NEW ENGLAND MOTORSPORTS NORTH
By Lou Modestino(for 1/29-1/31/10)
Eddie MacDonald will continue a great tradition of Racing Champions that participate in the Busch Sport Scene Ride for Charity. The NASCAR Camping World Series Star has confirmed that he will be at the 11th annual charity event on February 6, 2009 at the Club House Restaurant in Rangeley, Maine.
Eddie had one of the most amazing years on the racetrack, by any driver from the northeast in recent memory. As a full time competitor on the NASCAR Camping World Series in 2009, Eddie finished runner-up for the series championship, falling just 34 points behind series champion Ryan Truex, who drives for Michael Waltrip Racing. Eddie notched ten top tens and a pair of pole awards in his best career season in the CWS.
Eddie also won the 2009 Track Championship at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Driving the No. 71 NEMO/Grimm Construction Chevrolet, Eddie finished sixth in the Heluva Good! 125 in June and won the second Heluva Good! 125 in September. MacDonald scored a total of 15 bonus points at the speedway in 2009, which led to his second consecutive NHMS Track Championship. Making Eddie’s 2009 season even more remarkable is the other races he ran outside of the NASCAR Camping World Series. Eddie also raced a NASCAR modified car at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and a super late model in the Pro All Stars Series. But his most impressive performances of the 2009 season came in a late model stock car.
Eddie won the prestigious TD Banknorth 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway with his late model in July. He then followed that up with an amazing win in the American Canadian Tour’s Inaugural ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September – on the same weekend as he won the NASCAR CWSE Race at NHMS! MacDonald will travel from his home in Rowley, MA to Rangeley, where he will be joined by several of his race team members, including his crewchief, Rollie LaChance.
The event has a rich history of support from racing champions. 2009 American Canadian Tour Champion Brian Hoar will be attending the event as well. Both drivers are among the favorites planning to be in attendance with great chances to receive the 2009 Busch Sport Scene Driver of the Year Award. That award and the Busch Sport Scene Fans Favorite Driver award will be honored at the event. The Driver of the Year will receive a package featuring a $1000 gift Certificate from Bo Built Race Car Bodies.
“I’m excited to have Eddie joining the 11th Annual Busch Sport Scene Charity event again this winter,” event organizer and Busch Sport Scene publisher George Campbell said. “Eddie and his team have so much still going on, I’m honored that they are taking time out of their busy schedules to support the event.” The weekend prior to the charity event, Eddie, Rollie and the Grim Racing Team will be in California for the NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown.
The event includes a Poker Run snowmobile ride during the day followed by a full evening of entertainment. The proceeds go to several charities including the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Maine Special Olympics, Travis Roy Foundation, Rangeley Snowmobile Club, Busch Sport Scene Scholarship Fund and the Camping World Series Women’s Auxiliary and their various charities. Credentials for the event can be purchased for $10 in advance either at the Club House, the Rangeley Chamber or from Busch Sport Scene. The tickets will be $20 the day of the event. Busch Sport Scene is a New England based sports magazine. Current Busch Sport Scene subscribers will receive a $5 discount on the day of the event, as will NASCAR, PASS & ACT team members that present their licenses.
For room availability or directions, you can call the Rangeley Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-MT-LAKES. For more details, or to become a part of the event or make a donation, please email at scene@neracing.com or call Busch Sport Scene at 1-207-224-2060. For more details, visit the www.neracing.com website.
The Kendall Roberts-owned Vermont National Guard team of veteran driver John Donahue filed the first full season entry for the American Canadian Tour (ACT) 2010 season. There was plenty of excitement following the recent 2009 Banquet of Champions, and ACT headquarters received the Donahue entry 24 hours after the entry forms were sent this week.
“We are very excited about taking a run for the title this year,” said car owner Kendall Roberts. “We really came together as a team around TD Bank 250 time last season when Dale Shaw started giving us a hand, and John and the team have been very busy getting things freshened for the 2010 season. Everyone is excited about our new car, and we still get charged up about weekly racing at Thunder Road. We will be ready as soon as spring gets here,” concluded Roberts. The Donahue team is only one of three teams that ran the entire ACT US Tour and a full weekly schedule at Thunder Road in 2009. Jamie Fisher of Shelburne, VT and Eric Chase of Milton, VT were the other drivers to tackle both schedules in 2009, and are expected to do the same in 2010.
