DSC_8478After last week’s races in Florida and New Hampshire, Eddie MacDonald and the Grimm Racing Team will take the green flags this week on Thursday at Richmond International Raceway and on Sunday at Thunder Road in Barre, Vermont.

For the third year in a row, RIR will host NASCAR’s K & N Pro Series East event in the Blue Ox 100 as part of the big Cup weekend at the banked .75 mile D-shaped track. When the checkered flag waves sometime Thursday night, the team will pack up for a return to the Newburyport, Mass. shop on Friday to get ready for a Saturday morning departure for the American Canadian Tour race at the historic “bullring” in the Green Mountain state.

“We had a busy week and we are doing it all again, but this is the fun part of racing,” said Eddie. “We are racing at two tracks that are a lot of fun and have a lot of history. It isn’t as hectic as last week but we really have been busy getting both cars ready, and hopefully we will have great runs.”

Both the #71 K & N and the #17 Late Model will carry the National Multiple Sclerosis logo. The Grimm Construction Chevy finished eighth in the Blue Ox 100 last year with Eddie saying, “Richmond is a great track and we had a strong run last year and hope to do even better this time. The track is very fast so the set up and the handling have to be there if you want to compete. The car was really good at the end of the race last year so we hope our set up this year will be getting us to the front.”

Eddie Mac finished third in last week’s ACT season opener Governor’s Cup 150 at Lee USA Speedway and will run Freddie Peterson’s car again this Sunday in the 15th annual Merchant’s Bank 150 at Thunder Road with Eddie saying, “It is always fun to drive there. You really have to have a good car under you to run on that track. It is tough to pass there and you are always turning left so handling is critical. It sounds like a great field of cars is entered and we are looking forward to running there. We have a day of practice Saturday to get the car the way it needs to be to be competitive. Rollie (LaChance) and I will have logged a lot of miles in the last couple of weeks so we hope all the travel and lack of sleep will pay off.”

NASCARHomeTracks.com will live stream practice (beginning at 12:00 noon), qualifying, and the Blue Ox 150 from Richmond on Thursday, April 26. Speed will televise a tape of the race on May 16 at 3:00 pm. Action gets under way at Thunder Road at noon with the ACT race scheduled for 4:30 pm.