Joey Polewarczyk Jr.: ACT Late Model Tour
Airborne Speedway Race Preview
Joey Polewarczyk Jr. of Hudson, N.H., heads to Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y., this weekend for the ACT Late Model Tour’s rain-delayed Spring Green 100 on Saturday, July 10. The race was originally scheduled for May before weather postponed the event. Polewarczyk is looking for his first career top-10 finish at Airborne, and it wouldn’t come at a better time. After finishing seventh in a 40-lap weekly event at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine, last weekend, Polewarczyk is looking for his third straight top-10 finish with his Ford crate engine. With Airborne’s long straightaways over its half-mile layout,
Polewarczyk joins the Ford camp in hoping this is a track where this engine package will shine.
WHO: Joey Polewarczyk Jr., Hudson, N.H.
TEAM: No. 97 Pole’s Automotive/NH Precision Ford Fusion
BEST CAREER AIRBORNE SPEEDWAY FINISH: 11th (May 2009)
LAST RACE AT AIRBORNE SPEEDWAY: 20th (September 2009)
WHAT: ACT Late Model Tour Spring Green 100
WHERE: Airborne Speedway, Plattsburgh, N.Y. (.500-mile oval)
WHEN: 6 p.m., Saturday, July 10
ACT Late Model Tour
LAST RACE: Saturday, June 26, White Mountain Motorsports Park, North Woodstock, N.H. (9th-place)
NEXT RACE: Sunday, July 18, TD Bank 250 (non-points), Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Maine
POINTS POSITION: 5th
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JOEY, HOW MUCH IS THE TEAM LOOKING FORWARD TO AIRBORNE SPEEDWAY THIS WEEKEND?
We’re really excited. It’s the first big track we’ve gone to this season with our new Ford engine, and everyone says that a track like this with long straightaways is where the Fords should shine. We’ve always had good cars at Airborne, but it just seems like everytime I’ve been there something has happened.
But we’re finally having some good runs, and everyone on the team is upbeat.
HAS IT BEEN HARD FOR THE TEAM TO STAY POSITIVE WITH ALL THE BAD LUCK YOU GUYS HAVE ENCOUNTERED THUS FAR THIS YEAR?
It’s been a frustrating year, to say the least. Everyone on the team knows we can run better than we have, and everyone knows that we changed a lot of things on the car going into this year. It’s not like we expected to run bad, but we knew we’d have some troubles.
Everyone’s had to fight through this. We’ve just got to keep building off the positives. We’ve had a couple of top-10s in a row, and now we want to get to the point where we have a couple of top-5s in a row and then compete for wins every week. But like I said, everyone’s really excited right now because we’re a lot closer to that. I think we’re not far away, I really do.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ‘NEW’ AIRBORNE SPEEDWAY AFTER IT WAS REPAVED PRIOR TO LAST SEASON?
It’s the same old Airborne, it’s just that now you’re not actually “airborne.” There’s a lot more grip. At the old Airborne, you were free everywhere as the tires wore off. Now, there’s a lot more grip, a lot more drive off the corners. The outside (groove) is better, too. There’s a lor more double-file racing, and it’s easier to set up a pass and to make a pass.