The National Guard team took advantage of the ‘big shows’ last year to make a racing statement to the Late Model teams in the region. An impressive third place at Oxford, Maine during the TD Bank 250 started the march to the front for the Graniteville, VT team. Donahue thinks of the Oxford oval as kind of his second ‘home track’. Several years ago he raced weekly at the famous speed plant. The next two months were highlighted with outstanding ACT Tour finishes — a fourth at Waterford, CT, second at Twin State in Claremont, NH, and a second at the Bond Labor Day Classic 200 at Thunder Road in Barre, VT finished the summer season. A solid run to fifth in the first ACT Invitational on the mile at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September turned many heads. Closing the season a week later on the ¼ mile high banks of Thunder Road by capturing the $10,000 to win 47th annual Chittenden Milk Bowl was the highlight of the season for the National Guard team.
Karl Allard from Ste. Felicien, QC, driver for the Quebec City-based Larue Industries Racing team has filed the first full season entry for the Série ACT Castrol. In 2010 the popular series will run at five different tracks throughout the Province of Quebec.
Allard, a world class snowmobile racer, is a perennial challenger for the ACT title. A former ADL Series Champion in Quebec, Allard is one of the most respected drivers on both sides of the border. “We really want to win an ACT title one of these years, and I think 2010 just might be our year,” said Allard. He has qualified for every ACT Castrol event over the past three years and has completed the most laps of any driver. Allard finished fifth, second and third during the past three ACT Castrol Series campaigns. The Larue team often competes in the US, including the Oxford 250 and had a solid top five run going at New Hampshire Motor Speedway during the first ACT Invitational last September. He finished 12th in the all star field.
“We have announced very good schedules for our competitors on both sides of the border for 2010,” said the ACT Media Director and Statistician, Nick Bigelow. “It is great to see these early entrants. It is a sure sign that there is going to be some enthusiasm for both our tours, and it also means that spring and a new racing season is just around the corner.”
The ACT Tour will open on April 18 with the traditional Governor’s Cup 150 at the Lee USA Speedway in Lee, NH. The ACT Castrol Series opens outside Montreal at the Autodrome St. Eustache on May 22.
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) announced that K&N Engineering, Inc., will be the title sponsor for NASCAR’s top developmental series, formerly known as the NASCAR Camping World Series East and West, beginning in 2010.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series will continue to crown champions through separate schedules on the East and West Coast. The seven-year agreement illustrates NASCAR’s commitment to the grassroots foundation of the sport. “K&N is a company that epitomizes the spirit of NASCAR,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. “The developmental series are a tremendously integral part of the past, present and future of NASCAR – from the great champions throughout the years to the pipeline of tremendous racers that have made their way up the NASCAR ladder to our national series. Having a company with the dedication to the sport and the automotive industry that K&N does speaks volumes to the importance we place in the series.”
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series encompasses NASCAR’s oldest stock car series in the West, which dates back to 1954, and the East that has evolved from the former Busch North Series. It runs on a challenging combination of speedways, short tracks and road courses, and the series has made its mark throughout the years with tough competition and exciting racing.
The Riverside, Calif.-based K&N Engineering is the inventor and leading innovator of reusable cotton gauze filter technology for automotive applications. K&N, which has grown from a family-run business to a global company, traces its involvement with NASCAR back to the days of supplying parts for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at the old Riverside Speedway.
“We are thrilled to be the Official Developmental Series Partner and sponsor of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series,” said Steve Rogers, chief executive officer of K&N Engineering. “Our roots in NASCAR go back to the 1970s and this feels like a partnership long overdue. After supporting grassroots and professional racing for decades, we love the idea of supporting a developmental series that provides great racing excitement while developing the top tier drivers of tomorrow.”
K&N will make its on-track debut as the series entitlement sponsor at the 2010 NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown – NASCAR’s prestigious postseason event which has earned the moniker of the “Daytona 500 of short-track racing.” The event will be, this weekend, Jan. 29-30 at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale (Calif.) and will air live on SPEED and SIRIUS NASCAR Radio. The all-star event brings together the variety of talent that is the hallmark of the series – the top up-and-coming drivers in NASCAR and the experienced veterans who make the series their home.
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Mark your calendar for Saturday, June 19 as Riverside Speedway will celebrate the evening with the largest winner’s payday ever in the history, for the Isaacson Structural Steel four cylinder Angel’s division. The 50 lap $500 to win main event will take place on one of the Speedway’s most coveted nights. The kid’s pit tour and the North Country Special Olympians will be present at the Speedway, making this one of the largest crowds during the regular season.
“We promised all of our divisions at least one special night during the 2010 season,” said new General Manger Jean LeBlanc. “With the sponsorship provided by Isaacson Structural Steel, this is the event is being arranged for our lady drivers.” The speedway has already had some interest from some of the finest female racers in the North East. That includes the racing Christman girls who are driving in Riverside Speedway’s Super Stock and Street Stock classes in 2010.
