PASS North Series: Bradley Babb
Oxford Plains Speedway Race Report
OXFORD, Maine – Bradley Babb of Windham, Maine, finished 14 in the PASS North Series Ripley & Fletcher Ford 150 at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine, on Sunday, April 21. Babb, the reigning 2012 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Maine state champion, won the pole position for the event after running away with his qualifying heat, and the No. 14 Babb Wood Contractors/McGoldrick Bros. Blasting Chevrolet ran inside the Top-10 throughout the event before being shuffled back on a late-race restart in the outside groove. Still, the finish marked Babb’s best career Oxford Plains Speedway Super Late Model finish and was a good testing ground for the TD Bank Oxford 250 later this summer.
Bear Ridge Speedway’s 12th annual Upper Valley car show
Show creates excitement and anticipation
BRADFORD, VT –The Home Depot in West Lebanon, NH will once again be the home to the 12th annual Upper Valley car show on April 27th. After a winter of preparation the fans will get to see the all the new cars and paint schemes unveiled in anticipation of an action packed season. The show always provides a few suprises for competitors and fans alike.
Competitors from all six of the 99ROCK Bear Ridge Speedway weekly divisions, which consist of the Bond Auto Parts DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds, the Wells River Chevrolet Sportsman Coupes, Laquerre’s Sports Limited Late Models, the USAC Dirt Midgets, the Weglarz Property Management Fast Fours and the KDD NAPA Ridge Runner Hornets are expected to be on hand. Also expected to be in attendance are some of the Sprint Cars of New England and the Granite State Mini Sprints, both of which visit Bear Ridge numerous times over the season.
Cassius Clark has won today’s 150-lap event at Oxford. 2nd Doiron, 3rd Benjamin, 4th Rowe, 5th Timmons
Track position bites him at end. After strong day from the pole, Brad Babb finishes 14th in PASS 150 at Oxford.
Brad Babb is 8th with 8 to go at Oxford. “I’m happy with where we’re at for this place.”
Lap 140: caution out for Scott Mulkern! 10 laps to go … This is about to get real interesting …! Doiron, C.Clark, Benjamin, Timmons, and Rowe will settle it for the win.
Lap 125: Cassius and Doiron battle side by side for first followed by Travis Benjamin in third. (more…)
POWER FAILURE HALTS SPEEDWAY 95 OPENING DAY PROGRAM
Speedway 95’s opening day program was well underway when a component failure in the speedway’s lighting system forced postponement of the final three feature events scheduled for the night. Speedway officials said those postponed events for the Strictly Streets, the Darling’s Ford Sportsman and the Dysart’s Late Models would be completed next Saturday night before the start of the regular racing program.
Prior to the curtailment, Garett Hayman of Milford won the 20 lap Bomber feature after holding off Carmel’s Denis Burns through three restarts in the final five laps. Burns finished second with Bangor’s Scott Bonney in third. Joey Doyon of Winterport and Chris Carroll of Greenbush rounded out the top five.
The Sport-Four 25 lap feature event was also completed, but the results changed once the tech inspectors checked the cars after the race. Zach Audet of Skowhegan, who finished first in the race, was disqualified in the post race inspection, as were Jayson Bosworth and Brad Bosworth of Cornville, who had also finished in the top five. All three cars failed to meet the specified track width requirement. J.R. Gray of Orrington was declared the winner with 2012 division champion Ted Ryder of Carmel in second. Third place went to Kevin Hartley of Hermon, followed by Joshua Grant of Carmel and Matthew Loyd of Drummond, New Brunswick. (more…)
Wiscasset’s Kevin Sherman brings home the New England 4-Cylinder Prostock Win
By Lisa Maguire
Fans and racers alike gathered for another week of racing action at Wiscasset Speedway this past Saturday. The itinerary for the group one division of racing included Superstock, Prostock, New England 4-cylinder Prostock, Thunder 4’s, and the flex race of the week, Wicked Good Vintage Racers.
Up first was the twenty-five lap Superstock race. Corey Morgan- Lewiston, in the number 26, took the pole position. Morgan led early on, but Adam Chadbourne- Woolwich, squeezed by and took the lead. A battle ensued between Morgan and James Osmond- Wiscasset. Osmond held second place, but with seven laps to go, Morgan slid in and took the position away. Chadbourne took the win, Morgan placed second. Osmond finished in third. (more…)
Grimes, IA – Brett Moffitt, driver of the #11 Don Valley North Toyota Scion Toyota for Hattori Racing Enterprises (HRE), made his 50th career start at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL on Saturday night in the NAPA Auto Parts 150. He took the green flag on Saturday evening with a six point lead in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship point standings. By the time the checkered flag waved, Moffitt had extended his lead to nine points over his nearest competition.
The race teams arrived in Florida for the third race of the season a day early in order to participate in an open day of testing allowed by NASCAR prior to the inaugural NAPA Auto Parts 150. This was the first stop for the Series at the storied half mile asphalt raceway and the first stand-alone points race ever for the Series in the State of Florida. Teams were allowed to test the racing surface for the majority of the day, and the #11 HRE Toyota team, owned by Shigeaki Hattori and led by Crew Chief Dave McCarty, made good use of their opportunity to learn about track conditions. Five Flags is regarded as an “intermediate short track”, and its banked surface called for a somewhat different set up than the team had used the prior weekend at Greenville Pickens. Fine-tuning to compensate for those differences was the object of the open day of practice.
