February 25, Brockton, MA--- After nine nights of racing at the New Smyrna Speedway Tyngsboro, MA Super Late Model driver Lou Mechalides came out that nine race series with a fifth overall in points. He's expected to compete with the PASS Tour when that series opens for the season in late April. Also scoring well at NSS was Nashua, NH's Joey Pole who ended up 11th overall in the Crate Late Models. Joey is a standout ACT Tour driver who now has a leg up on the rest of the American Canadian Tour crowd when that series gets off and running for the season in mid-April at the Lee USA Speedway in NH. Two southern NH Modified drivers John McKennedy and Andy Seuss raced in the Modified Tour events at NSS. John ended the series in fifth while Seuss was ninth. Those drivers plan to compete in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series when it gets underway in early April at the Thompson Speedway in Conn.

The American-Canadian Tour boys are back from New Smyrna, Florida, and – after some long nights, some even longer days, and maybe a box or two of rivets – are in one piece. Eric Chase of Milton, VT led the charge with an opening night victory (the first of his career) in the ASA/Crate Late Model division at the “World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing” at New Smyrna Speedway on Friday, Feb. 8, while Hudson NH’s Joey “Pole” Polewarczyk was involved in one of the race’s three red-flag pileups and finished 25th.

Chase came back the next night to finish seventh, while Pole and his family team spent the entire day and most of the evening to patch their car back together. They came home 13th. On Monday, Feb. 11, Chase turned the controls over to teammate Ryan Nolin, whole proceeded to drive to a fine 8th-place finish. Pole, involved in another scrum, finished 22nd.

On Wednesday, the roles were reversed, as Pole finished ninth while another competitor warming up his tires during took out Nolin pace laps. The car was damaged enough to be unable to continue, and Nolin was credited with a 21st-place finish. Pole finished ninth again on Thursday, while Nolin was boxed in heavy traffic to finish 16th.

On Friday, Feb. 15 was the 50-lap finale for the “Crate Lates,” and saw the field take trials to determine the starting order. Polewarczyk started fourth (after a handful of disqualifications were handed out to other competitors), and he turned in his best performance of the week by finishing there. Chase, who was back in the car, broke loose during qualifying, timed deep in the field, and decided to load his car rather than risk tearing it up. “I figured, hey, we came all the way down here and only got torn up once, and even that was relatively minor,” Chase explained. “I don’t know that there was even one other car that sustained as little damage as we did for the week, and there were over 30 cars in our division here.”

“We had some fun, but I don’t know that we’ll be coming back in the future without someone else’s money to put into it,” Polewarczyk joked. “It was a long, long week, and my crew busted their butts to keep us going every night.” Chase and Polewarczyk agreed that many of the week’s major accidents (two of the 25-lap features took more than one-and-a-half hours to complete, each with three red flags and lots of torn up race cars) were likely to blame from inexperienced drivers.

As hard as it may be to believe, Polewarczyk, 18, and Nolin, 21, were two of the oldest drivers in the ASA/Crate division. Logan Ruffin, the division’s champion for 2008, is 13 years old! That’s not a misprint… THIRTEEN! Polewarczyk estimates that by the end of the week, no less than six cars would need new front clips after having been wrecked. “It’s a whole different world down there, and it made me appreciate the quality of racers and officiating we have in New England,” he said.

“We got a win and some good top-ten runs out of it, and it didn’t make sense to me to risk it all on the last night,” echoed Chase. “We accomplished a lot more than we expected to down here, our heads are held high, and our car is in good shape.” All said and done, the efforts of Eric Chase and Ryan Nolin were good enough to place them seventh in final point standings, while Joey Polewarczyk finished 11th. The three will be back in action at Lee USA (NH) Speedway on Sunday, April 20 for the ACT Late Model Tour’s 17th season opener, and then just six days later at Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway. This report came from the ACT Tour office.

Speedway Expo goes off this weekend at the Big E in W. Springfield, MA starting Friday, Feb. 29 and running through Sunday, March 2. Ticket prices are $15 at the door with Sunoco offering discount tickets. Specialty vehicles like the Sunoco Orange County Chopper, Richie Evans' Ghost Rider, Red Sox Motorcycles, Tony Stewart's Tricked Out Hearse and many more. Vendors, collectables, interactive displays, pet contest, pedal car races for the kids. Also, autograph sessions, the Riverside Park Speedway Reunion, seminars, pit crew contest, Lauren Wallace Look-Alike Contest who makes those Geico TV commercials.

The word from Lee USA Speedway in NH is that the Ironman Division will be running 21 times during the 2008 season. The southern NH oval will open for the season in mid-April.

With annual ticket renewals and upgrades complete, all remaining tickets for the June 29 LENOX Industrial Tools 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) will go on sale, first-come, first-serve, at 8 a.m. on Friday, February 22. "Our renewal rate is at an all-time high thanks to our loyal fans, and because last year's race featured an exciting duel in the final lap," said Jerry Gappens, Executive Vice President and General Manager of New Hampshire Motor Speedway. "NASCAR Sprint Cup racing is well-received here in the Northeast. All 26 of our Sprint Cup Series races have sold-out in advance. We want the general public to know that, if they act quickly, there is a window of opportunity to secure tickets to the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 from our box office at face value." The New Hampshire Motor Speedway ticket office is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by calling Guest Services at (603) 783-4931 or by visiting the Speedway online at www.nhms.com.

Reports in Area Auto Racing News of NJ say, NHMS GM Gerry Gappens is giving serious consideration to bringing back the Indy Cars to the one-mile oval in 2009. No doubt due to the recent merger of the IRL and Champ Car. Hoosier born Gappens is a big fan of Open Wheel racing and also told that publication that he's also considering a Copper Cup Classic event like the one at Phoenix Intl. Raceway which includes USAC Silver Crown and other USAC type divisions along with the Modifieds.

If your into salt water fishing the Mass. Striped Bass. Assn. holds their annual Expo this Saturday and Sunday at the Stonehill College in N. Easton, MA. Seminars, vendors and anything to do with the sport can be found there.

Let's see what's going on the North Country this weekend. On Sunday SCCA NH has a WinterX at Pooh's Farm in Bethel, Maine while there's still stockcar racing on the ice at Berry/Lee Ponds in Moultonborough, NH the same day.

    Lou Modestino is a long-time columnist and Public Relations person, working for numerous tracks in the northeast, and now writes for The Enterprise in Brockton, MA.  He may be reached at lmodestino@hotmail.com. 

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