Modified Racing Series Announces 2019 Schedule

Todd Owen celebrates victory in the Valenti Modified Racing Series season finale Oct. 13 at the Sunoco World Series of Speedway Racing at Thompson Speedway

At their annual banquet Friday in South Windsor, officials from the the Modified Racing Series announced a 16-race schedule that will include five events at Connecticut short tracks.

The series will kick off its 2019 season at the Icebreaker at Thompson Speedway on April 4 and close its season at the Sunoco World Series at Thompson on Oct. 12.

The series will make just one visit to Stafford Motor Speedway on Aug. 30.

Two events are scheduled for the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. The first coming on May 11 and the second on Aug. 17 as part of the track’s annual Wings and Wheels program.

For the third consecutive year the division will anchor the New England Short Track showdown at New Hamshire Motor Speedway on June 23.

The division will make four visits Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H. (May 4, June 8, July 6 and Aug. 24). Lee USA Speedway in Lee, N.H. will host three Modified Racing Series events for 2019 (May 19, July 12 and Oct. 6).

The division will also make visits to Speedway 51 in Groveton, N.H. (July 27), Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Me. (Aug. 3) and Claremont (N.H.) Speedway (Aug. 9).

2019 Modified Racing Series Schedule

April 6: Thompson Speedway
May 4: Monadnock Speedway
May 11: New London-Waterford Speedbowl
May 18-19: Lee USA Speedway
June 8: Monadnock Speedway
June 22-23: New Hampshire Motor Speedway
July 6: Monadnock Speedway
July 12: Lee USA Speedway
July 27: Speedway 51
Aug. 3: Beech Ridge Motor Speedway
Aug. 9: Claremont Speedway (Rain date Aug. 10)
Aug. 17: New London-Waterford Speedbowl
Aug. 24: Monadnock Speedway
Aug. 30: Stafford Motor Speedway
Oct. 6: Lee USA Speedway
Oct. 11-12: Thompson Speedway

Comments

  1. Lee or Stafford open show on July 12 ??? No winner here. The wisdom of Jack

  2. Already a conflict Star on July 27th against the SBM 125 which also looks like it will not be a TTOMS race

  3. Gofastturnleft says

    How is that jacks fault that Stafford decided not to give them a second race. The open races at Stafford were good. Neither race had a full field last year. Both times the MRS showed up at Stafford there was consi’s and cars were sent home.its Staffords fault not jacks that they don’t have a second race there

  4. Going to be lots of conflicts

    MRS-16 shows
    Tri Track- 5 or 6 shows with Star
    Stafford-3 shows
    AMT-3 shows

    Plus White Mountain, Thunder Rd, Riverhead 300 all big $$$ shows

    Only so many weekends

  5. Just a terrific regional touring series.
    16 races at 10 different tracks spread from north to south in the Northeast region on tracks with widely divergent characteristics with 31% of the races at two tracks . The only comparison the NWMT that is really not the same thing at all. Nonetheless for comparison are at 9 tracks with 44% of the races at Thompson and Stafford for obvious reasons.
    Friday May 10th at Stafford for an Open the the 11th at the Speedbowl may be a good thing for VMRS teams coming down from up north. Staffords June Open is clear but extremely disappointed in that July 12th date pitting a redo of Lee vs Stafford for cars. Difficult to say who is at fault here the chicken or the egg. Is it VMRS payback for losing a Stafford date? In any event you’d think these two organizations that have a long standing relationship could have the courtesy to work a little better together for the sake of teams and fans alike.

  6. Crazy in NY says

    No MRS in Sept means it’s doubly dumb the TTOM and Thunder Road go the same night when the week after the Musket is open.

  7. Fast Eddie says

    Between the WMT, VMRS, Stafford, & Thunder Road (maybe a TTOMS race?) schedules, we’re at 28 tour mod events in New England, with only one date conflict. Looks good so far to me!!
    I guess the VMRS and Stafford were both happy with their tour mod turnouts on the conflicting Friday last year. Interesting to see that so far between the VMRS and new AMS, there allegedly will be five tour mod events at the Speedbowl in 2019. I hope that ends up being correct!!

  8. Crazy, where are you finding a TTOMS schedule? I haven’t been able to find anything on it yet, and I would bet if something was released that Shawn would have an article about it. I also have not seen any info about Claremont or Star schedules. I was guessing that maybe the Thunder Road event is a TTOMS race, but that is definitely only a guess.

  9. No SEEKONK ?

  10. One question. With the conflict between Stafford and Lee, can someone running for VMRS points miss the Lee race because they stand a better shot of winning Stafford, and still be in contention for the VMRS points championship?

