The North East Mini Stock Tour on track at the Stock Car Road Course Challenge Saturday at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park
THOMPSON – Joe Arena has long been a fan of road course racing. Road course racing on TV that is.
On Saturday the longtime local short track driver finally got the chance to be a fan of road course racing behind the wheel.
Arena, of Bristol, was one of the participants in Saturday’s inaugural Stock Car Road Race Challenge at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.
Arena is in his first season competing with the North East Street Stock Tour, one of five divisions in competition during Saturday’s event on the 1.7-mile road course at Thompson.
“I think it’s a blast,” Arena said. “It’s a lot of fun. I did not anticipate being as good as we are on a road course. I’ve never done this in my life. It’s a lot of fun. I would have hoped for more cars though.”
Arena finished third in the North East Street Stock Tour event, which had 10 participants. Jim Boyle of Waterford won the event and Steve Kenneway of Lowell, Mass. was second.
“Most people you either love road course races or hate them,” Arena said. “Me and my wife love watching the [Sprint Cup] cars on TV on the road courses. I’ve never been to one though. This is my first experience at all with road courses. If they have it again, I’ll definitely be back. I think a lot of the people here think that. But it’s not spectator friendly and I think that’s the problem. But I think the drivers are having a blast.”
The event was put on by OTB Promotions under the direction of Josh Vanada, who operates the promotions company and is also general manager of Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.
In addition to the North East Street Stock Tour, the event also included features for the North East Mini Stock Tour, the Mr. Rooter New England Truck Series, the Thompson Speedway Mini Stock division and a SPEC Miata put on by Al Lane’s The Racing School.
Overall there were 42 cars participating between the five divisions, with the North East Mini Stock Tour leading the way with 14 participants.
“It’s hard whenever you do a first time event to know exactly what to expect,” Vanada said. “We would have liked to have seen certainly some more cars, but I think that’s pretty much always the case as a promoter. You’d always like to see more cars. The people that are here have had a great time. They love the track. I think the racing is really good.”
Larry Barnett of Moosup, the all-time winningest Limited Sportsman driver on the Thompson Speedway oval, participated in the North East Street Stock Tour event.
“It’s a great idea,” Barnett said. “A great concept. It’s fun for us to try. It’s an incredible amount of work. … The road course in general is a lot of fun.”
Barnett said he thinks the work in involved in preparing for a single event probably kept many teams away.
“I spent way over 100 hours trying to get ready for the practice session [earlier this year] and went there and did 10 or 15 laps and then undid it all and then spent almost as much time getting ready for today,” Barnett said. “It’s a lot of work, then I’ve got to undo it all now to get ready for the [season ending Sunoco World Series of Racing on the Thompson Speedway oval].”
Said Arena: “When the work is involved, and it’s a lot of work, you lose some guys. The unknown of many issues is a factor. It took a lot of research if you want to call it to figure out a lot of things with the cars here.”
Bob Guptill, founder and operator of the North East Mini Stock Tour, said drivers in his division were pleased with the chance to compete at the facility. The road course at Thompson reopened in 2014. The North East Mini Stock Tour has competed the past few seasons on the road course at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H.
“The guys love the track,” Guptill said. “Our guys are really the only one’s that can compare to something else running [the road course at New Hampshire Motor Speedway]. They feel that this facility is a lot easier on equipment than Loudon.”
Mitch Bombard of Willimantic was one of the participants in the North East Mini Stock Tour event.
“It’s pretty cool,” Bombard said. “Road course racing is fun. I don’t like watching it, but I like running it. This is a right-hander track and I’m having a myriad of problems with that. The fuel pickup and the way the car is setup, it just wants to turn left. The overhaul of making these cars turn right is time consuming.”
Frank Dumicich Jr. of East Quoque, N.Y. won the Mr. Rooter New England Truck Series event, which had nine participants. Chris Viens of Putnam won the five-car Mini Stock feature. Nick Maniatis of Hookset, N.H. won the North East Mini Stock Tour feature.
I go to all the oval events at Thompson, but unless I had a family member racing there is no way I would have paid $30 to get in. Just to much money, even if they had a great car count.
SATURDAY TICKETS PRICE
Adult Grandstand & Paddock Admission $30.00
Junior (6-14) Grandstand & Paddock Admission* $5.00
Kids (5 & Under) FREE
So when you take away the 14 NEMST competitors there were 28 cars in 4 divisions. That’s 7 cars per division. If the road course is 1.5 miles, that’s 4.67 cars per mile. Now scale that down to a 5/8ths mile oval and it’s 2.9 cars. Who would races on the Thompson oval with 3 cars?