RPM Motorsports Chases Ninth Championship To Airborne Speedway
GEORGIA, Vt. – Brian Hoar has been in enough championship fights in his career to know what awaits him this Saturday, October 6, at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Excitement. A roller coaster of emotion. Pressure. Tension.
The record eight-time ACT Late Model Tour champion knows all of that will be on the table in the season-ending Fall Foliage 200, and he wholeheartedly embraces it.
“We’re going there prepared. I know I’m ready. I know the team’s ready,” said Hoar, of Williston, Vt., who trails leader Wayne Helliwell Jr. by eight points entering the season finale. “It doesn’t matter what the weather is, or what other things are going on – there will be two great teams there going for it, and we’re going to roll the dice and make the best of everything.
“One of us is going to come away happy, and, obviously, one of us is going to come away pretty disappointed.”
Hoar, 40, has won the last three ACT championships in a row and owns a series-record 37 victories. He’s a two-time winner of the Fall Foliage 200 on the half-mile Airborne Speedway, where he first started his stock-car racing career.
This season, Hoar has won four times, including the last two points-paying events at Riverside Speedway in Quebec and Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt. He feels like the RPM Motorsports No. 37 GossCars.com Dodge Charger prepared by team owner and crew chief Rick Paya – also an eight-time ACT champion on the wrenches – is peaking at the right time.
“Absolutely,” Hoar said. “We’re clicking well as a team, and the car is good. We’re making good decisions. The car is going fast, and it doesn’t seem to matter which race track we’re at anymore. We’re really strong right now.
“It’s not my race to lose (this weekend) – it’s his. I’ve won a bunch of these things, but we’re going to do everything we can to try to win the thing. It’s do or die time for everybody. We’re going there to do it.”
Not only does Hoar have the ACT championship in his sights, but he also has a third Fall Foliage 200 win in his view, too. His last victory in the event came in 2000 – though he feels as though he could have won any of the last three.
He’d like to cap another championship season with a win in Airborne’s season-ending race.
“I’m always comfortable there. That’s my home track,” Hoar said. “We’ve been in the hunt to win that 200 each of the last few years, and it’s been stolen from us in a way. I got dumped under caution last year while leading, and the two races before that, I had a couple issues going on and lost it right at the end.
“I’d like to win this one. We’re always good there, and I like the track. It’s still the same animal.”