Winchester, NH): With the longest winter in recent memory finally in the past, the snow has melted and the parking lot has finally dried out, the new backed seating area from the old Riverside Park Speedway has been completely installed and the track is ready for spectators as the drivers get ready to go racing once again on the ¼ mile high banked oval at Mondanock Speedway May 2nd.
The remnants of winter delayed the opening date by two weeks, but served to build excitement and anticipation for the upcoming season in both drivers and fans alike.The green flag is set to wave on May 2nd, with a special evening of events scheduled for non-stop racing action headlined by the Valenti Modified Racing Series Bond Auto Parts 100. Reigning series champion Justin Bonsignore looks to get his season off on the right foot once again, returning to the track where he took home the checkered flag last July.
The Bond Auto Parts 100 will be the first of three visits the VMRS will make this year to Monadnock.Along with the Valenti mods, The Pro4 Mods, and NE Classic Lites will be turning fast laps, putting on a show next Saturday night
All of the usual Whelan All-American Series’ including Sportsman Modified, Super Stocks, Mini Stocks, Lightning Stocks, Thunder Stocks, along with the weekly Young Guns series will get their season underway next Saturday. Many teams and drivers turned out for the annual test and tune session held this past Saturday.
The Bond Auto Parts 100 will be the first of three visits the VMRS will make this year to Monadnock.Along with the Valenti mods, The Pro4 Mods, and NE Classic Lites will be turning fast laps, putting on a show next Saturday night
All of the usual Whelan All-American Series’ including Sportsman Modified, Super Stocks, Mini Stocks, Lightning Stocks, Thunder Stocks, along with the weekly Young Guns series will get their season underway next Saturday. Many teams and drivers turned out for the annual test and tune session held this past Saturday.
2003 Monadnock Pro Stock Champion Les Hinckley had his #06 Valenti Modified out on the track Saturday for test and tune. He stated, “The car was very good and we had a stout car all day long. We’re looking forward to the opening race next Saturday at Monadnock.”
As Saturday turned out to be a magnificent day to shake down the cars after having them stored up all winter, some drivers were excited to talk a little about how their cars felt after the first day of driving in 2015.Tyler Jarvenpaa, of the Sportsman Modified division felt good about his car in test and tune. The #22 was feeling good out of the box on Saturday, “Cars running awesome right now,” he said, “I’m looking forward to the beginning of the season.”“Everything seems to be good. We have no problems so far so hopefully we’ll go out there and set them on fire next week. I think we have a car that can compete for the win.”
Jarvenpaa hopes to improve on finishing sixth in points last season, but he’ll have his hands full with the likes of former track champion #43 Bill Kimball along with seasoned drivers of Scott MacMichael, Eric Leclair, Brian Chapin and young sophomore contenders of #13 JT Cloutier, the hot pink #99 of Kim Rivet, Trevor “TJ” Bleau in the #15 and the rest of a very competitive 2015 field of drivers.
Bleau is one of Monadnock’s most promising young drivers as the 15 year old gets behind the wheel for another season in the #15 Sportsman Modified. Bleau, who was recognized by the speedway as the youngest to win a NASCAR Feature division race and looks to continue his success in 2015 in a new ride.It’s a brand new car so we’re still trying to shake it in a little,” said Bleau. “I’m still getting used to it but the cars are doing real good with these chassis so, I’m feeling confident.”
Justin Faford was also a rookie last year in the #04 Mini Stock and he’s feeling more confident with one season under his belt, “We’re excited to make sure our hard work paid off over the winter,” Faford said in the pits Saturday, “We freshened up the motor, straightened out the clip, put on a new body, new tires, and new wheels.”“We’re excited to make sure our hard work paid off over the winter,” Faford said in the pits Saturday, “We freshened up the motor, straightened out the clip, put on a new body, new tires, and new wheels.”
Greenslit will face stiff competition from the likes of Paul Barnard in the #24, as well as Craig Chaffee along with newcomers Robert Thurston and Rodney Davis, and second year driver Benny Williams will be competing in the #7JR Thunder Stock built by his father, Sportsman Modified driver Greg Williams.
Bleau is one of Monadnock’s most promising young drivers as the 15 year old gets behind the wheel for another season in the #15 Sportsman Modified. Bleau, who was recognized by the speedway as the youngest to win a NASCAR Feature division race and looks to continue his success in 2015 in a new ride.It’s a brand new car so we’re still trying to shake it in a little,” said Bleau. “I’m still getting used to it but the cars are doing real good with these chassis so, I’m feeling confident.”
Derek Robbie took the #27 Pro4mod to 3rd in points last season in only his 2nd year. He is hoping 2015 will begin in a similar way to 2014 saying, “We won the season opener in the Pro4 here last year and we’re hoping for repeat performance out there again this year.”
Robbie spoke enthusiastically about some of the adjustments they made in the off season, “We changed a lot in rear end this winter to hopefully drop our times and get three or four wins this year.”
