{"id":11043,"date":"2012-11-08T23:23:31","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T04:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=11043"},"modified":"2012-11-11T23:24:01","modified_gmt":"2012-11-12T04:24:01","slug":"new-england-motorsports-south-for-nov-9-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/new-england-motorsports-south-for-nov-9-11\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW ENGLAND MOTORSPORTS SOUTH For Nov 9-11"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW ENGLAND MOTORSPORTS SOUTH
\nBy Lou Modestino<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ten winners in 14 events made 2012 the most competitive season yet for the five-year- old Northeastern Midget Association\u2019s Lites Division.<\/p>\n

A pair of 16-year olds, Carl Medeiros Jr. and Avery Stoehr, with four and two respectively, were the only double winners. Medeiros set a new standard with three straight victories including two in one day at Lee USA Speedway on June 13. His fourth win came at Beech Ridge in September.<\/p>\n

Third-generation driver Stoehr (following grandfather Paul and father Russ) won at Waterford Speedbowl and at Lee USA\u2019s Ocktoberfest.
\n<\/p>\n

Other winners were Ryan Bigelow, Brandon Igo, Randy Cabral, Ian Cumens, Modified standout Keith Rocco, Alan Chambers, Dylan Duhaine and Danny Cugini. There were few runaways as NEMA officials continued to keep the division competitive. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe season was as successful as you\u2019re going to get,\u201d says Bobby Seymour, the division\u2019s top nursemaid. \u201cWe had lots of different drivers, lots of different cars and motors. We had young guys and old guys winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cumens, Stoehr and Bigelow are all scheduled to move up to the full midgets in 2013. Cumens, in his second Lites campaign, had a win at Oswego and four seconds among eight top five finishes driving for Seymour. He was third at Lee USA\u2019s Speedway\u2019s Ocktoberfest in Seymour\u2019s full midget. Bigelow\u2019s Waterford triumph was his third career Lites win.<\/p>\n

While she didn\u2019t checker, Bethany Stoehr, Greg\u2019s daughter, turned more than a few heads with 10 top-fives, including four seconds in the family No. 26b. Bethany did double duty much of the campaign, making six NEMA starts including a fourth at Waterford in the former Jarret No. 4 once driven by Nokie Fornoro.<\/p>\n

Bethany turned a sizzling 12.986 lap capturing a heat in the No. 4 at Waterford. Now in the Stoehr stable, it will be Bethany\u2019s regular ride in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to bring talent to NEMA,\u201d continues Seymour. \u201cThe stronger NEMA is, the stronger the Lites are going to be. People come to the Lites wanting to go further. NEMA is something to look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lites are a little less than a second off the full midgets. At Waterford in August, for instance, Todd Bertrand (13.014) had the fastest feature lap for the full midgets while Cumens\u2019 13.936 was best in the Lites event. Eight tenths separated Greg Stoehr and Cugini at Beech Ridge. <\/p>\n

Lites graduates Seth Carlson, Anthony Marvuglio, Todd Bertrand and Anthony Nocella were NEMA winners in 2012. Nocella is the division\u2019s all-time winner with 11. There have been 30 winners in the 66 Lites features since 2008.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Why Randy Cabral competes in NEMA\u2019s Lites Division:<\/p>\n

1. \u201cI enjoy racing with those guys. Hopefully I can show them they will be able to move and race with us [in the full Midgets]. That\u2019s what the division should be doing. \u201d<\/p>\n

2. \u201cI want to help the younger kids. The Lites cars drive differently than a full midget. Driving in that division helps me talk to the kids, helps me answer questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. \u201cI am not content with running just the NEMA schedule. Running the Lites car is not that expensive for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. \u201cMy father (Glen) really wanted somebody to drive for him. Everybody he had driving crashed and he couldn\u2019t find people to work on the car. At the end of last season he said he was going to park the car. I stopped driving for Paul Scally and went to my father.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cabral has three career Lites win including one last summer at Star.<\/p>\n

Sometimes a look backwards can result in a move forward. Bertrand Racing and driver Randy Cabral, the 2012 Northeastern Midget Association champions, is a case in point. It was the second straight and fourth championship in five years for the duo.<\/p>\n

It was after a fifth at Oswego Speedway in late August \u2013 the end of what owner Tim Bertrand calls a string of \u201cmediocre races\u201d \u2013 that the team \u201cdecided to get back to basics.\u201d According to Bertrand \u201cwe put four non adjustable, economy shocks on the car and went back to our setups from 2008. We committed to figuring out how to make them work again and stick with our old program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finishing with back-to-back wins (Thompson\u2019s World Series and Lee USA\u2019s Ocktoberfest), Cabral had three wins, two seconds and a third over the final six events. He won the championship going away, capping off a 12-year NEMA stint that has produced 35 victories, 28 of them with Bertrand.<\/p>\n

Starting with his own win, Bertrand Racing now has 35 wins (since 2001). Brother Todd contributed two, including one this year. The other four belong to Lou Cicconi, with three and Mark Buonomo with one.<\/p>\n

Cabral had four checkereds in 2012, the only multiple winner in a season that saw 11 different drivers visit Victory Lane before Cabral became the first \u201ctwo timer\u201d at Beech Ridge in September.<\/p>\n

The championship, Cabral insists, \u201cis a credit to the crew. They give me the car that I need. The championship is more theirs than mine. I didn\u2019t do anything spectacular. I just drove. They made it easy for me.\u201d His dad Glen is a major part of that.<\/p>\n

The first win came five races into the season at Star, two races after a crash at Stafford. \u201cGlen did a masterful job putting the car back together,\u201d claims Bertrand but right after Stafford \u201cwe really got off our program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cabral insists \u201chaving fun\u201d is a factor. \u201cAt the end of the day,\u201d he says, \u201cwe better have a smile on our face. If we don\u2019t, we go back the next day and analyze why.\u201d Still, commitment, communication and simple hard work are the real ingredients. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would not call myself an easy person to drive for,\u201d says Bertrand, \u201cand I wouldn’t say that Randy is an easy driver to please. That is what makes us so good together. I’m not happy when the car isn’t great and neither is he.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRandy can be the fastest car out there and come and tell me the car is “junk,” Bertrand continues. \u201cWhat he really means is that the car might be fast on the stop watch, but it won’t last 25 laps. I think some guys just don’t get that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Series is a perfect example. The car was terrible in Saturday\u2019s qualifying. \u201cI was so mad that we made some bad decisions that day, I picked up and left the race track immediately after the heat,\u201d Bertrand explains. \u201cLater that night, after I calmed down. Randy, Glen and I talked on the phone and we made some really critical decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming from 14th, Cabral all but clinched the championship with his 10th career Thompson win, turning in the fastest lap (18.113) as well.<\/p>\n

And Lee provided still another example of \u201cthe connection\u201d between Cabral, Bertrand and the car. \u201cBefore Lee,\u201d Bertrand offers, \u201cI told Randy I had a bad feeling about the drive line in the car because we got a bad push start at Thompson. We won the heat race (at Lee), and the drive line failed when we crossed the start finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with Todd enhanced Bertrand\u2019s enjoyment, as well. \u201cI started going down to the shop in Connecticut with my daughter to work on his car with him and the results were awesome \u2013 four top-fives including a victory at Waterford,\u201d said Bertrand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW ENGLAND MOTORSPORTS SOUTH By Lou Modestino Ten winners in 14 events made 2012 the most competitive season yet for the five-year- old Northeastern Midget Association\u2019s Lites Division. A pair of 16-year olds, Carl Medeiros Jr. and Avery Stoehr, with four and two respectively, were the only double winners. Medeiros set a new standard with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}