In 2012 many Thunder Road drivers are making moves to different divisions. Some with little experience, others bearing championships. The drivers below are ones to keep a close eye on in the upcoming season for Rookie of the Year honors.
Bond Auto Tiger Sportsman
Waterbury Center’s Jason Woodard will pilot the familiar #68 Bond Auto Tiger Sportsman championship car of Derrick O’Donnell from 2011. Woodard, who was the final champion of the Junkyard Warriors with nine wins in 2011, will face a steep learning curve having opted to race in the Tigers as opposed to the Allen Lumber Street Stocks. With championship experience and a great car underneath him, he could be a wildcard in 2012. (more…)
George Foley of Vermontville beat Todd Stone of Middlebury, VT to the finish line by a car-length to win the DIRTcar Modified 30-lap main event on his sponsor’s night (Loreman’s Screen Printing) at Airborne Speedway Saturday.
Foley, driving the Shamrock Bar & Grill/Pulsifer Logging Ford-powered No. 34, took the lead for keeps on lap 2, but Stone stayed close for the first 27 laps. No sooner had Foley opened up some daylight on Stone and third-place Pat McGrail then the yellow came out on lap 29. (more…)
Brian Hoar: ACT Late Model Tour
Devil’s Bowl Speedway Race Report
WEST HAVEN, Vt. – Brian Hoar of Williston, Vt., saw his two-race winning streak to open the ACT Late Model Tour season snapped when he finished 11th in the Spring Green 112 at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven, Vt., on Sunday, May 6. It was a long afternoon for Hoar, winner of the the Spring Green in 2011, who was hurt by a poor draw for qualifying and ended up starting 21st in the 34-car field and could never get the track position he needed to get up and race with the leaders. The RPM Motorsports No. 37 GossCars.com Dodge battled its way up to 11th to salvage a good points day on an otherwise tough afternoon.
A look back at the SK Modified feature at the Waterford Speedbowl held on May 5, 2012. The 35 lap event was won by Keith Rocco and features in-car camera footage from Tom Abele, Joe Gada and Diego Monahan’s racecars. Also includes interview with Speedbowl owner/operator Terry Eames earlier in the day
First ACT win for Helliwell; Gordon and Masterson also winners
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Devil’s Bowl Speedway fans rocked the grandstands with exciting season-opening stock car racing at the 101.5 “The Fox” Spring Green on Sunday afternoon. Wayne Helliwell, Jr., and Vince Quenneville, Jr., brought the house to its feet with close finishes and emotional landmark wins. Robert Gordon and Josh Masterson each started the 2012 campaign off in victory lane as well.
Helliwell, of Dover, NH, copped his first career victory on the American-Canadian Tour in a razor-close finish with Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. Helliwell started the 112-lap main event in third place but was held up in early traffic and fell back almost outside the top then. He clawed his way back to the front on the outside lane, taking the lead from Polewarczyk just after the halfway point in the race. Hudson, NH racer Polewarczyk held nothing back during the final laps as he tried to steal the win, but Helliwell persevered for his inaugural ACT Late Model Tour score. Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, ME drove from 20th starting position to finish third ahead of Ray Parent and Randy Potter. (more…)
Hermon’s Mike Hopkins made it two for two for 2012 in the Speedway 95 Dysart’s Late Models Saturday night when he went from the outside pole to victory lane in the caution free Sinclair Towing Service 50 lap feature event. Ryan Deane of Winterport started on the pole but was no match for Hopkins, who had the lead coming out of turn two on the first lap. Andy Saunders of Ellsworth wasted no time getting past Deane as he quickly moved into the second spot, but that’s as far as he could go. Saunders, and Deane who finished third, went the entire 50 laps nose to tail, but no change in the running order was ever made. Brenton Parritt of Steuben moved through the pack and finished in the fourth spot with Winterport’s Shane Clark finishing fifth. Duane Seekins of Stockton Springs finished sixth, the last car on the lead lap at the finish. Hermon’s Greg Ellis, Deane Smart of Milford, John Kalel II of Orrington and Dale Swoboda of Hermon, rounded out the top ten. Fifteen Late Models took the green flag for the race, with only Hermon’s Phil Richardson falling out and not completing the entire distance. Hopkins and Deane won the qualifiers, placing them on the front row for the start.
Berwick Maine’s Joey Doiron charged to the lead on lap 87 of Saturday’s PASS North Southern Maine Motors.com 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway to earn a convincing victory, the first for the series’ 2010 Rookie of the Year. Lonnie Sommerville raced home in second followed by Derek Ramstrom, Cassius Clark and DJ Shaw. Doiron came from tenth on the grid and drove under Sommerville and race leader Shaw for a lead he would never relinquish.
Doiron’s best previous PASS North finish – a fourth – came in this event one year ago.
Doiron considers Beech Ridge his home track, and his victory comes after two seasons of trying to carry the PASS feature checkers. Despite his Rookie of the Year title in 2010, Doiron has suffered through more than his share of mechanical issues and on track incidents.The family– focused race teams’ perseverance paid off Saturday as the young man drove off to the most convincing win that PASS fans have witnessed in recent memory. (more…)
West Haven, VT – Wayne Helliwell Jr. of Dover, NH dominated the second half of The Fox 101.5 Spring Green 112 on the way to his first ever American Canadian Tour victory on Sunday May 6, 2012 at Devil’s Bowl Speedway. Helliwell took over the lead on lap 58 and had to fend off a late race attack from Hudson, NH’s Joey Polwarczyk Jr. to take the checkers. Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, ME stormed from the 20th starting position to take over third, Ray Parent and Randy Potter completed the top five.
The race began with weekly competitor Craig Bushey leading the first lap after a +5 in the ACT plus minus system earned him the second starting position. Multi-time Oxford Plains Speedway Champion Ricky Rolfe took over for the next 26 laps before the lead was briefly wrestled away by former Thunder Road Champion Nick Sweet. Sweet only held on to the lead for two laps before Groveton’s Randy Potter took over the point. (more…)
Executing perfectly a move he had saved for the right occasion, Brad Keselowski pulled away from Kyle Busch on the final lap to win Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at at Talladega Superspeedway in a green-white-checkered-flag finish.
Busch had pushed Keselowski to the lead on Lap 193 of 194 in a race that went six laps past its scheduled distance at the 2.66-mile track. The two cars ran bumper-to-bumper until Turn 3 of the final lap, when Keselowski entered the corner high and dived to the bottom of the track, separating his No. 2 Dodge from Busch’s No. 18 Toyota.
The New Drivers Look to Shake Things Up
Berwick Maine’s Joey Doiron charged to the lead on lap 87 of Saturday’s PASS North Southern Maine Motors.com 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway to earn a convincing victory, the first for the series’ 2010 Rookie of the Year. Lonnie Sommerville raced home in second followed by Derek Ramstrom, Cassius Clark and DJ Shaw. Doiron came from tenth on the grid and drove under Sommerville and race leader Shaw for a lead he would never relinquish.
