by | Mar 27, 2013 | New England Motorsports South
By Lou Modestino
Coming off one of the most competitive seasons in its 60-year history, the Northeastern Midget Association opens its 2013 campaign April 6-7 at Waterford Speedbowl’s Budweiser Blastoff Weekend. Both NEMA and the NEMA Lites are part of the busy agenda.
Defending champion Randy Cabral (Bertrand #47), one of 11 winners a year ago, heads up the entry list. John Zych Jr. (Zych #9), Russ Stoehr (Dumo’s Desire #45), Jim Miller (Miller #3m), Todd Bertrand (Bertrand #39), Seth Carlson (Feigel #71) and Anthony Marvuglio (Bourbeau #38), all 2012 winners as well, will also be back.
The 25-lap feature, slated for Sunday, kicks of a 15-race NEMA schedule. The Lites, scheduled to go 25 laps on Saturday night, will race 17 times this summer. Both divisions will qualify on Saturday.
Zych, the defending Blastoff champ, Bertrand, Marvuglio and Russ Stoehr were all winners at Waterford last year. Stoehr’s win earned him a tie with Cabral atop Waterford’s all-time NEMA win list, each with eight. (more…)
by | Mar 19, 2013 | New England Motorsports South
By lou Modestino
Stafford Motor Speedway has lined up an impressive field of current and former open wheel champions for its 3rd Annual CARQUEST Champions For Charities Event, which will take place on Friday, June 28th this season. During the coming weeks, SMS will offer a profile on each of its championship winning drivers and the charity they will be racing for and this week’s CARQUEST Champions For Charities spotlights falls on 2-time Pro-4 Modified Limited champion Stan Mertz, who will be racing to support the Connecticut chapter of Autism Speaks.
With the spring season fast approaching, yet another season of NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition is set to kick off at Stafford Motor Speedway with the 42nd annual Tech-Net Spring Sizzler Presented by CARQUEST on April 26-28. “The Greatest Race in the History of Spring” will officially begin Stafford’s 55th season of hosting weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series racing. (more…)
by | Mar 13, 2013 | Connecticut, New England, New England Motorsports South, Thompson
By Lou Modestino
The roar of the engines will once again fill the air at the Thompson International Speedway when the track opens for the first of two pre-season practice sessions on Saturday, March 30th. Each year, the first open practice session is very important to competitors and this year it will be of particular importance to the drivers of the former Thompson Modified division.
Nearly every TIS Modified team has moved to a new division at the track and each will be faced with challenges as they adapt to new cars and drivers in a completely different class of race cars. The Thompson Late Model class has become the division of choice for the majority of the TIS Modified Drivers.
The 2012 Thompson Modified champion, John-Lowinski-Loh, JR is just one of the drivers moving to the Late Models. He recently said that he was really looking forward to competing in a Late Model but he said that he and his team had their work cut out for them. He spoke of the fact that the cars are bigger and that there will be a need to adjust to a different suspension system, different tires and to learn to work with less visibility in the full-body style car. Lowinski-Loh, Jr said, “We will be racing with much more experienced guys but I think there will be close competition. I also think there will be a nice field of cars and that will make for really good racing. We are also looking forward to traveling to other tracks and getting valuable seat time. We are even thinking about going to Loudon,” he concluded. Lowinski-Loh, JR. had a very successful 2012 season. He scored eighteen top five finishes and visited victory lane a total of nine times. (more…)
by | Mar 7, 2013 | New England Motorsports South
By Lou Modestino
The MA Cruisers will open up the 2013 cruise season on Thursday night, April 18. If your interested in classic cars these events are the place to be. Drawing both thousands of classic cars, trucks and even race cars not to mention some very interesting motorcycles, on a good night when the weather is between 70 and 90 degrees the Bass Pro Shop cruise will see thousands of car buffs crowd into the huge parking lots on the south side of Gillette Stadium. Touted to be the biggest cruise night in the country, the event on alternate Thursday nights is a major happening in southeastern Massachusetts. No doubt because there’s no admission
Most of the vehicles on display are from MA and RI. Also some of them come from CT, NH, ME and VT with an occasional NY State vehicle. The parking lot has the capacity to hold up to 2,500 vehicles to display. Depending on the weather forecast, the retirees start pulling in around 2 p.m. even though the event officially doesn’t start until 5 p.m. The senior citizens like to get there early for a good parking spot because it’s a shorter walk to the rest rooms inside the Bass Pro Shop. (more…)
by | Mar 1, 2013 | New England Motorsports South
By Lou Modestino
Motorsports Community of the Northeast and beyond – In conjunction with Frank Maratta’s “The Show of Dreams” auto show, a 54-year-old tradition, Race-A-Rama will be reuniting the motorsport community together once again. This will be a true exposition of everything on wheels and will come to life at the Eastern States Exposition Better Living Center, March 2nd and 3rd, 2013.
“The combination of the two shows placed under one roof is a sure winner” says Frank Maratta, producer of the longest running, independently owned indoor car show in the nation.
The “Show of Dreams” features custom cars, hot rods, exotic imports and muscle cars from the 60’s and 70’s plus much more. The Race-A-Rama portion of the exposition will showcase Tracks of the Northeast, Divisional Championship Race Cars, and vendors offering racing related products, services and souvenirs. “The Show will come at a time when fans have reached their winter withdrawal from auto racing and drivers wish to showcase and fine tune their vehicles,” says Cal Green, Race-A-Rama’s Sales Manager. (more…)
by | Feb 21, 2013 | New England Motorsports South
By Lou Modestino
The last lap provided all the drama for the second consecutive night at the UNOH Battle At The Beach. As a result, NASCAR veteran Steve Park and rising star Cameron Hayley walked off with the winner’s trophies Tuesday in the inaugural non-points event at Daytona International Speedway.
Thanks to a bump from behind from Park, Mike Stefanik of RI looped his car off of Turn 2 on the final circuit of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race. That enabled Park of East Northport, N.Y., to drive off to his first career Daytona win on Tuesday night. It was the two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race winner’s first Modified victory since 1996. “It was just short-track racing. He probably had a car capable of winning, but we had the luckiest car. I’m just glad we won,” Park said. “It’s huge. You can win races all over this country, but you’re not going to have a Daytona trophy like we have here.” (more…)
