May 5, Brockton, MA--- Stock car racing fans will get a chance to drive a racecar at Barre, VT’s Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl this season as the result of an innovative new partnership with the Vermont Governor’s Highway Safety Program’s “Click It Or Ticket” campaign and Bond Auto Parts. Fans who sign up at their local Bond Auto store will be randomly selected to compete in a Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior division car, beginning with the Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic doubleheader on Sunday, May 25.

The racecar, a 1996 Chevrolet Cavalier, made its debut at Thunder Road’s 10th Annual Merchants Bank 150 season opener on last Sunday with a surprise celebrity guest driver. It carried signage from Click It Or Ticket and Bond Auto throughout the year, in an effort to raise awareness of the dangers of not wearing safety belts on public roads.

The new program will include Click It Or Ticket presentations at three Vermont high schools in hopes of educating highway drivers young and old. The first presentation will be Tuesday, May 6 at North Country Union High School in Newport, VT. Two-time Thunder Road Champion Reno Gervais of Island Pond, VT will be on hand, along with a video presentation featuring crash footage from past Thunder Road events, and will be speaking about the similarities between racetrack and highway safety.

“The Junkyard Warrior division at Thunder Road is pretty rough-and-tumble,” said Thunder Road Promoter Tom Curley. “Buckling up is imperative on the race track, and we’re hoping that the experiences our fans will have while racing the Warrior car will remind them to buckle up on Vermont’s highways as well.” Bond Auto Parts will pass out Click It Or Ticket flyers and bumper stickers at its 24 Vermont locations, and will also hold a free raffle to win car care products, tickets to the American-Canadian Tour/True Value Modified Racing Series Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic event on May 25 at Thunder Road, and entry blanks for the chance to be the first “fan driver” of the Thunder Road/Bond Auto Junkyard Warrior featuring the Click It Or Ticket message.

American-Canadian Tour rookie Nick Sweet is looking forward to the next three events on the tour, all at tracks that he has called home during his racing career. When the Saint J Auto Pontiac rolls into Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, VT this coming Sunday, the 23 year old Barre native will be taking laps at the track he was crowned “Champion” last fall. Sweet earned the track title in the competitive Tiger Sportsman division in 2007, prompting his move up to the ACT Late Model Tour this season.

“I’m really looking forward to coming back to Thunder Road” states Sweet, “So far we’ve been to tracks on the tour that I’ve never raced on, I grew up on the high banks of Thunder Road.” The high-banked quarter mile track is hosting the 10th annual Merchants Bank 150, the season opener at the Barre Speed plant. “We have had a lot of success at Thunder Road in the Tiger car, so I’m really looking forward to getting the Saint J Auto Pontiac on the race track and having a good day.”

Sweet stunned the crowd at the Tour’s first stop of the season, New Hampshire’s Lee USA Speedway by qualifying second for the 100 lap main event. Sweet would not finish as well, getting caught up in an early race incident, sidelining the team for the day. A couple of weeks ago, Sweet narrowly missed the starting field in Oxford, ME, another new track for the team. Although it was a setback, the eager driver is looking to return. “I can’t wait to get back to Oxford, and I wish we were going back to Lee this year. After having been to each track once, I know we can do better when we go back.”

In two weeks, the team will travel on May 17th to Plattsburgh, NY’s Airborne Speedway, a flat half- mile track that Sweet has plenty of time on. “We have run at Airborne many times on the Tiger Series, that is very fast exciting track we are looking to return to.” From there, the schedule brings the team back to Thunder Road, for the Mekkleson RV Memorial Day Classic on Sunday May 25th. Sweet currently sits second in the ACT Late Model Tour Rookie Of The Year standings, two points behind Northwood, NH driver Ricky Wolf.

The ISMA Supermodified folks continue to believe an 11 seconds lap will happen and they’ll get their chance on May 24, a 50-lapper part of a five-division program at Waterford Speedbowl in Conn. One-time SK track champ Rob Summers, “very happy” with a test session at the Bowl recently, thinks it can happen. Last year’s winner defending champion Chris Perley of Amesbury, MA believes it as well.

A cold, damp, dreary day greeted race teams and race fans at the Napa/Eastman Trophy All Star Car Show at Riverside Speedway in Groveton, New Hampshire, but it didn’t slow down the throngs of race fans all wanting to get their first glimpse of the 2008 racing season.

