By lou Modestino
Stafford Motor Speedway has lined up an impressive field of current and former open wheel champions for its 3rd Annual CARQUEST Champions For Charities Event, which will take place on Friday, June 28th this season. During the coming weeks, SMS will offer a profile on each of its championship winning drivers and the charity they will be racing for and this week’s CARQUEST Champions For Charities spotlights falls on 2-time Pro-4 Modified Limited champion Stan Mertz, who will be racing to support the Connecticut chapter of Autism Speaks.
With the spring season fast approaching, yet another season of NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition is set to kick off at Stafford Motor Speedway with the 42nd annual Tech-Net Spring Sizzler Presented by CARQUEST on April 26-28. “The Greatest Race in the History of Spring” will officially begin Stafford’s 55th season of hosting weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series racing.
After making two starts in the past two seasons at Stafford Motor Speedway in the track’s premier SK Modified® division, reigning NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby will return full-time to the SK Modified® ranks for the 2013 season. Coby will once again team up with car owner Glenn Johnson, who Coby drove for during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. While Coby has a career best finish of 5th in his three full seasons of SK Modified® competition, after winning the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship last year, Johnson and Coby are hoping for bigger things to come this season at Stafford.
For Indian Orchard, MA native Duane Provost, the 2013 season at Stafford Motor Speedway represents a fresh chance to get to victory lane with a new car. Provost was enjoying a great 2012 season with 10-top-10 finishes in the first 13 races, including three second place finishes. But his 2012 season came to a premature end when a crash in the non-points PASS race in late August left his car beyond repair. Provost finished out the 2012 season in the DARE Stock division, but he is ready to get back into Ltd. Late Model competition with a new car.
For Southbury, CT native Michael Gervais, Jr., the 2013 SK Modified® season at Stafford Motor Speedway will be an opportunity to continue his upward trend in the track’s premier racing division. Gervais was the 2009 SK Light track champion at SMS and he moved into the SK Modified® ranks in 2010, posting three top-10 finishes on his way to a 21st place finish in the points standings. Gervais followed that up with two top-5 and 8 top-10 finishes in 2011 to claim 10th place in the points. Although he was a track champion, Gervais had yet to win a race at Stafford. But that all changed last year as Gervais won twice and posted 7 top-5 and 13 top-10 finishes to end the season third in the points. With the 2013 season just over the horizon, Gervais is hoping to continue his climb up the standings and be a championship contender.
Stafford Motor Speedway has lined up an impressive field of current and former open wheel champions for its 3rd Annual CARQUEST Champions For Charities Event, which will take place on Friday, June 28th this season. During the coming weeks, SMS will offer a profile on each of its championship winning drivers and the charity they will be racing for and this week’s CARQUEST Champions For Charities spotlights falls on Richie Pallai, Jr., the 2009 Spring Sizzler SK Modified® Champion, who will be racing to help support the Animal Center of Newtown in memory of Sandy Hook victim Catherine Violet Hubbard. The Animal Center and the Hubbard Family have announced that they plan to build the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary, which will be a place where all creatures, great and small, can know the touch of a kind hand and be safe from harm.
CARQUEST Auto Parts has been a mainstay at Stafford Motor Speedway for over 25 years sponsoring a wide array of events at the half-mile. For the first time CARQUEST will sponsor three Whelen Modified Tour events in 2013; “The Greatest Race In The History Of Spring”, The CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, the mid-summer CARQUEST 150, as well as the final race of the season, The CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend. The three events will create something that has never been seen on the Whelen Modified Tour, an opportunity to win the CARQUEST Triple Crown and $25,000 in bonus money.
Eddie MacDonald opened the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season with an impressive drive from the back of the field to post a seventh place finish in the Drive4COPD 125 on the famed “World’s Fastest Half Mile.” The race had special meaning for the team as it displayed the “Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week” logo in support of Megan Spaulding, the daughter of team owners Karla and Rob Grimm, who was recently diagnosed with the disease.
After a disappointing qualifying run on Thursday, the Grimm Construction Toyota started 30th in the 36 car field on Saturday with Eddie Mac saying, “We really expected to post a good qualifying lap but it just didn’t happen. The car was fast in practice so we knew we would be okay in the race. It is a brand new Gibb’s car and it was the first time we ever had it on a track. Rollie and I decided to ride along and take what we could get without wrecking or using up the tires and then make adjustments at the break around lap 70. Everyone knows Bristol is a tough, unforgiving track, so patience is a necessity.”
When the green flag waved, MacDonald wasted little time picking off cars. By the first of seven cautions on lap 6, Eddie Mac rode in the 23rd position. At the third caution on lap 29, the veteran driver from Rowley, Mass. rode comfortably in the 15th spot saying, “The car was pretty good. It was just a little free everywhere but I was riding easy and really not pushing it at all. We were good on the bottom of the track and I was able to pick up a lot of positions especially on the restarts.”
When the yellow waved for the mandatory five minute break on lap 70, Eddie Mac was 11th. After a track bar and wedge adjustments the #71 headed back to the track for the final stretch. No team was allowed to change tires for the race unless for a flat time, so MacDonald knew tire management was essential for a good finish saying, “I knew that we would all be sliding around by the end of the race on the same tires but the car was handling pretty good. We decided to tighten it up just a bit but we may have gone a little too far. It started to get tight the closer we got to the finish. We were really good with the sun on the track but then it clouded over and that affected the handling.”
Despite the car tightening up, the Grimm MS Awareness Toyota moved steadily to the front and restarted on lap 102 after the sixth caution flag in the eighth spot. The final yellow flag on lap 107 reset the field for the lap 110 restart. With five laps to go, the #71 was eighth and gained one more position on the final lap to finish seventh.
“I really wanted to finish fifth but the car was just too tight at the end,” said MacDonald. “I am happy with the run and it was a lot of fun racing at Bristol. We had a bad crash here last year and destroyed our car so it was great to finish where we did and bring the car home in one piece. Rollie, the crew and I are pleased to have a good run for the Grimm family. They are having a tough time right now so it means a lot to have a solid run for them and help to raise awareness for MS.”
Crew chief Rollie LaChance was equally satisfied with the finish saying, “I am really happy to come home in seventh place. We started in the back and passed a lot of cars. It is always fun when you get the car going forward and run well.”
“I also want to thank the crew for all the hard work,” said MacDonald. “We had three UNOH students, Kody, Thomas, and Brett on our team and they did a great job for us. We have had UNOH students as part of our crew the past couple of seasons and they are always well prepared and professional.”
The team has a quick turnaround with the second race of the K&N season scheduled for Greenville Pickens Speedway (S.C.) on Saturday, March 23. The Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 125 will be presented by G-Clean. MacDonald’s family owns and operates the Lee USA Speedway in NH.
Starting Friday through Sunday the Town Fair Tire World of Wheels is on at the World Trade Center in Boston. On Sunday the Capeway Rovers in Middleboro hosts motoX action starting at 9 a.m. The same day Silver City Speedway in Meriden, CT has a 1/4 midget Arrive and Drive event at 9 a.m. In the event of rain or snow it’s goes on April 6.