Despite The Snow, The Countdown Is On

SpeedReading

Ignore Mother Nature’s latest efforts, racing season is not that far away.

In fact, opening day at Barre’s Thunder Road is just 24 days away -- Sunday, May 2 -- and some new faces are planning to be in the lineup. Veteran Oxford Plains (ME) Speedway Late Model Stock competitor Ron Henry, 2003 Waterford (CT) Speedbowl Late Model Champion Corey Hutchings, and Avon, Massachusetts driver Shawn Parker all say they will look to qualify for the season-opening Merchant’s Bank “Freedom Lynx 150.” Henry, who has raced Late Models at Oxford since ACT ran the Maine oval more than a decade ago, said he will make as many Dodge Tour races this season as his OPS weekly efforts will allow. Parker, who purchased a car from Brent Dragon during the off-season, is a former champion of the All Star Race Truck Series, and looks to run 4-5 ACT events with an eye toward a Rookie of the Year bid in 2005.

Despite that “bad economy” we all keep hearing about, ACT has announced a purse increase for the 2004 ACT New England Dodge Tour. Prize money will increase an average of $2,500 per event this season; around $36,000 over the entire 14-race schedule. Last year’s “Memorial Day Classic” at Thunder Road paid $2,000 to win last season, as did the Airborne Raceway “Spring Green,” and events at White Mountain Motorsports Park, Oxford, and Riverside. The winners of this year’s editions will receive $2,500 at each stop. The Waterford and Seekonk races will increase from $2,500 to $3,000 to win.

Despite that hefty increase in winners’ purses, ACT spokesman Tom Herzig said the series’ main focus is on positions five through fifteen.

In addition, ACT officials peg their current enrollment numbers at more than 60 Late Models and Tiger Sportsmen; healthy rosters, even though some of the drivers listed will likely be part-time competitors. Nearly 40 Street Stocks have already registered for competition, the same number as at this point last year, despite Airborne Raceway’s decision to drop the class from its 2004 schedule. ACT will allow displaced Airborne Street Stock drivers to compete in the new, “beginner’s only” Junkyard Warrior class at the Plattsburgh oval, but not in their old Street Stock cars.

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Kevin Lepage’s “full-time ride” with Morgan-McClure Racing is over, just six races after it was announced. And according to Lepage, he couldn’t be happier.

The Shelburne native was handed his walking papers by the Abingdon, Virginia team last week, after managing a best finish of 22^nd in six NASCAR Nextel Cup Series starts this year. Veteran Jimmy Spencer took over the ride last weekend at Texas, finishing 29^th, six laps down. Contacted this week at his home in North Carolina, Lepage’s thoughts on the split can be summed-up in two simple words.

Good riddance.

“After watching that fiasco in Texas, I’m happy to be out of there,” he said. “Apparently, Jimmy Spencer isn’t the miracle-worker they hoped for. (Morgan-McClure) had no set-ups on the cars, none at all. I went around the garage and begged favors from guys I knew on other teams, asking them to help us out. People put their jobs at risk to do that, but the minute we got the chassis straightened out, the motor would blow. Or we’d come out of the pits with three lug nuts missing. It was a disaster. (Team owner) Larry McClure kept asking me – over and over again, `What do we need to do to fix it?’ I told him, but apparently, honesty wasn’t what he wanted to hear.”

Enter Spencer, who according to Lepage had been “wearing Larry out since Daytona trying to get in the car. He brought along a little bit of money, and told Larry what he wanted to hear. So I’m out, and he’s in. Good luck to him, he’s going to need it.”

After seeing the Morgan-McClure team from the inside, the Vermont native said he will be surprised if Spencer -- or anyone else -- can turn things around anytime soon.

“Beginning with Robby Gordon in 2001, they have now had 13 drivers in three years,” he said. “Robby couldn’t help them, Mike Skinner couldn’t help them, Stacy Compton couldn’t help them, and apparently, neither could I. It’s one thing after another with them; one problem piled on top of another.”

What’s next for the former Vermont Milk Bowl champion? Lepage showed that his sense of humor is still intact, saying, “I’m building cars right now. I’m going to run the ACT Tour and Thunder Road.”

In reality, Lepage said he is working to put his own Busch Series Fords back on track for a schedule of 10-20 races, beginning next month at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. “We’re beating the phones for sponsorship right now,” he said, “and I’m about 95-percent sure we’ll get a deal done with at least one of the two companies we’re talking to.

“For every door that closes, another one opens,” he said. “And in all honesty, my next opportunity won’t have to be much to be better than where I just was. I would rather sit home and watch the race on TV than run like that.”

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“The Irish Angel” is coming out of mothballs. Four-time NASCAR North Tour amd Busch North Series champion Dick McCabe of Kennebunkport, Maine, announced this week that he will end a decade-long retirement to race in the “DNK Select 250” at Maine’s Unity Raceway on Sunday, June 13. McCabe will return to competition driving a Pro Stock entry for car-owner Wright Pearson, who like McCabe, has been retired from the sport for several seasons. The McCabe/Pearson tandem expects to enter at least one Pro All Stars Series event prior to the DNK 250 to shake off the rust.

McCabe joins two other Maine racing legends -- former three-time Oxford 250 champion “Racin’ Ralph” Nason and Stan Meserve – on the entry list for the big-money Pro Stock event. Nason has run a limited schedule of races in each of the past three years, while Meserve, a Maine native now working in the Dale Earnhardt, Inc., shops in North Carolina, will reunite with longtime car-owner P.T. Watts for a shot at DNK Select 250 checkers.