Close to ninety racecars were on display, all decked out vying for the beautiful trophies courtesy of Eastman Trophy of Groton, Vermont. “I am so proud of the quality of racecars and the fine craftsmanship that my race teams put into their machines over the winter. We had enduro cars that were as good looking, if not better than many tracks Street Stocks. These men and women take great pride in their racecars, and they went all out to be best of show, stated General Manager, Dick Therrien. “I can’t wait to see these awesome pieces of equipment in action next weekend.”

Riverside Speedway kicks open their doors on the season this Saturday, May 10 at 5 p.m. On the card will be the P.A.S.S. Outlaw Late Models and Mods, plus Riverside’s own Super Stocks, Street Stocks, Daredevils and Dwarf Cars all for just a $10 adult ticket. Juniors and senior citizens are just $8, kids 9 and under are just $1. Family packages are available, and Visa and Master Card are accepted.

Upon his first-ever visit to the Waterford Speedbowl in Conn. last Saturday evening, Dave Pinkham of Buxton, Maine went home a winner celebrating the second True Value Modified Racing Series win of his career. During the early laps it was Ed Dachenhausen and Les Hinckley setting the pace until coming together on lap-42. Both were sent to the rear of the field, and resulting restart saw Dwight Jarvis inheriting the lead. On a late-race restart, Pinkham slipped-by Jarvis, going on to win by several car-lengths. The race was marred by a red flag period with 65-laps remaining when Jimmy Blewett became airborne, flipped, and slammed into the fourth-turn wall on his roof. Blewett was uninjured. Following Pinkham was Dwight Jarvis, Les Hinckley, Chris Pasteryak, and, Vinny Annarummo Jr. of Swansea, MA. Connecticut standout, Ted Christopher had problems and finished in 23rd.

Race teams from the NASCAR Camping World Series East and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour are set to visit New Hampshire Motor Speedway for a joint test session on, Monday, May 12. The test sessions for NASCAR Camping World Series East and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour teams are held in preparation for the series’ upcoming events at New Hampshire. The NASCAR Camping World Series East will run the Heluva Good! Summer 125 on Friday, June 27 while the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will take the green flag on Saturday, June 28 in the New England 100. Both series are scheduled to return to New Hampshire for events on Sept. 12-13. The Monday, May 12 joint session at the 1.058-mile track in Loudon, N.H., is scheduled to run from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. The practice is open to the public.

Following the New Hampshire test, the NASCAR Camping World Series East will return to official competition at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa on Sunday, May 18 in a combined race with the NASCAR Camping World Series West. The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will resume its 2008 schedule at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway with the TSI Harley-Davidson 150 on Friday, May 23.

This past Saturday, the event scheduled at the high-banked quarter mile of Monadnock Speedway, was washed out. After looking at the radar and sixty percent of showers predicted throughout the day, the management decided to cancel the event by 10:00am.

This Saturday, May 10, Monadnock Speedway will have a full card of racing on tap with seven exciting divisions taking to the pavement. The schedule will include, STAR Antique Racers exhibition race, Outlaw Pros, Late Models, Super Stocks, Mini Stocks, 4-cylinder and Full Size Enduros. Race time is at 6pm.

Monadnock Speedway will be offering a special spring discounted general admission price this Saturday; adult general admission will only be $9.99 and all children 12 and under are free. Seniors (65 and older) are $5 along with students (ages 13-18).

It's going to be busy this weekend up in the North Country in terms of racing action. On Friday night it's the Canaan Fair Dirt Track, Lee USA and Twin State all in the Granite State. Saturday night kicks off All-Star Speedway's Modified Showdown, one of four paying five grand to win. On the same night Bear Ridge in VT and Beech Ridge in southern Maine go with busy stockcar programs. Ditto for the Canaan (NH) Fair and Oxford Plains in western Maine while Riverside Speedway in Groveton, NH opens for the season with the PASS Tour. Wiscasset on the Maine coast offers stockcar action. Up in northern Maine Speedway 95 in Hermon and Spud in Caribou both go Sunday. Draggers will head to New England Dragway’s (Epping, NH) Battle of the Imports, all day Saturday and Oxford Dragway in western Maine. On Sunday, Winterport Dragway on the Maine coast offers ET Bracket racing. For the bikers MotoX 207 in Minot, ME hosts MotoX events all weekend. Thunder Road in Barre, VT goes the same day with five classes of stockcars. NHMS in Loudon, NH has it's Vintage Celebration set for May 13-18.

    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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