By the time the teams came out for K&N Pro Series East practice sessions on Saturday afternoon, the #11 Toyota was running laps in the 17.6 second range, or just under 102 mph around the banked half mile track. Qualifying was slated for the warmest part of the afternoon, and Moffitt managed to lay down a lap of 17.260 seconds or 104.287 mph to put his car into the 4th slot, giving him a starting position on the outside of row 2. Moffitt used his time from the 1st qualifying lap and brought the car in before completing his second qualifying lap, due to a very tight condition.
At the drop of the green flag, that tight condition persisted, and Moffitt began to drop quickly back through the field, falling almost immediately from his 4th place starting spot to the middle of the pack. By lap 15, he was struggling to hold onto the 12th position. Around lap 27, the car finally began to come back to him, and although Moffitt was not able to advance, he was at least able to close the door on 2 more contenders who were looking to improve their positions at his expense. As the handling improved little by little, he began to turn his fortunes around, and by lap 42, he was back inside the top 10 in 9th position. By lap 68, he had climbed up to 8th. On lap 72, Moffitt was scored in 7th position and was working hard to retake the 6th spot. He moved to the outside line, but could not make the pass for 6th stick and settled back in line in 7th. Although he had pulled even with the 6th place car again by the time the competition yellow waved on lap 75, he had not been able to complete the pass and was scored in 7th at the break.
Because the Series had never raced at Five Flags before, a 10 minute break was allowed at the half way point so that teams could make necessary adjustments. Teams were allowed to change 4 tires, but they were not permitted to raise the hoods for other adjustments. Moffitt explained to his team, “The car is coming to me, but we still need to get through the center of the corners better.” Dave McCarty and the crew added a rubber in the right rear and dropped the track bar, as well as making a slight air pressure adjustment.
Moffitt took the green flag for the restart from the inside of Row 4. The adjustments made by the #11 team over the break improved the handling enough that Moffitt was able to move back up to the 5th position by lap 85. With 50 laps to go, he was pressuring the 4th place car, and by lap 112, he had retaken the 4th position, winning a 4-way battle for the spot and regaining all of the positions he had dropped at the beginning of the event.
During the final caution of the evening on lap 136, Moffitt reported to the team that, “The drive off coming out of turn 4 is pretty much gone,” but he continued to hang onto his 4th place position until the end.
Although there had been action all night back in the pack, once the green flag waved, there were no lead changes whatsoever. Ben Kennedy, great grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., managed to capture the pole and lead every lap wire-to-wire.
Moffitt, the Series points leader, offered the winner his congratulations as he climbed out of the car. “Ben Kennedy was definitely the class of the field tonight. No one had anything for him. Ben and the #96 team really deserved this win, and we want to congratulate them. I also want to thank my guys for giving me a good car tonight. We battled a very tight condition from the start of the race, and had to drop back through the field and ride for a while to keep from wadding it up. Eventually, it started coming back to me, and we were able to work our way back up to 4th, which made for a good points night for us. My guys never gave up. They made good adjustments at the break, and we were able to get a solid finish.” Moffitt and the #11 HRE Toyota team have now scored 3 consecutive top 5 finishes in all 3 of their starts this season. (more…)
THE STORY
WESTBROOK, Maine – John Peters of Westbrook, Maine, heads to a twin bill of Amsoil NELCAR Legends Tour racing this weekend, when the series holds 25-lap feature events both Speedway 95 in Hermon, Maine, on Saturday, April 20, and Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine, on Sunday, April 21. Peters posted a career-best finish of seventh – the highest finishing rookie in the field – in the NELCAR season opener at Wiscasset Speedway two weeks ago, and he’ll be making his first visit to both tracks in a Legend car this weekend.
THE FACTS
WHO: John Peters, Westbrook, Maine
TEAM: No. 51 Digby’s Variety/Cash For Clunkers Coupe
CREW CHIEF: Greg Peters, Westbrook, Maine
BEST CAREER SPEEDWAY 95 FINISH: N/A
LAST RACE AT SPEEDWAY 95: N/A
BEST CAREER OXFORD PLAINS SPEEDWAY FINISH: N/A
LAST RACE AT OXFORD PLAINS SPEEDWAY: N/A
WHAT: Amsoil NELCAR Legends Tour 25
WHERE: Speedway 95, Hermon, Maine (.333-mile oval)
WHEN: Saturday, April 20 – 2 p.m., practice; 5 p.m., qualifying; 6 p.m., race
WHAT: Amsoil NELCAR Legends Tour 25
WHERE: Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Maine (.375-mile oval)
WHEN: Sunday, April 21 – 10 a.m., practice; 2 p.m., qualifying; 4 p.m., race
Amsoil NELCAR Legends Tour
LAST RACE: April 6, Wiscasset Speedway, Wiscasset, Maine (7th)
NEXT RACE: May 4, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Maine (.333-mile oval)
CURRENT POINTS POSITION: 7th (more…)
