New England Racer Needs your Support
Young kart racer Joel Belanger of Washington NH was named a finalist in the amateur category of the Champion Spark plugs, Search for a Champion contest. Joel’s entry was one of 200 entries in the amateur category, and by being selected as a finalist he won a $1000 sponsorship from Champion. Joel is now one of 25 finalists in the amateur category that will be competing for the grand prize of $10,000. Joel is the only finalist from the New England region, and is hopeful that the region will support his efforts to win the grand prize.
Joel’s entry tells the story of this young racers passion for the sport. Besides being a talented driver, he is a fan, and student of the sport.
We caught up with Joel’s crew chief and father Kevin and asked him about the contest. “This is a really great opportunity for our team” he told us, “the money could really help our racing program, but also open up some opportunities to do things that we otherwise couldn’t afford.” We asked Kevin what he thought Joel’s chances were, “well there are some really great entry’s so the judges scores that make up 66% of the entrants total score will be pretty close among those top entry’s, so it’s really important to get votes. Your number of votes makes up the remainder of your score.” Kevin indicated that he felt getting the support of all the New England racers could really make a difference. “being the only finalist from New England, it’s really important that we get local support, get all the guys that race up here in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts to get behind Joel and Vote, that is what could put us on top. If we could get the New England Racing community on board, we could win this.”
Fans interested in helping can go to http://www.championsparkplugs.com/search-for-a-champion/view/3279 to see Joel’s entry. Then hit the register button to sign up and vote for Joel. Fans can vote daily February 23rd to March 22. The team has also set up a link to Joel’s entry from the team website www.belangermotorsports.com.