The newly formed Modified Touring Series will have to wait until the dust settles at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl on the Connecticut shore before it can make its first appearance there.
TRACK TALK
By Lou Modestino (For Saturday, 4/29/17)
There have been conflicting reports about the season opener at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. The latest, according to postings on the track’s website, is that the Speedbowl has postponed the Blast Off weekend due to unforeseen circumstances for May 6-7. All efforts are being made to rescheduled the opening event of the 2017 racing season as soon as possible. Track management apologized to all of the fans. Changes and updates will be released as soon as possible. All this is due to the track owner Bruce Bemer being arrested due to a sexual trafficking charge. Bemer is currently out on bail.
All that impacts the second round of the 2017 Modified Touring Series event at Waterford and MTS organzier Gary Knight of Charlestown, NH had high hopes of getting round two of the MTS behind him. Knight, by the way, had a successful 2017 launch of the MTS at the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH last weekend. Some 20 top Modifieds were on hand to race in spite of the spring cold in the the Monadnock mountains of western NH. Among the finishers was Canton’s Rick Savary and Tommy Barrett, Jr. of Millis. Savary came in fifth while Barrett finished ninth.
We had a conversation with Tommy Barrett, Jr. who did some infrequent racing during 2016. “I’m going to race in the entire Modified Touring Series this year. The challenge in this series is going to be getting “hooked up” with the American Racing Tire which something I tried to do in a practice session in mid-April at Monadnock. But I wasn’t confident going into the first MTS race, “Barrett revealed.
Though, It appears that there was some progress by both Barrett and Savary considering that they both finished well in spite of some cold mountain weather that night. By the way Randolph’s Joe Kourafas has returned as crew chief for Rick Savary’s Modified car for the 2017 season.
With the cancellation of the New London Waterford Speedbowl opening event, the Northeastern Midget Association will head to the famed Star Speedway in Epping, NH on Saturday night, May 6. It has been a favorite stop for the midgets since the 60’s, in fact Star has hosted more NEMA events than any other facility.
“NEMA is extremely excited to return to Star Speedway and especially as part of their PASS weekend, and further, to expand our 2017 schedule with the Webber family,” said NEMA President, Tim Bertrand. “Some of the best races in the history of the club have gone down at Star, and we look forward to making some more memories together. Our car counts are looking strong for 2017, and the club is on the upswing,” said Bertrand.
“We learned of the issues with Waterford, and extended the opportunity to our friends at NEMA to participate in our opening weekend,” said Bob Webber Jr. “This show should be an unbelievable bargain for the fans, with both the PASS, NEMA and NEMA Lite cars on hand,” he went on to say.
Some of the greats have gotten their first NEMA victory at Star including Joey Coy, Mike Favulli and Billy Mann, as well as modern day drivers like Kingston’s Randy Cabral, Jeff Horn, Joey Payne, Bobby Seymour and Russ Stoehr of Bridgewater. There will be plenty of drivers gunning for their first on Saturday night May 6, including New Hampshire’s Alan Chambers.
Russ Stoehr leads all active drivers with 10 wins at Star, and Randy Cabral captured last year’s Star race in convincing fashion. Drew Fornoro is the all-time NEMA winner at Star with 23, the first coming in 1982. The others in double figures are Seekonk’s Dave Humphrey (16) and Russ Stoehr.
Among the others to score their first win at Star were three-time (’89, ’91, ’93) champ Joey Coy, Hall of Famer Mike Favulli and 1984 champ Billy Mann. There are two sets of brothers (Drew and Nokie Fornoro and Bobby Seymour) and three father-son combinations on the win list. The later category includes Johnny and Joey Coy, Johnny and Billy Mann and Ronnie and Johnny Evans, the latter winning for Jimmy O’Brien.
We have been hearing TV news reports that owners of the defunct Boston Grand Prix may be going after the City of Boston’s mayor’s office looking for compensation after the corporation went bankrupt. City of Boston officials invited the the Verizon Indy Car Series for a 2016 Labor Day weekend event. The race was cancelled due to the fact that permits could not be obtained from the City of Boston, the State of Mass. and the Port Authority. We also heard that the Indy Car Series made good on the ticket sales that were sold in advance. An associate of ours from Medfield spent close to $500 for tickets and received a refund. That race was quickly moved from the City of Boston to the Watkins Glen, NY road course which resulted in a sellout crowd.
This weekend Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut offers it’s Spring Sizzler weekend featuring the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Today, Saturday, April 29 offers qualifying. Tomorrow, Sunday, April 30 will be the feature events with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour on top of the card. Also this weekend has Seekonk Speedway offering a practice session for all safe race cars today, Saturday, April 29. Other tracks such as Star Speedway in Epping, NH is also offering a practice session today, Saturday, April 29 followed by an Inex Legend race starting at 3 pm. The nearby Lee USA Speedway in Lee, NH offers a Sunday, April 30 opening featuring a NASCAR program with the Granite State Pro Stock Series and the Pro-4 Modifieds added to the card staring at noon.
Elsewhere Thompson Motor Sports Park in Connecticut offers a VW and Audi car show on the 1.7 mile road course on Sunday, April 30. Today, Saturday, April 29 the Middleborough based NCSC Motox Club will be in action at the Winchester Speedpark in New Hampshire
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