The Indy Racing League has again said, thanks, but no thanks, to New Hampshire Motor Speedway as a stop on its IndyCar racing schedule. And NHMS executive vice president and general manager Jerry Gappens is again not very happy about the decision. “For the second year in a row, I’m extremely disappointed for our fans who continue to hope for the return of IndyCar racing to New Hampshire Motor Speedway,” said Gappens in a statement after the 2010 series schedule was announced late last week. . . . Since buying the track from Bob and Gary Bahre before last season, Gappens and Speedway Motorsports Inc. have talked of bringing IndyCars back to New Hampshire. IndyCar officials said no, citing the difficulty of squeezing a date in at a place where the racing season is relatively short because of weather and where two NASCAR Sprint Cup events are already being held. . . . Gappens initially hoped to land a race in late July or early August, and then offered to take a date in early June that would lead into the track’s Sprint Cup race late that month. . . . IndyCar officials declined the offer. _ ADL
FROM THIS VANTAGE POINT it appears an obvious choice that New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon will replace the financially troubled Milwaukee Mile on the 2010 IndyCar schedule — a mile for a mile oval swap. An official announcement is expected by Saturday, Aug. 1 when the series races in Kentucky.
Race promoters of the Milwaukee Mile in Wisconsin State Fair Park reportedly owe money to the IndyCar Series. So the decision to lift the race from that facility is an easy call.
Speedway Motorsports Inc., owner of NHMS reportedly wants its Indy car date to fall between its NASCAR Sprint Cup races — somewhere between July 3-Sept. 12. However, the Milwaukee Mile race date came immediately following the Indianapolis 500 in late May.
Series commercial president Terry Angstadt and its competition president Brian Barnhart both agree New Hampshire’s “Magic Mile,” with its history of close Indy car races, is a venue the IndyCar Series wants to revisit. Negotiations have been on-going. Remember SMI has a solid, trusted business relationship with the Indy cars since it also hosts successful races at Texas Motor Speedway and Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.
Both Angstadt and Barnhart report directly to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corp. and its new CEO Jeff Belskus. This is all still the business of the Hulman-George family. Bob Bahre, builder of the NHMS and close friend and ally of the Hulman-George family will come into play here solidifying this deal for the Loudon oval. Don’t forget that even in retirement Bahre still maintains an office inside the main speedway offices in Loudon. He is an integral advisor to NHMS president Gerry Gappens.
So expect some shuffling in the existing IndyCar Series schedule for 2010 when New Hampshire is welcomed back to open-wheeled racing.
In other Indy car news the series is definitely adding a road course race that will open the season in Brazil. Cleveland is reportedly out of contention for a race. A temporary road course at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., is an admitted long-term project for the series. And city officials in Baltimore are going to be pushing hard for an inner harbor street course race in 2011. Las Vegas Motor Speedway, another SMI track, is also among contenders for a future oval race as the series expands.
– kpro
THE “FOR SALE” sign is up at Sugar Hill Speedway in Weare, a karting and miniature motor sports track for the past 31 years.
The 1/5th-mile paved oval with a 4/10th-mile road course running through its infield has provided a start for many future professional racers out of the Granite State.
Track owner Mark Piekarski of Hollis, whose primary business is Collision Centers of New Hampshire in Nashua, Merrimack and Hooksett, is asking $650,000 for the 9.5-acre physical plant that includes a new 1,500-square foot function hall, other buildings, race karts and all equipment.
“I’ve had some scattered interest but nobody serious at this time,” said Piekarski. “Having started there with my kids (his 25-year-old son B.J. races in the Sports Car Club of America in Loudon), it’s important to me who it goes to and their continuing to run a viable race program . . . it’s a turnkey operation.”
Piekarski has owned the track for four years. He introduced a rental kart racing program that has been popular.
“After three to four years of doing this, I’m tired of it,” he said. “It’s been a time problem. I’ve got to cut it loose.”
A sign of the poor economy is the fact Piekarski scaled back the weekly race program to three Sundays a month May-August. But, his base of 40-50 weekly competitors ranging in age from 6-55 has not wavered and he said they appreciated the lightened commitment. This season he inherited a group of two-cycle kart racers out of F-1 Boston, when that facility raised its outdoor track fees.
The rental program runs every Saturday, on the off Sunday and after Sunday regular racing.
“The rental program has been pretty full,” he said. “As much as it’s for sale, it’s doing all right.”
