By Lou Modestino
The MA Cruisers will open up the 2013 cruise season on Thursday night, April 18. If your interested in classic cars these events are the place to be. Drawing both thousands of classic cars, trucks and even race cars not to mention some very interesting motorcycles, on a good night when the weather is between 70 and 90 degrees the Bass Pro Shop cruise will see thousands of car buffs crowd into the huge parking lots on the south side of Gillette Stadium. Touted to be the biggest cruise night in the country, the event on alternate Thursday nights is a major happening in southeastern Massachusetts. No doubt because there’s no admission
Most of the vehicles on display are from MA and RI. Also some of them come from CT, NH, ME and VT with an occasional NY State vehicle. The parking lot has the capacity to hold up to 2,500 vehicles to display. Depending on the weather forecast, the retirees start pulling in around 2 p.m. even though the event officially doesn’t start until 5 p.m. The senior citizens like to get there early for a good parking spot because it’s a shorter walk to the rest rooms inside the Bass Pro Shop.
The MA Cruisers have a working agreement with another club. That’s the Wheels of Time based in Brockton. The two clubs alternate Thursday nights. The Wheels of Time host their cruise nights this year at Raynham Park on Rt. 138 because of major road construction project. The new location will allow more vehicles to show up at the WOT cruise. The WOT cruise starts the 2013 season off on April 11 and comes back again on April 25 and every other Thursday night thereafter. In past years it’s been held at the Southeastern Regional Votec High School on Rt. 106 in Easton.
The Scituate based Connecting Rods offers another successful cruise night at Wal-Mart’s on Rt. 106 in Halifax at the intersection of Rt. 58. That cruise night goes every Friday night. The organizers of that cruise also get things going at 5 p.m. All three clubs that we mentioned have a DJ on hand playing 50’s, 60’s and 70’s music to entertain those who attend. If you decide to take in any of these events be sure to bring a camera, fold-up chairs, sunglasses, sun tan lotion. Early arrivals can get good viewing spots with some shade.
Over the years the cruise nights attract various speedways and drag strips who make an effort to promote NASCAR weekends at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July and September. Also Thompson Speedway in Connecticut, Seekonk Speedway as well as New England Dragway in Epping, NH that will offer their inaugural Mello Yellow NHRA National event in mid-June. The NEMA Midget tour has also attended the Bass Pro Cruise in an effort to call attention to their events at oval tracks held all over New England.
New Hampshire’s Canaan Fair Speedways race teams put on their best suits and walked away with several best appearing awards at the Frank Maratta’s Auto and Race-A-Rama Show held at the Big E in West Springfield, Mass. on Saturday and Sunday, March 2 and 3.
The show area was packed to the rafters with classic cars and racecars as well as vendor booths and race track displays. “It was wall-to-wall people on Saturday from start to finish”, stated Canaan Fair Speedways General Manager, Dick Therrien. “We showcased our track to so many new people. It was absolutely awesome!”
Taking home awards were The SK Bean Dirt Mod entry and the Crate Mod of Michael Willis Jr. Stuart and Kathy Bean also claimed the award for best dirt car. Five glistening racecars filled the Canaan Fair Speedways’ booth. They included the #77 Dirt Mod driven by Allan Hammond; the #83 Crate Modified driven by Michael Willis Jr.; the #60 Bandit driven by Debra Holmes; the #55 Late Model owned by Mark Potter to be driven by Arnie Stygles; and the #10 SCoNE 360 Sprint Car show car.
The next event on the Canaan Fair Speedways calendar will be a car show to be held at the Diamond Run Mall in Rutland on March 23 and 24.
Other motorsports venues on hand were Thompson International Speedway, Waterford Speedbowl and Stafford Speedways, all from Connecticut; Bear Ridge from Vermont; and Monadnock Speedway from NH. Some tours were also represented like the Pro 4 Modifieds; New England Mini Stock Tour out of Maine; and the Valenti Modified Racing Series from NH; and the NH Pro Stock Tour. The show could have used more oval track venues and tours from northern New England.
Last weekend’s gear head show was the third resurrection for Race-a-Rama. Had the oval track venues and tours not been supplemented by the classic, hot rods and customs, it would have been an anemic turnout. The merger of the two shows held promise. Staging a show at the Big E is expensive and that’s a big reason why Race-a-Rama and the Speedway Expo didn’t turn a profit. The Frank Maratta Hot Rod show left the Hartford Expo and Connecticut after appearing there for many years. Apparently when the Riverside Speedway closed in nearby Agawam attendance eroded, and it was one of the reasons that a racing show couldn’t succeed at the Big E. We’ll be very interested to see if the show returns and has the staying power in the future.