by Jay | Feb 14, 2010 | NASCAR
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With a last-lap pass of superspeedway ace Todd Bodine, Timothy Peters won Saturday night’s NextEra Energy 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway.
With a push from polesitter Jason White, Peters passed Bodine on the backstretch and won the race to the finish line. Bodine, who had won the previous two season openers at Daytona, crossed the stripe in second place but spun into the infield grass after taking the checkered flag.
“I can’t believe it — this thing drove like a Lexus tonight,” Peters said of his No. 17 Toyota Tundra. “We just won Daytona! I was just content where I was at, but the 23 (White) came up and gave me a great run.
“I can’t believe it — I’m going to Disney World!”
Peters’ only previous win in the series came at .526-mile Martinsville Speedway.
Dennis Setzer, White and Matt Crafton rounded out the top five, as Bodine took solace from his second-place run — magnified by wrecks that ruined the nights of defending series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. and Mike Skinner, perennial contenders for the truck series title.
“You’re a sitting duck leading,” Bodine said ruefully. “I saw the replay when I was sitting down there in the mud (after spinning). Timmy did what he had to do.
“We’re disappointed. There’s no doubt about it. But second’s nothing to sneeze at.”
Two separate crashes on the pace laps — before the race had started — promised an action-filled evening, and, indeed, before the race was a lap old, Aric Almirola took the field three-wide in Turn 3. Austin Dillon, making his first superspeedway start, broke loose between trucks and ignited a nine-truck collision that damaged the trucks of Kyle Busch and Landon Cassill, among others.
“I really don’t know what was happening,” Dillon said after exiting the infield care center. “I was sucking up to Jason White, and someone got under me. Just looked like they weren’t being very patient there to start. Just caught in the middle and got banged around there a few times and tried to save it — just nothing I could do there.”
Hornaday was the victim of a 10-truck wreck after a bump from Ricky Carmichael turned him into the outside wall at the end of the backstretch on Lap 32. The same wreck ruined the winning chances of front-row starter Elliott Sadler. Skinner’s race ended early after a tap from Peters launched him into the Turn 3 wall on Lap 62.
by Jay | Feb 13, 2010 | NASCAR
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. — Tony Stewart held off a snarling pack of cars on his bumper to win the DRIVE4COPD NASCAR Nationwide Series 300 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday.
Stewart, who had won four of these races prior to this sunny Saturday, dodged a multitude of sensational wrecks to win his fifth of the last six Nationwide races here.
Carl Edwards roared back to a second-place finish after triggering Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s upside-down exit from the 120-lap race at the 92nd-lap mark.
Stewart teammate Kevin Harvick was third and Justin Allgaier fourth as the cars zigged and zagged their way to a wild finish.
Rounding out the top 10 were Brian Vickers, Paul Menard, who started the race in last place, Joey Logano, James Buescher, Kasey Kahne and Steve Wallace.
Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, who raced up front most of the afternoon, wrecked back in the pack on the last lap.
A 10-car wreck shortly past the halfway point ended Danica Patrick’s day, much to her dismay. It was one of those “I didn’t have any place to go to miss the wreck” deals.
It all unfolded ahead of her out of turn four when Josh Wise was tapped from behind by Colin Braun, which created a domino effect that eliminated a total of 10 cars, including Patrick, who had been the center of a media blitz for the past 10 days.
Others eliminated in the crash included Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Scott Lagasse, Braun, Brian Scott, Johnny Sauter, Menard, Robert Richardson, Jr., and Jason Leffler.
Another spectacular accident stopped the race with just 28 laps remaining. This time, it involved most popular driver Earnhardt, who was racing hard in third place when he was clipped from behind by Edwards, after Keselowski nudged him. The contact flipped Earnhardt upside down, and he rolled a couple of times before coming to rest rightside-up.
Harvick received some minor damage in the accident, as did Edwards and Keselowski. Earnhardt, Nemechek and Brendan Gaughan’s cars were damaged beyond repair.
Chrissy Wallace spun before the field completed a lap and hit the inside retaining wall, ending her day almost before it began. A little tap in the rear bumper from Menard started her spin which prompted the first caution of the day. It was not to be the last caution.