– kpro
OXFORD, Maine – Eddie MacDonald, the son of Lee USA Speedway owners Judy and Red MacDonald, led the last 82 laps winning the 36th TD Banknorth Oxford 250 last night on the 3/8th-mile Oxford Plains Speedway.
MacDonald, a full-time racer on the NASCAR Camping World East Series where he is narrowly out of first place, earned $35,200 and receives a starting spot in the first American-Canadian Tour Invitational on Sept. 19 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Brad Leighton of Center Harbor was ninth, Joey Polewarczyk of Hudson was 15th (one lap down), Randy Potter of Groveton was 22nd and Quinny Welch of Lancaster was 42nd.
Joey Pole, attempting to take the 250 lead on lap 135, slid off the track in turn 4 after his outside tires contacted the dirt. He did not hit the turn 4 retaining wall, but he did lose a lap as the leaders passed him under caution while he was trying to restart the car. Pole spent the remainder of the race desperately trying to get his lap back.
NOTES: Starting positions of NH-connected drivers: 3. Eddie MacDonald; 8. Brad Leighton; 12. Joey Polewarczyk; 18. Quinny Welch; 30. Randy Potter . . . Aaron Ricker of Tamworth narrowly missed qualifying. He was second in his last chance qualifying race and only the winner advanced . . . MacDonald won his qualifying heat after starting last among 12 cars . . . 71 cars attempted to qualify for the 250 . . . Only green flag laps are counted at the 250 so with caution laps it easily turns into a 300 . . . NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers Kenny Wallace and nephew, Steven Wallace failed to qualify via heat racing for the 250 but they received “promoter’s option” starting positions. Kenny started 42nd and Steven started 43rd. Kenny finished 33rd and Steven ended 21st.
– kpro
LEE — The up-and-coming second-generation International SuperModified Association driver Mikey Ordway Jr., 19, of Fremont was abruptly fired last weekend from the multi-car team owned by New Yorker Jeff Holbrook.
Ordway Jr. said he was given no warning and saw no signs that he would be let go. In fact, he and his father, Mike Sr. were driving to Canada when Mikey got the call from his crew chief that he would no longer be driving for the team. Mike Sr. is still driving in ISMA for a different team.
“There’s no way of getting a straight story,” said the clearly frustrated younger Ordway. “The crew chief said Jeff wanted me out and I called Jeff and he said he didn’t know anything about it.”
Holbrook has replaced Ordway Jr. with Bob Magner, who had three victories last season in weekly supermodified racing at Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway. In 2003 Magner was rookie of the year in the class at that track. He has previously worked on Holbrook’s crew.
In the new Holbrook car Ordway Jr. was running fourth in the championship points. His finishes: 5th at Waterford, Conn.; second at Toldeo, Ohio; 15th (due to mechanical problems) at Berlin Raceway in Michigan; and 5th at Stafford, Conn. Magner was 6th in his first race with Holbrook this past weekend at Cayuga International Speedway in Nelles Corners, Ontario.
“I’m back to square one,” said Ordway Jr. “I’ve got nothing to fall back on . . . I’m going to take a break and see what happens. I won’t just jump into anything because even with a good car it’s tough to jump in and win. I’m looking.”
The scenario is very reminiscent of 1996 when Mike Sr. was the defending ISMA champion and his car owner, the late Paul Dunigan plopped down $15,000 so Mike Sr. could race an Indy car in the Indy Racing League event in Loudon. Come race day though Mike Sr. was out. In was a younger driver, who apparently had brought more money to the table. The Indy car green flag never flew for Mike Sr.
– kpro
EMBATTLED All-Star Speedway of Epping lost its NASCAR sanction this week after the Daytona-based stock car giant stripped its affiliation from the short track.
NASCAR spokesman Jason Christley confirmed the move when contacted by motor sports blogger Travis Barrett. All-Star Speedway operator Bobby MacArthur, a past racer at the oval, has been in a financial battle with the town. Earlier this season MacArthur of Beverly, Mass., was arrested by Epping police on a charge of issuing a bad check.
The track canceled its most recent Saturday night program due to a poor turnout by competitors.
All-Star Speedway, previously named Star Speedway, was once affectionately known as the “Little Brickyard” and was the proud home to the biggest fields of open-wheeled supermodifieds in the region.