“I hope to see more than 20 of the finest female racers in the North Country,” said LeBlanc. “We will allow our Street Stock and Cyclone cars to race in the event. The Street Stocks will have to adjust their camber to the Angel division and we will impose a weight penalty on them to compensate for their gutted body panels. I hope to see all of our female drivers enter this event, to include Shauna Randall and Ciara McCoy. We have always seen the car count swell to close to 20 cars on the Jake McDowell night. Hopefully, we will fill a field of 28 cars, getting some female drivers from area tracks like Thunder Road, Oxford Plains Speedway, and White Mountain Motorsports Park.”
The Angel division is a stock four cylinder entry level division. The 2010 racing season is still a ways away, but, by looking at the 2010 schedule, it is going to be one red hot racing season. CFS new General Manager, Dick Therrien, and Track owners, Chick and Sandy Henry, have embarked on bringing in some of the finest touring divisions in the Northeast.
“We have left no stone unturned this season, and we are extremely proud of all the exciting racing we will be presenting in 2010, stated a jubilant Therrien. We have everything intact to delight every type of race fan this season! We have worked hard negotiating with several touring organizations this winter, and have come to some sort of agreement with just about every one of them, thus insuring Canaan Fair Speedway to be offering one of the most diverse and entertaining schedules in the region.”
The season is full of gigantic shows which will include the giant Fourth of July weekend Spectacular. This event, scheduled for Saturday, July 3, 2010 will feature the P.A.S.S. Super Late Models, P.A.S.S. Mods, Super Streets, Pure Stocks, Bandits, Daredevil Youth Racers, plus Monster Trucks and fireworks to cap off the night! This event will carry a July 4 rain date.
The biggest event of the summer will also hit the pavement in July as the 2010 edition of the Ricky Miller Memorial 112, for the Modified Racing Series invades Canaan for a huge weekend on Saturday, July 24. Joining the David’s House Benefit card will be the P.A.S.S. Mods, Super Streets, Pure Stocks, Bandits and Daredevil Youth Racers. Rain date for this event will be Saturday, July 31. Along with some great racing, the day will be filled with great door prizes and giveaways all designed to benefit David’s House which is located in Lebanon, New Hampshire. David’s House offers affordable accommodations to families that have sick children at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. This great organization relies heavily on community support and Canaan Fair Speedway is very proud to be a part of this fundraising event.
In August, the ACT Tiger/Sportsman Tour will invade the CFS Asphalt for a 100 lap main event. This event will be held on Saturday night, August 21st. Joining the ACT Tiger/Sportsman Tour will be our own Pro Stocks, Super Streets, Bandits and Daredevil Youth Racers. Several other touring divisions that will be competing at Canaan Fair Speedway this summer include the Champ Kart Touring Series for five events, the Northeast Mini Stock Tour for one event, The S.T.A.R. Antique Racers for three shows, The New England Truck Series for an event, and the Northeast Classic Lites will be making at least one appearance in 2010.
When the Canaan Dirt Speedway opens their doors in 2010, they will find a lot of new things awaiting them. First off, Dick Therrien will be replacing Wally and Jeanine Brown as General Manager of the dirt complex. “The Browns did a great job operating the facility and I am looking forward to continuing to help the track improve in 2010,” stated Therrien. “There are very few changes in the works outside of stepping up the Tech Department, as well as working on improving car counts and the fan base. With all the improvements that the Henry’s have done to the facility, Canaan will be a great place to race this season. We are working with both other local dirt tracks to improve relationships amongst the three of us. With all of us running basically similar divisions and running different nights, it only makes sense to all try and work together the best we can. I have talked to “Big Daddy” Mike Rivers, and have a meeting in the works with Bear Ridge mentor, C.V. Elms. Hopefully, as a group, we can provide some of the best dirt track racing in the Northeast.”
“One step we are moving ahead with is a new purse for the Mods in 2010. With the cost of gasoline escalating, and the fact that many Modified teams travel quite a distance to race at Canaan weekly, we decided to up the purse in our premiere weekly division. This year, the winners share will be $400 instead of $300. There has also been an increase throughout the top fifteen finishing positions. We hope this will help the racers afford to run an entire season instead of just picking and choosing their events” Therrien explained.
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Here’s what else is going on in the North Country this weekend. On Sunday at 1 p.m. there’s stockcar racing on the ice at Berry & Lee Ponds in Moultonborough, NH, Lake Contoocook in Jafrey, NH and the Me-Te-Jo Campground in Milton, NH. Also Jolly Roger Motorsports Park in E. Lempster, NH offers the Hump O’Winter ice racing for cars and motorcycles offering cash prizes at noon.