by | Dec 6, 2012 | New England, New England Motorsports North
By Lou Modestino
Inaugural Granite State Pro Stock Series champion Bobby Cabral will be honored during the awards banquet, which is set for Friday night, January 18th at The Yard Restaurant in Manchester, NH. The awards banquet will also celebrate the first season of the Granite State Pro Stock Series that saw six different winners in the six events held in 2012. Six winners in six races highlighted the inaugural season.
The veteran Cabral, of East Kingston, NH, captured the title in the final race of the season, a season that saw him visit victory lane in July at Hudson Speedway, and finish inside the top-five in five of the six races. Cabral’s worst finish of the season was a seventh place finish. (more…)
by | Nov 28, 2012 | Maine, New England, New England Motorsports North, Oxford Plains Speedway
By Lou Modestino
Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine released its 2013 racing schedule. The highlight of the schedule is the TD Bank 250 to be held on July 21. The 2013 edition of the event marks the return of the Super Late Model type cars after a six year absence under the Late Model format. The 2013 schedule boasts a very aggresive format with events from April to October at the 3/8 mile oval. There are 19 Oxford Championship Series points events slated to take place along with 13 Oxford Acceleration Series points nights, 4 Motor Mayhem events, a Mega Monster Truck Extravaganza weekend in August, and the 1st Annual Tom Mayberry Swap Meet to close out the year.
In addition to those events, the Pro All Stars Series Super Late Models will once again return for two dates in 2013; the season opener on April 21 and Championship Weekend on September 27 and 28. Joining the Pro All Stars Series in September will be the annual Oxford Championship Series Little Guys and Oxford Acceleration Series Showdown events for what will prove to be an action packed weekend.
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by Jay | Nov 19, 2012 | New England, New England Motorsports North
NEW ENGLAND MOTORSPORTS NORTH
By Lou Modestino
In an announcement at Riverside’s year end banquet at the Town and Country Inn, promoter Dan Fournier announced the American Canadian Tour would once again be coming to Riverside Speedway. The crowd erupted with the news, with the excitement of having another big race at the track dubbed “Lil Darlington”, and people are still talking about it today.
“We are very excited to have the ACT Tour at Riverside Speedway,” commented Fournier. “This will be a great day for everyone”.
The event will take place on Sunday June 2nd, making this an early stop on the ACT tour. According to ACT president Tom Curley, the event will be 150 laps, which should provide plenty of excitement for the fans. The announcement of this race is just the first of many new things to come to the All-New Riverside Speedway in 2013.
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by Jay | Nov 16, 2012 | New England, New England Motorsports North
By Lou Modestino
The future of Devil’s Bowl Speedway’s stock car racing protégés is proving to be rather bright. A talented crop of rookie drivers joined the track’s weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions in 2012 and left a significant mark on the record books.
Joey “Fireball” Roberts of Georgia, VT ran to the Rookie of the Year title in Devil’s Bowl Speedway’s headline Bond Auto Parts Modified class. After a decade in full-fender racecars, the third-generation racer made his open-wheel Modified debut at the 101.5 “The Fox” Spring Green on May 5 in the No. 50x Vermont Life Safety/Mansfield Heliflight-sponsored Bicknell. Roberts won his qualifying heat and finished fifth in the main event, the first of an overachieving 11 top-five finishes in 19 feature starts. Roberts took his first feature win on August 3 and finished fifth in overall championship standings.
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by Jay | Nov 8, 2012 | New England, New England Motorsports North
NEW ENGLAND MOTORSPORTS NORTH
By Lou Modestino
Most northcountry tracks, now that the 2012 season is history, are at work planning the 2013 racing season. At the same time many of them are in the midst of their 2012 awards banquets. The 2012 season was a challenge and the hope of the economy improving and tight money loosing up is the hope of the track owners. Because they’ve witnessed a major downturn of entries in the backgage and ticket sales in the fornt gate.
Tom Mayberry is in charge of the Oxford Plains Speedway in western Maine and is expected to be announcing plans very soon. The Waterbury, Vermont based ACT Tour is also in the midst of getting 2013 schedules together as well as the one for its flagship track Thunder Road International Speedway in Barre, VT.
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by Jay | Nov 3, 2012 | New England, New England Motorsports North, Touring Series News
By Lou Modestino
On the recently concluded Oktoberfest at the Lee USA Speedway in NH where that track ran many divisions of race cars over a two day period. We had a conversation with GM Bob Watson. “Our Oktoberfest car count was a little lighter this year due to Riverside Speedway iin northern NH and Oxford Plains in Maine running that weekend. That hurt our crowd on Saturday and Sunday. On the flip side we ended up with a lot of campers who spent the entire weekend with us. Adding the NEMA midgets gave his more reach with the older race fans. We drew 38 of them between the NEMA and NEMA Lights,” revealed Watson.
Watson further elaborated, “On the overall 2012 season we had five rainouts and an ailing economy. On a scale of 1-10, I’d say it was a 7.5. Our special events were well attended. But Mother Nature always plays a big part in our success.”
In the case of the NEMA midgets it was the final event for that series which saw Randy Cabral win another championship. It was pretty much the same story for the Valente Modified Racing Series where youthful Tommy Barrett won the feature while local driver Jon McKennedy of E. Chelmsford, MA ended the season by taking the VMRS championship for his car owner Art Barry of Preston, CT.
American Canadian Tour officials have announced a major inaugural weekend event for the 2013 season: The International 500. The landmark event will be run at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY on the weekend of July 20th and 21st.
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