PR/Photo – Eric LaFleche
Young driver continues to impress in 2014
Lee, NH – Consistency is the key to competing for championships and that’s the motto for Hudson, NH native, Derek Griffith. The young driver of the No. 12 MOM’s of Manchester/LCM Racing Toyota Camry is right in the middle of his first championship points battle with the Granite State Pro Stock Series.
Griffith, who is sitting in fourth place, is just 44 points from the top-spot and knew he needed a good run on July 25th at Lee Speedway to maintain his point’s position.
There were 29 Pro-Stocks on hand and qualifying was intense and the first order of business for Derek was to make the show through his heat race. Derek came away fifth in his heat race and did qualify, without the need to use a Consolation race.
Rolling off 13th on the grid of 24 cars, Griffith made sure to stay out of trouble as the laps clicked off. The Series, which has had some eventful races of late, was due for some long, green flag runs and that’s exactly what happened at Lee.
Derek was able to maintain with the leaders and was in a heated battle for third with Maine driver No. 4 Brad Babb, when on lap 96, Babb slid high out of turn 4 and made heavy contact with the front stretch wall and luckily Griffith was able to narrowly avoid becoming a casualty of Babb’s wreck.
Starting 3rd on the restart, with only a handful of laps to go, gave Griffith one last shot to try and get around eventual winner No. 97 Joey Polewarczyk Jr and Series point leader No.37 Larry Gelinas. Griffith looked for room on the restart but both of the veterans were battling each other for the win and Derek figured it was good to finish on the podium instead of trying to get something that wasn’t there.
After the race, Granite State Pro Stock Director of Media, Shawn Sicard asked Derek about the race, Griffith replied, “This is huge to us in the point standings. The car was a rocket ship. Louie and the crew put me in a great car. There were a lot of green flag laps, with some clean, hard racing. We are trying for a championship, so tonight was huge.”
You can see Derek in action next on the Granite State Pro Stock Series at Monadnock Speedway on Saturday, August 9th as the series makes their second trip in 2014 to the Winchester, NH bullring. Griffith finished in the 7th spot when the series visited Monadnock last May.
You can follow Derek on Social Media at www.facebook.com/derekgriffith18 and Twitter at www.twitter.com/derekgriffith12