The Star Wars Storm Troopers will entertain the youngsters on Sunday afternoon. It’s also free admission for kids that day.  Saturday’s offerings is a pit crew challenge at 4 pm.  The winning crew will get a $1,000 prize. At 6 pm there’s a pin-up beauty contest on Saturday. There will be lots of race cars, custom cars and trucks on display.  On Sunday the best ones will split $1,500 in awards.

Some of the tracks that have already committed to the show are; Monadnock in Winchester, NH, Bear Ridge in Bradford,Vermont, New London-Waterford, Stafford and Thompson Motorsports Park from Connecticut and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Other tracks and tours like NEAR and STAR vintage race cars will be present. Vendors will also be among the displays.

Other shows where New England racing venues had an opportunity to showcase their offerings this year were at the the Hot Rod Reunion which focused on drag racing in early January held in Hudson.  On that same weekend in Maine the Motorsports Expo took place in Augusta featuring all types of motor sports.  Last weekend the Racin Preview took place in Portland, Maine featuring various motor sports venues and tours and contests.

Another promotional opportunity for motor racing in New England will be held at the Town Fair Tire World of Wheels Autorama which will take place at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston the weekend of April 1-3.  That show typically offers a big display of hot rods and customs and the New England Dragway in Epping, NH is always in attendance.  Other New England venues should take advantage of this show but they fail to do so.

The six state New England area over the past years has developed a large cross section of motor racing offerings.  The only circuit missing in New England is the Formula 1 world wide circuit.  If you want to go to that type of racing, it’s held in Montreal in June and Austin, Texas in November.

Twenty-five years ago the old Bryar Motorsports Park in Loudon, NH expanded into a one -mile oval to host both Indy Cars and NASCAR stock cars that had a lot of success up until the big recession of 2008.  The Indy cars faded at NHMS while the NASCAR stock cars are still the major attraction on big racing weekends in July and September.  However, the Indy Cars will return to New England this time on the streets of South Boston near the waterfront over the 2016 Labor Day weekend on a temporary street course.

Just a few years ago the NHRA  signed  a 20-year lease with New England Dragway to bring its coast-to-coast  circuit of AA fuel Dragsters, Funny Cars and Pro Stocks for a mid-June event. This year the event moves back to the first weekend in June.  New England Dragway also offers some big vintage drag weekends sanctioned by the NHRA during the racing season.  There are also two other drag strips in New England and both are in Maine.  There’s the 1/8th mile Oxford Dragway in the western part of the state and Winterport Dragway up on the northern coast.

Just a few years ago a group of motor sports fans up in Limestone, Maine proposed that they sanction an annual  Land Speed Record meet at the now closed Loring Air Force Base with it’s 7,000 foot runway.  It’s worked out and the event gets entries, autos, trucks and motorcycles from all over the US and Canada.  There are some problems with the event held in the North Woods. The officials have to constantly be on the lookout for moose, deer and bears before each run unlike the Salt Flats of Bonneville Speedway in Utah which is in a very dry desert.

For the road racing fans,  there’s Lime Rock Park in western Connecticut and the two year old new 1.7 mile road course at Thompson Motorsports Park in the eastern part of that state. Also, there’s an  infield road course inside the one mile oval of  New Hampshire Motor Speedway. In addition to all of that, there’s a private motor sports country club that’s supposed to open this spring in W. Tamworth, NH.

There are plenty of oval tracks in New England with the exception of Rhode Island. Most of them are paved.  Dirt track racing though is expanding up in the north country.  Bear Ridge in Bradford, VT is successful with a weekly Saturday night effort hosting dirt Modifieds, USAC Midgets and special dates for the Sprint Cars of New England.  Some of those same race cars compete at the infield dirt track of the the  paved outside half-mile at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven, VT.  Also those cars compete at the Legion Speedway, a quarter-mile dirt track, in Rumney, NH.  Those three tracks have an affiliation with the big DIRT circuit of NY which also sanctions dirt track Modified events in Charlotte, NC, Florida in the winter, Ontario and Quebec in Canada.

Up until a few years ago, Motox 338 in Southwick in western MA always held a big June AMA MotoX National.  However, the promoters had some rental problems with the adjacent American Legion Post that owned the property.  A few years ago, the post  hit the promoters with a rental increase which caused them to abandon their big effort every year which always drew a  25,000 plus crowd.

Some think that the big AMA National could return to Southwick only if  a new race promoter and the Legion post could agree on the rental price.  We understand that the Legion previously  collected the parking fees. But the parking and lease fees weren,t enough for them.  These days most veteran posts are barely operating in the black and depend on fund raising efforts in addition to bar and lottery sales.  Also, lack of membership contributes to the problem.