– kpro
THE RED-HOT FIELD of hard-charging young guns for Tuesday night’s Pro All-Stars Series Bastille 200 at Lee USA Speedway will have an uninvited guest in Joey “Pole” Polewarczyk of Hudson, who plies his trade on the American-Canadian Tour. In fact, there will be a slew of surprise competitors. Green flag racing at 6 p.m.
The local hot shoes in PASS include recent winner Adam Bates of Warner and D.J. Shaw of Center Conway. Bates, with one victory on the season, is second in the points championship behind two-time winner Johnny Clark of Hallowell, Maine. Bates has only finished out of the top-10 once this season — this past weekend at Thompson, Conn.
The 19-year-old Polewarczyk will be driving a pro stock owned by NASCAR broadcaster on SPEED channel, Bob Dillner. Polewarczyk is coming off a second-place finish behind cagey veteran Brad Leighton of Center Harbor in the ACT Summer Sizzler 200 at Kawartha Speedway in Peterborough, Ontario. In ACT Polewarczyk stays second in the series points behind Scott Payea.
Some other party crashers Tuesday night will include: Earnhardt-Ganassi NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Aric Almirola (44th in points with 7 starts this season) piloting his friend D.J. Howards’ car; Wayne Helliwell Jr. of Pelham hopes to make his first PASS start in several seasons; and DJ’s father, Dale Shaw Sr., who will make a rare on-track appearance. The past NASCAR Camping World East Series champion, Dale Shaw has always had solid success at Lee USA.
PASS has had five different winners in seven races on the season.
– kpro
LOUDON – Never was it clearer than under the darkening sky (and eventual rain) Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway that this track needs lights.
Race schedules here are always jam packed with little room for inclement weather delays. A short rain delay Friday cheated fans out of NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying. Fans ultimately buy tickets here to see the world’s top stock car drivers. Instead there was no Cup qualifying and the field for Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 will lineup based on points. A couple hours after the rain, the sun popped and the track dried and with lights the entire program could have been run.
Yes, a deal was struck by previous track owner Bob Bahre with the town that there would not be night racing here, but that is a simplified version of that deal. This writer was told that deal specifies a time at night that a race cannot be started. It doesn’t mean that a race could not be started in the early evening, ay 4 or 5 p.m. and end in the dark under the lights.
As always this facility has been and will continue to be a good neighbor, but it’s time for folks to see the light. Not many towns or cities can proudly claim to host two stock car Super Bowls a year.
– kpro
ADAM BATES of Warner won the Pro All-Stars Series 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine Friday night. With his first victory of the season Bates, a third-year competitor, grabs the championship points lead from Maine stalwart Ben Rowe.
Bates took over the race lead from Scott Chubbuck of Brunswick, Maine, just past half way and he was unstoppable from there amid a stretch of 115 green flag laps scoring his third career series win, second at Beech Ridge. Bates now has two wins and two second-place finishes in the last four PASS races at Beech Ridge dating back to July of 2008.
Matt Frahm of Salem finished 11th. D.J. Shaw of Center Conway was not in the field since he made his NASCAR debut Friday afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the Camping World East Series Heluva Good! Summer 125. Shaw finished 24th after starting 17th.
The PASS pro stocks come to New Hampshire for the Bastille 200 at Lee USA Speedway on Tuesday, July 14.
– kpro
LOUDON – The NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Tony Stewart had this to say about his experience of racing Thursday night at near-capacity Thunder Road in Barre, Vt., as a teammate of race winner Joey “Pole” Polewarczyk Jr., of Hudson:
[on Joey Pole] “Well (Polewarczyk) won the race and lapped me in the process so I was real impressed. The great thing about Joey was that he spent probably 30 minutes before I ever got in a car trying to help me understand what the track was going to be like, what the car was going to be like, what the tires were going to be like. Then throughout the remainder of the evening he probably spent another hour with me at different points helping out. For a 20-year-old kid (sic) he has a lot of poise and composure. Wouldn’t surprise me if we see him here real soon.”
[on short track racing] “It’s big. It’s proof that short track racing is still alive and well. It has the possibilities to be bigger than it has ever been right now with the economy the way it is.”
[on Thunder Road] “It was a sold out crowd and there were people sitting in trees watching. It was pretty cool. Beautiful setting and a really neat race track.”
[on Thunder Road competitors] “First time in a long time I ran with that courteous of a group of drivers. I mean that’s one of those tracks that you have to give and take there, and take care of each. You could easily crash half the field in the first three laps if those guys weren’t patient and courteous to each other. That is probably what impressed me the most.”
– kpro
