The first time the American Canadian Tour ran at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Cory Casagrande’s wish list as a racer grew.
“Ever since ACT started doing their races there I wanted to have an ACT [style Late Model] ust for that reason, that I wanted to go to Loudon,” Casagrande said.
The former regular in the Late Model division at Stafford Motor Speedway never did get that wish to have an ACT car, but he did get his chance to get to Loudon with the scheduling of this weekend’s inaugural New England Short Track Showdown.
Three years ago Casagrande began racing with the Granite State Pro Stock Series. The division will run a 50-lap feature as part of a four feature card Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The day’s events will also include a 50-lap race for the Valenti Modified Racing Series, a 30-lap event for the North East Mini Stock Tour and a 30-lap open Street Stock event.
“Now we’re glad that we have the chance to go there,” Casagrande said. “It’s a car we’ve raced with for the past three years now. It’s an event that’s special to us. The momentum has been really good for us and hopefully it’s something that can continue there.”
Casagrande heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway tied with Scott MacMichael for the points lead in the Granite State Pro Stock Series after four events this year.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Casagrande said. “That’s my take on it. … We’re up there in the points so it’s important to us. … I’ve always wanted to go up there. … It’s a lot of risk, but we’re going to go do it and hopefully we have some fun and make the best of it.”
Casagrande began the season with a wrecked car and a 17th place at Lee USA Speedway in Lee, N.H. on April 30. But he bounced back with a third place at the division’s inaugural event at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway on May 20. He comes into New Hampshire with consecutive seventh place finishes at Claremont (N.H.) Speedway on June 2 and Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway on June 24.
“The season started out pretty crappy,” said Casagrande, who has James Connors as the crew chief on his Fury Race Cars built ride. “We wrecked the thing, had to put a clip on it after the first race. After that we’ve had some good runs. I had a third place at Riverhead which was kind of a surprise because it was my first race there. … We went to Claremont and we were really fast all day and then the thing tightened up in the feature. I wasn’t mad about it. … Last week at Seekonk we got dumped early and I had to use up a lot of stuff to get back through the field. We’ve just got to keep the momentum going.”
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