By Lou Modestino
On the recently concluded Oktoberfest at the Lee USA Speedway in NH where that track ran many divisions of race cars over a two day period. We had a conversation with GM Bob Watson. “Our Oktoberfest car count was a little lighter this year due to Riverside Speedway iin northern NH and Oxford Plains in Maine running that weekend. That hurt our crowd on Saturday and Sunday. On the flip side we ended up with a lot of campers who spent the entire weekend with us. Adding the NEMA midgets gave his more reach with the older race fans. We drew 38 of them between the NEMA and NEMA Lights,” revealed Watson.
Watson further elaborated, “On the overall 2012 season we had five rainouts and an ailing economy. On a scale of 1-10, I’d say it was a 7.5. Our special events were well attended. But Mother Nature always plays a big part in our success.”
In the case of the NEMA midgets it was the final event for that series which saw Randy Cabral win another championship. It was pretty much the same story for the Valente Modified Racing Series where youthful Tommy Barrett won the feature while local driver Jon McKennedy of E. Chelmsford, MA ended the season by taking the VMRS championship for his car owner Art Barry of Preston, CT.
American Canadian Tour officials have announced a major inaugural weekend event for the 2013 season: The International 500. The landmark event will be run at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY on the weekend of July 20th and 21st.
The ‘500’ will be comprised of (300) three hundred laps for ACT Late Model Championship teams from throughout New England and Eastern Canada. The Late Model portion of the ‘500’ will be run similarly to Thunder Road’s famous Milk Bowl with (3) three 100-lap segments.
Posted awards of over ($100,000) one hundred thousand dollars will include a 100-lap non-qualifier feature event.
The popular Airborne Modifieds will participate in the ‘500’ weekend, with (2) 50-lap combined segments. Rounding out the historic mid-summer event will be Plattsburgh’s own Renegade and Bomber divisions, Thunder Road’s Tiger Sportsmen, and the Quebec Sportsman Series will also be invited to attend.
More information regarding reserve ticket purchase and event schedule will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.
The International 500 weekend will be July 20th and 21st at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY. Our interpretation of this event is that it will replace the Oxford 250 that will no longer feature ACT type Late Models in 2013. The Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine was recently purchased by Tom Mayberry, principal of the PASS Pro Stock series. The Oxford 250 will revert back to the Pro Stock type race cars. There’s always been a rivilary between ACT Tour’s Tom Curley and PASS’ organizer Tom Mayberry that goes back many years.
For the 11th time Eddie MacDonald posted a top ten finish in the 13 races run in the K&N Pro Series East this season. In the rescheduled Labor Day rainout at the Greenville Pickens’ “Old House of Racing”, Eddie Mac rallied to score a tenth place run despite early engine problems in the Kevin Whitaker 140 on the half mile oval.
“Something was wrong with the engine almost from the start of the race,” said MacDonald. “It ran great in practice and we ran in the top five, but something happened shortly after we took the green flag. It really messed up the rest of the race but we managed to get a top ten finish. We haven’t had a chance to find out what went wrong with it. We have our other car ready for Rockingham this Saturday so we are in good shape.”
Qualifying and the race was rained out on Labor Day and the field was set by points. The Grimm Construction Chevy started fifth as a result. The #71 held his position for a while but the horsepower wasn’t there to hold off the field for long. “It was tough to run with these guys since this place is pretty fast with the long straight-aways,” said MacDonald. “I just tried to hang on and try not to lose too many spots until we made our pit stop.”
MacDonald headed to the pits after going a lap down at the halfway flag in the 13th position. The Rowley, Mass. veteran ran in the 15th position after getting his lap back on caution lap 125. “We were really struggling with the engine and then near the end of the race the handling went away so we needed something to happen to give us a chance for a better finish and we got it.”
The race extended to 146 laps and finished with a green/white checker finish. In the last turn on the last lap Corey Lajoie moved leader Brent Moffitt out of the way that resulted in a huge crash on the front stretch just before the start/finish line taking out the top runners. MacDonald was able to miss the carnage to take the checkers in the tenth spot.
“It was really wild at the end, “said Eddie Mac. “Cars were flying everywhere and I couldn’t even see the start/finish line with the smoke covering the track. We got lucky to miss the wreck and it helped turn a bad night into a decent one. Now we are headed to Rockingham for our final race of the season and we have “Blackie” all ready to go. It is our Loudon car so we hope it will run well on the mile track at Rockingham. Hopefully we will have a strong run there to finish up.”
With the run, MacDonald and team owner Rob Grimm moved in to sixth position in the point’s race. The event will mark the first appearance for the K&N Pro Series East in the Inaugural Classic 3 presented by RCR Racing Museum on the legendary Rockingham Speedway mile oval. NASCAR has scheduled a test day for Thursday with practice and qualifying on Friday. The green flag will fly at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
New England Dragway will wrap-up the 2012 season with the final Wednesday night Street Drags at 5 p.m. Down at the Thompson Speedway in Connecticut there’s the very popular Don Hoenig’s automotive flea market and swap meet on Saturday and Sunday. It opens at 8 a.m. both days.