Just a few after a restart, the caution waved again. Mike Bliss accidentally bumped Trevor Bayne, triggering a multi-car spin. Patrick was almost involved but entered the smoke and came out the other side unscathed. Tony Raines and Braun were not so fortunate. They sustained some damage in the accident. On the restart at lap 11, it was Harvick, Earnhardt, Jr., Edwards and Logano up front.
At lap 25, Harvick was leading with Earnhardt second. Edwards was third, followed by Logano, Busch, Townley, Stewart, Biffle, Leffler and Kahne. Stewart and Biffle had raced their way into the top 10 after starting the race in the back of the field.
After a round of green flag pit stops at lap 44, Nemechek and Raines led a few laps when everyone but them pitted. Another caution on lap 50 bunched the cars up again. Mike Wallace spun between turns three and four to bring out the yellow flags.
When the race resumed at lap 56, Biffle was the leader with Busch second and Keselowski third.
Trailing the leaders were Edwards, Earnhardt, Nemechek, Stewart, Logano and Kahne.
Patrick had made her way back to 24th spot after handling problems forced her to the rear of the field.
by Jay | Feb 7, 2010 | PASS
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Ben Rowe could have left Florida in a bad mood. Instead, he left encouraged.
A twice-wrecked race car during the 4-time PASS North Series champion’s first voyage with Mulkern Racing did cast a mild pall over the trip to New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway last week, but Rowe saw the silver lining.
“I’m really happy, and I can tell you I’m excited about the season,” Rowe said after finishing 14th in the Winterfest 150, the first of five races in the PASS National Series for 2010. “We had a good run going, the entire team worked really hard and we’re going to be ready for the start (of the PASS North season).”
Rowe was fastest in the final practice, qualified eighth in the 22-car field and was the leader of the race at the halfway break — all in his first race with his new team and in his first race at New Smyrna’s fast half-mile track.
He took the lead in the No. 48 Community Pharmacies Chevrolet on lap 65 and held it until a lap 76 restart.
Rowe, of Turner, Maine, watched as leaders Johnny Clark and Brad Leighton moved ahead early in the second half of the event, planning to let them burn through their equipment while waiting to make a late-race run for the lead. Instead, he was caught up in a wreck on lap 104 that was a harbinger of things to come.
Rowe saw Leighton wave his hand out the window to indicate he was slowing down for an apparent caution flag — but as Rowe checked up, he was hit from behind and ended up in the turn one wall.
“It was just miscommunication between (Leighton) and his spotter,” Rowe said, noting that the race director never called for a caution. “I talked to Brad after the race, and he felt bad. He thought he’d been told there was a caution out.”
Just three laps later, after restarting at the rear of the field with what was largely cosmetic damage, Rowe was involved in a second incident — this time a much harder hit into the frontstretch wall that ended the No. 48’s day.
“I was just racing with guys I should never have been back there racing with,” Rowe said.
Still, after the disappointment of seeing a possible winning car sidelined, Rowe was excited.
“I was real happy,” said the reigning PASS National and PASS South champion. “The entire team — Tony Ricci, Scott Chubbuck, Mark Lyden, Shawn Plowman, every single one of the guys — all worked their tails off… There wasn’t anything anyone could have done different, it was just one of those deals that happens.
“But I’m really, really looking forward to going to the track again with those guys.”
When that will be exactly Rowe isn’t sure.
“There’s some things we want to do to the car,” he said. “It was my first time in a Junior Hanley car. My first time with bump stops like that. Maybe we can get to another (National or South) race before the North season starts, but we’ll just have to see how much we can get done.”
by Jay | Feb 5, 2010 | ACT
GOODYEAR ACT LIMITED LATE MODEL TIRE TEST SUCCESSFUL
Waterbury, VT – Officials of the Goodyear Engineering and Racing Division and the American Canadian Tour (ACT) have announced that the final test of their new tire designed for a Limited Late Model was very successful.
Veteran racer Joey Laquerre from Barre, VT took his ACT Tiger Sportsman car to Hickory Speedway in North Carolina last week to assist with the test of the D2637 – 7.5” treaded tire designed for a Limited Late Model, or +/- 3000 lb ‘street stock’ division type race car. Laquerre originally tested the Goodyear D2635 tire for the ACT Sportsman division in 2008. He was instrumental in helping to get the modifications made resulting in a revolutionary tire for these kinds of race cars throughout the country. Laquerre also did extensive testing on the ACT Late Model tire in 2004, which led to present use by a dozen tracks, and both ACT Touring divisions in the US and Canada.
