would get to the back of the fourth place car of Luke Hinkley but ultimately run out of laps and have to settle for a fifth place finish.
Joey would add after the race “Well wow, we were all ready to load the car into the hauler earlier in the day. I owe this race entirely to my crew. I wish there was one more caution, I can’t believe how good of a car my crew gave me, I think we will look back on this race as our turning point for our season”
Follow Joey on his website at www.joeypole.com and catch Joey Polewarczyk and the #97 ACT Late Model in action as they attempt to qualify for the TD Bank 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway on July 24.