PR - Eric LaFleche/ Photo - Chip Cormie


PR – Eric LaFleche/ Photo – Chip Cormie

(Winchester, NH) – Coming in to Monadnock Speedway as the Granite State Pro Stock Series (GSPSS) point leader was not really on the mind of 18 year-old, Hudson, NH native Derek Griffith. This particular race; the John Boy Hoyt 100 (JBH 100) means more than just points for the drivers of the fledgling GSPSS. This annual event is held in memory for GSPSS Co-Founder John Hoyt.

Hoyt is credited as one of the architects of the series and as Series President Mike Parks frequently mentions, there would be no GSPSS, if it had not been for Hoyt. After his untimely death in 2011, the series moved to honor Hoyt with a memorial race.

Derek talks about the JBH 100, “From all the accounts I know of John, he was an exceptional guy, very smart in the racing world. I know all of the GSPSS guys always mark this race on our calendars and Monadnock is always great for us, I just wish we had a better finish than we had.”

Griffith rolled off in the fourth starting position and was content on being patient and using tire management to be able to content for a race win at the end of the 100-lap event, however a chain reaction incident with the leaders on lap 24 sent the No.12 MOM’s of Manchester/FEP Insurance/LCM Racing Toyota Camry careening off the track in turn 1 and causing extensive body damage. After pitting for the crew to make the necessary repairs, Griffith was able to move through the field and ended up with a respectable sixth place finish.

I owe a lot to my crew, they never gave up, after the wreck, I knew the car was heavily damaged but the crew got the equipment out and took care of the issues, the car wasn’t handling too awful bad, we got sixth, so that’s a testament to the crews hard work, it could have been much worse.” said Griffith.

Next up for Derek on the Granite State Pro Stock Series will be the annual ‘Hudson Hugger’ held at Hudson International Speedway on August 23rd.

To keep up with Derek Griffith, you can follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/derekgriffith18 and Twitter at twitter.com/derekgriffith12