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Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, driver Scott Fraser died March 20 of injuries suffered in a head-on snowmobile collision in the Wentworth Valley region of his native Nova Scotia. Fraser, known as the “Shubey Shuffle,” was one of the Canadian Maritimes’ top stock car racers, having competed on the former ACT Pro Stock Tour, and on the MASCAR, PASS, IPSC, and ASA circuits. The 33-year old driver was the son of former NASCAR North Tour veteran Frank Fraser.

The younger Fraser began his racing career in 1987 at Nova Scotia’s Onslow Speedway at age 16, and went on to win both the Maritime Modified and MASCAR Late Model Tour championships. In 1996, the second-generation driver won 12 of 15 MASCAR features en route to the season title, while winning six of 13 features en route to the 1998 crown. He won the prestigious “Riverside 250” at Antigonish’s Riverside Speedway six consecutive times (1993-1998), and also won an ACT main event in 1995, at Scotia Speedworld in Halifax. He teamed with Maritime veteran Rollie MacDonald to run the midwestern American Speedway Association circuit in 2000 and 2001, before returning home to compete in his native Maritimes. The Fraser/MacDonald team captured the CARQUEST Pro Stock championship last season, with his final win coming at his home track; Scotia Speedworld, in September.

Condolences may be sent to the Fraser family at family@scottfraseronline.com.

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Short (Track) Subjects…

…With a young family to tend to, Waterbury native Chad Wheeler is shifting his focus this season. Wheeler will concentrate mainly on Thursday night competition at Thunder Road, with a handful of ACT Dodge Tour starts in the early and late parts of the season.

"It's just what works for me," said Wheeler, who along with wife Erin, has two sons under the age of three. "It's going to be tough to qualify for some of the Thunder Road races, but I think we’re up for it. I'm in for the Claremont (Tour) race, and I'm definitely headed for Oxford Plains, but our main goal is to shoot for the top-five in points at Thunder Road.”

…Defending NASCAR Nextel Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth will compete in the “Banknorth Oxford 250” at Oxford Plains Speedway on July 18. Taking a page from former owner Bob Bahre’s book, OPS owner Bill Ryan, Jr., announced recently that Kenseth will drive a Pro Stock out of the Bill Whorff Jr., stable in the midsummer classic, which falls conveniently on an “off-weekend” for the Cup teams, one week before the first of two Nextel Cup appearances at New Hampshire International Speedway.

"I am looking forward to running at Oxford Plains Speedway," said Kenseth. "I have heard great things about the Oxford 250 from my fellow Nextel Cup racers that have competed there in the past. I know the competition will be stiff, but I am coming to the Banknorth 250 to win."

Ryan, meanwhile, hinted that Kenseth may not be the only Cup star on the “250” roster that night, saying, “We have had a ton of interest from all of NASCAR's big dogs. We may even get other Nextel Cup entrants before race time."

While the event has fallen off the regional and national radar in the past decade, Oxford 250 weekend remains a major event in the Pine Tree State. This year’s edition may succeed in recapturing the spotlight, however, with the ISMA Supermodifieds invading Oxford on Friday night, July 16, for a 75-lap main event, followed by a 100-lap ACT Dodge Tour race on Saturday night. Qualifying for the “250” begins Sunday at 2 p.m., with the main event slated for 6 p.m. A guaranteed winner's purse of $25,000 could escalate to $50,000, with up to $25,000 in lap-leader bonus money available.

…Groveton, New Hampshire’s Riverside Speedway celebrates its 40^th season in 2004, beginning with a 40th birthday party on Saturday,May 29th. In addition to the track’s regular Saturday night racing card, Riverside General Manager Marvin Galarneau reports that he has assembled an impressive list of former Riverside Speedway champions and fan-favorites, with an eye toward staging an informal reunion at the Groveton oval, prior to that night’s 50-lap Coca Cola Triple Crown Series opener for the Tiger/Sportsman Series. A number of vintage racecars are also scheduled to be on-hand, along with the Riverside Late Models, Super Stocks, Street Stocks, and a fireworks display to close the program. Galarneau says all former Riverside racers, crew members, employees and fans are invited to attend.

…Bradford’s Bear Ridge Speedway and New Hampshire’s Canaan Fair Speedway have announced that they will hold the line on admission prices this season. Adult tickets remain $10, with children under 11 free when accompanied by an adult. Season passes are priced at $150 for each track. Bear Ridge kicks off a 20-week schedule of racing for the twin-track dirt series on Saturday night, May 8, with the NAPA Auto Parts of Bradford season-opener, featuring a Twin State Modified Series event, a four-cylinder Enduro, and a full card of racing for the weekly Bear Ridge regulars. Post time is 6:30 p.m. Canaan Fair Speedway begins its Friday night slate on May 14 at 7 p.m.

On the Canaan Fair Speedway asphalt track, more than 60 drivers have already registered to compete in the track’s Saturday evening programs. A total of 17 Pro Stock drivers have announced their intentions to compete ona weekly basis, while the Late Model, Super Street, Mini Stock and Cyclone classes have either met or exceeded last year’s numbers.

…And finally, this week’s top statistic. Since the advent of the modern-day Thunder Road Late Model era in 1992, there have been 13 opening day winners in 12 years. How’s that? Actually, low car counts in the inaugural season of 1992 saw track management run twin features for much of the season, opening the door for two drivers to carry the Opening Day checkers that year. For the record, racer-turned-newspaper-writer Rich “Big” Bigelow topped upstart Phil Scott to win the opening main event back in `92, while fellow second-generation driver Tony Andrews copped the nightcap. Another second-generation chauffeur, Scott Dragon, won last year’s lid-lifter.