Fans at Monadnock are anticipating an action packed year in the Mini Stock series. Last year Chris McTaggart, Beth Adams, and Cameron Sontag put good runs together, but nobody could top points champion Mike Stebbins. Though, McTaggart and Stebbins will be running part time as Adams has retired from racing at the high banks.
Joel Monahan was a rookie in the #03 Mini Stock last year and ran good enough to claim one win and finish 5th in points. This year Monahan will be competing behind the wheel of a Super Stock as well as in Mini Stock, but he’ll be going for the points in the Mini.
Justin Faford was also a rookie last year in the #04 Mini Stock and he’s feeling more confident with one season under his belt, “We’re excited to make sure our hard work paid off over the winter,” Faford said in the pits Saturday, “We freshened up the motor, straightened out the clip, put on a new body, new tires, and new wheels.”“We’re excited to make sure our hard work paid off over the winter,” Faford said in the pits Saturday, “We freshened up the motor, straightened out the clip, put on a new body, new tires, and new wheels.”
Solomon Brow will also be competing in his 2nd year at Monadnock, he ran Young Guns last year but will be graduating a division to the Mini Stock Division this year. The 16 year old driver is looking to improve on his results from a year ago saying, “We got two firsts, two seconds, two thirds, and a bunch of fourths and fifths.”
“We’ll see how it goes this year, hopefully we’re up front.”
Mike McGoldrick Jr is also making the jump up a division from the Young Guns in the #1 Ford Mustang Mini Stock. McGoldrick won 5 races in the young guns last year and now feels ready to get out there with some faster cars, “I’m a little nervous about stepping up a division but I think I’ll hold my own out there,” said the 14 year old from Leyden, MA.
The Thunder Stock division is anticipating another white knuckle, edge of your seat show this season. Last year Marshall Usher was too quick to catch as he took home the points title. This year word around pit road was the #20 car driven by Dave Greenslit is one to keep an eye on this season. Greenslit came just short of the championship, finishing 2nd to Usher. This year he’s feeling good about being able to bring home the title, “Car has been real right out of the box,” said Greenslit on Saturday.
“We’re really going for the championship this year,” he added, “We came up just short last year, if we win next week it’ll be two years in a row winning opening day so that’s what we’re shooting for.”
Greenslit will face stiff competition from the likes of Paul Barnard in the #24, as well as Craig Chaffee along with newcomers Robert Thurston and Rodney Davis, and second year driver Benny Williams will be competing in the #7JR Thunder Stock built by his father, Sportsman Modified driver Greg Williams.
The 22 year old rookie has been watching his dad race for 20 years and he’s confident his father has built him a fast racecar.
“Feels great, it’s going fast. My dad built it from the ground up so I’m just jumping into a race-ready car. It’s fast so it’s all up to me. The #20, Greenslit, is hard to compete with, but we’ll get up there with him,” Williams said confidently.
CJ Johnson in the #95 Lightning Stock brought home one win in 2014 but he’s hoping this year will bring more success, “So far so good,” Johnson said after his test and tune session, “We’ve got a few little issue we’ll get them taken care of though.” Hillary Renaud, Tim Paquette and Eric Silvernale took laps around the track shaking down the race machine.
In Super Stock racing Tom Carey III will be taking the green as reigning points champion. He’ll be looking to take home the checkered flag next Saturday hoping to start 2015 on the right path.
The Young Guns division provides some new drivers a chance to get their feet wet on the track. Last year the Littlewood family of Orange, MA entered two drivers, Cole and Justin, into the competition and was honored as the 2014 family of the year at the awards banquet in November. Justin will remain in the Young Guns as brother Cole will compete in his rookie year in the Super Stocks.
This year the Smith family will have two racers in the Young Guns division with Bow and Colton Smith looking to run up front.
“There are a lot of fast cars out there,” Bow said after the Young Guns ran out on the track for the first time.
“I feel the car is the best it can be, but the Honda is a lot faster, they have an advantage,” Bow said.
Colton liked what he felt his first time out there saying, “It seems to be running mint, everything seems to be running great this year.”
“I think mine is a little bit faster [than Bow’s], we made the tires bigger, they were 14 inch now they’re 15 inch, it’s a lot faster, handles pretty good, hopefully I get higher up.”
It can be a bit stressful for the boys Mom having two sons on the track at the same time, “Luckily last year we only had one crash and they were both involved together.”
Young Guns are the future of racing at Monadnock Speedway and serves the entire Northeast racing scene with fresh drivers ready to compete for victories. Monadnock Speedway is proud of their young drivers that progress through the divisions and ranks at the track and at tracks throughout the region.
The Young Guns epitomize Mondnock’s slogan of being “driven by passion and fueled by fun”.
The track is ready, the drivers and their cars are ready, and the fans are excited for the start of another fun season of racing at Monadnock Speedway set to begin May 2nd at 4PM.
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| All photos by W.Gauvin Barber |
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