“The test went really well, and working with Joel (Reichert, a development engineer for Goodyear racing) is always interesting. He listens to what we as racers think might help the product. Goodyear really improved the tire with the added half inch, creating a better contact patch, and I was very pleased that after 150 laps of testing the tire was still performing within a tenth or two of where we had been 100 laps earlier,” said Laquerre.
The American Canadian Tour has been involved with development of short track tires in conjunction with Goodyear for over 20 years. “ It is great to have the world’s highest profile racing tire company work with us for the betterment of short track racing,” said Tom Curley, President of the American Canadian Tour. “We started out working on a treaded tire back around 1990. A few years ago we saw a need for an upgrade on the 8” Late Model slick, and Goodyear allowed us to work with them to produce the state of the art 8” slick which has become very popular nationwide and is used by our affiliate tracks and both our US ACT and Canadian Castrol tours. Now with the development of the 7.5” D2637 treaded tire, we have come full circle.”
The American Canadian Tour, which is a 25-year old sanctioning body for short track events throughout the Northeast is also working with Goodyear on a cost-effective four-cylinder tire. Additionally, Goodyear will be providing ACT competitors with a special tire for their second ACT INVITATIONAL to be held at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 18, 2010.
Scott Junod, Goodyear Sales Manager, Short Track Racing, said, “Working with the competitors at ACT is always a very positive and rewarding experience for Goodyear. We have done a lot of testing with them over the past few years, and all of us in Engineering and Sales have really enjoyed the relationship. We are especially grateful to Joey (Laquerre) and appreciate all the help and input he has given us in development of this new tire for the Limited Late Model (ACT Tiger Sportsman) type car.”
The ACT Tiger division has been popular since 1966 at the flagship track, Thunder Road Speedbowl in Barre, VT. Annually, there are over forty (40) teams that compete weekly. Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY has seen continued success with the division for twenty years, and in 2010, White Mountain Motorsport Park in Lincoln, NH and the Devil’s Bowl Speedbowl in Fair Haven, Vermont will adopt the ACT rules for the ACT Tiger Sportsman division.
The Bond Auto/Wix “Tiger Sportsman Tour” will be expanding in 2010 to include events at both Thunder Road and White Mountain, as well as Riverside Speedway in Groveton, NH and Canaan Fair Speedway in Canaan, NH.
Tracks from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Ontario have indicated they will run the new Goodyear tire in 2010 following the testing results from Hickory.
by Jay | Feb 3, 2010 | ACT
Waterbury, VT – Ford Racing announced an aggressive $35,000 contingency plan for the American Canadian Tour (ACT) for the 2010 campaign. The contingency program, tailored to support those teams that have chosen to compete in 2010 with the Ford powered S347JR engine in any ACT affiliate track weekly events, as well as the touring programs under the ACT sanction, is the largest contingency plan offered in the 25-year history of ACT.
“We want short track supporters across North America to know that we are very supportive of their efforts. Short tracks have been the backbone of stock car racing for over 50 years, and Ford recognizes their importance. We believe the contingency program that we have offered the ACT competitors and supporters reflects our support,” said Mike Delahanty, Program Manager-Sportsman Circle Track Racing for the Ford Racing Technology division of Ford Racing.
The Ford spec engine program was begun as a joint venture between Ford engineering and ACT in 2008. After months of research and development to make the Ford compatible with the existing motors that were exclusive in weekly and touring Late Model racing throughout the Northeast, the approved product was introduced at the beginning of the 2009 season. Long-time ACT competitor, and three-time King of the Road Champion at Thunder Road Speedbowl in Barre, VT, Cris Michaud, brought Ford Racing their first crate victory in mid-summer last season. 2009 Lee USA Track Champion Wayne Helliwell, and ACT regular young gun Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. from Hudson, NH, among others, have switched over to Ford for their 2010 campaigns.
The FORD Racing Blue Oval Challenge Program will offer several contingency programs to registered and approved competitors who compete in ACT Tour (US) events; ACT Castrol Série events, two ACT special events: the New Hampshire Motor Speedway Invitational II and the Vermont Milk Bowl at Thunder Road. The contingency program will award the following:
I ACT TOUR & ACT Castrol Série
Win $500
2nd $250
3rd $100
II ACT Special Events, NHMS ACT Invitational II, VT Milk Bowl
Win $1000
Best FORD $ 500
III ACT Ford Racing Blue Oval Cup
(A season-long point program encompassing all Ford participants throughout the ACT Tour, ACT Castrol Canadian Series, and all ACT affiliate weekly tracks. An end-of-season point tally will reward Ford-powered competitors finishing in the top 10 as follows):
1st place- $3000 6th place- $ 600
2nd place- $1500 7th place- $ 500
3rd place- $1000 8th place- $ 400
4th place- $ 800 9th place- $ 300
5th place- $ 700 10th place- $ 200
A total of 43 ACT events will be eligible for contingency during the 2010 race season, and all ACT affiliate weekly programs will be eligible including: Thunder Road in Barre, VT; Lee USA in Lee, NH; White Mountain Motorsport Park in Lincoln, NH; Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, ME; Seekonk Speedway in Seekonk, MA; Waterford Speedbowl, in Waterford, CT; Twin State Speedway in Claremont, NH; Kawartha Speedway in Peterborough, ON; and Capital City Speedway in Ottawa, ON. Other tracks may be added and eligible number of point-counting events and further details will be forthcoming from the ACT office to registered competitors.
“This program, designed by Ford, validates the vision we have been working on over the past decade at ACT,” said Tom Curley, President of ACT. “We have tried to bring one region of the country under a ‘universal’ set of rules that was cost efficient for race teams, promoters, and fans. The idea was to have a strong, cost effective race car for weekly racing that was still exciting to watch and also capable of running touring events in the region. Recent events like the TD Bank 250 at Oxford and the ACT Invitational at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway have certainly showcased how successful the format for these times has been. The Ford vs. Chevrolet rivalry is now officially re-established.”
The sensational young star of ACT racing, Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., said, “We made the switch to Ford for the 2010 season for a couple of reasons. We needed to try something different to compete with teams like Brian Hoar, Brent Dragon, and Brad Leighton in order to get an ACT Championship, which is our goal. If we are successful, we are hoping that Ford might also help us with some future goals we have in racing. This contingency incentive program is just great–not only the money involved, but racing against all the other potential Ford teams in a region gives our competitive juices just one more goal to go after.”
The ACT season opens on April 18, 2010 at the Lee USA Speedway in Lee, NH with the annual running of the NH Governor’s Cup 150. This will also be the first opportunity to lock in an invitation to the ACT Invitational II at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 18, 2010.
Additional information contact the ACT office at 802.244.6963 or [email protected]
by Jay | Feb 1, 2010 | PASS
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Johnny Clark Motorsports got its 2010 racing season off to a great start on Sunday, with a dominating effort en route to a 2nd-place finish in the PASS Winterfest 150 at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway.
The race was originally scheduled for Saturday evening, but bad weather forced its postponement until Sunday afternoon.
Clark enjoyed a full straightaway lead with just five laps remaining and appeared to have a win in hand. But a late caution flag bunched the field to set up a race restart with just five laps remaining.
“I was pretty bad on restarts all day,” said Clark, of Farmingdale, Maine. “I was just a sitting duck.”
Brad Leighton of Center Harbor, N.H., capitalized by taking the lead and then the victory.
“It would take me four or five laps to catch the guy in front of me (on restarts),” said Clark, noting that the outside lane was the preferred groove on the fast, half-mile track. “I just didn’t have enough time at the end to get the lead back.”
Clark led a total of nearly 90 laps in the first of five PASS National Series races scheduled for 2010. The 4-time PASS North Series champion was the quickest of 24 cars in time trials earlier in the afternoon and lined up fourth on the starting grid following a re-draw of the fastest qualifiers.
He was disappointed not to have won after leading on a number of different occasions Sunday, but he conceded it was a great start to the new year.
“Absolutely,” Clark said. “We were awesome all weekend. Considering we didn’t even have a race car together two weeks ago, I think this said a lot about our team. We didn’t even know we were coming to Florida until the last-minute, but we proved that we’re ready to go.”
Clark anticipates that his next start will come in round No. 2 of the PASS National Series — in the Easter Bunny 150 at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway on April 3.