  11. Crazy in NY says

    longislandmodmaniac
    Champion
    ****
    Posts: 1008
    View Profile

    Re: Tri Track Open Modified Series
    « Reply #482 on: November 30, 2018, 04:13:45 PM »
    There may still be a 6th and final date added to our schedule

    Saturday, May 25 – Claremont Speedway

    Wednesday, June 26 – Seekonk Speedway (Open Wheel Wednesday)

    Saturday, August 24 – Oxford Plains Speedway ( the night before the 250)

    Saturday, Sept 14 – Monadnock Speedway

    Saturday, October 26 – Seekonk Speedway (Haunted Hundred)

  12. MRS hasn’t been to Seekonk in years. Thunder Road is not a TTOMS race as TTOMS has already announced they will be at Monadnock on Sept 14th. As Rich said earlier, lots of conflicts for the non Nascar tours. Aug 24 TTOMS vs MRS is another big one. This summer might actually kill one of these tours. Not enough cars.

    Fast Eddie, you need to go to Tri Track Facebook page. Also on Chrome Horn still. Star had some interesting comments on the MRS FB page yesterday.

  13. Noone knows says

    Why when everyone talks about racing conflicts and things going wrong is it always the MRS who is at fault? I know if you look at the history there has been things done the make you shake your head about the MRS but none of us have any clue the timing of the dates agreed upon between the series promoters and the tracks. For all we know the date for Lee was signed last year well before Stafford released their schedule in the past few weeks. Heck, Stafford could be the one who heard about the date and said, I don’t care if they agreed already we’re going with this date. It truly goes both ways and we all know these promoters are so good at working together.
    Instead of blaming one tour over another lets all be sure we are at one of the tracks running that night either as a competitor or fan so these events and track will live another day.

  14. Alot more than 1 conflict

    AMT opener vs MRS Monadnock
    MRS Monadnock vs TTOMS Beech Ridge
    Stafford vs Lee MRS
    Thunder Rd vs Tri Track

    Also consider Stafford the night before races, any damage its hard to do doubles

    So really two options for Teams

    #1 chase points and commit to a series
    #2 free lance and chase money

    Its going to thin out the cars, but it will be interesting who goes where

  15. That;s some pretty good observations there Rich.
    Choices for the teams is a good thing. From a fan’s standpoint the attendees at Lee and Stafford on July 12 won’t find it interesting at all who is at our race. We’ll be disappointed at who isn’t and why Stafford and the VMRS chose to purposely repeat the conflict that rain created last year

  16. Doug,

    Weather will definitley create even more conflicts with make up dates, also looks like Star SBM vs MRS Speedway 51 on July 27.

  17. May the racing gods visit rain on either Lee or Stafford on 7/12 but not on both.
    Amen Rich.
    The more the schedules come out the more we see a muddle of conflicts. glancing blows not to mention the weather related unknowns. Is the VMRS simply a traveling open show? Is it important to show up at all the races. Some of the top guys seem more motivated by location and money then points. That I fully support obviously as an Open fan.
    One thing you can say about the NWMT. Their events are happenings and there is no conflict. You’re in or you’re simply playing around and not relevant in the big picture.

  18. 16 MRS races, 16 Whelen races, 5 Tri track races, 3 Open shows at Stafford, 3 AMT races, 1 open at Thunderroad, 1 at Star, and 1 at White mountains. 46 modified Races with what appears to be 7 conflicts so far:
    (1)MRS and AMT on 6/8, (2)MRS and WMT on 7/6, (3)MRS and Stafford on 7/12,(4) MRS and Star open 7/27, (5)MRS and Tri track on 8/24, (6)WMT and AMT on 9/7 and (7)Tri track and Thunderroad on 9/14. If you want to count the MRS at Lee the 18th and 19th and WMT being at Wall the 18th there’s 8, and the MRS rain date of 8/10 for Claremont then that’s a possible 9th conflict with it being the open show at White mountains on the 10th and that’s not considering any other rain dates or events.
    I don’t get it, is there that much prestige with wining a MRS championship or are the purses that good? If they do the same on 7/12 as last year then if you decide to go for the money at Stafford you basically miss 2 MRS races at Lee, go run for money at the Star open show and you miss another MRS race(3), chase money at tri track and that’s another MRS miss(4). Then with the White mountains open being the day after Claremont, is it even possible to turn a car around and put a real effort to run that for decent money(5). Let’s go out on a limb and say the AMT pays a decent enough purse to make people think about skipping the MRS race on 6/8(6), I’d have to imagine seeing the schedule as it is now, along with tri track possibly adding another race, Claremont had 2 open shows of their own this season so lets say they do that again, and throw in the riverhead race being run again (that puts next year at a hypothetical but very real 50 modified events), I think that a lot of teams are really going to think hard about running the MRS full time if at all given the variety with open shows. Lets say that you miss 6 out of 16 races because you went to go race for the money on the conflict dates, you probably don’t stand a shot at wining a championship after missing nearly half the schedule, so why run MRS at all unless its a track that’s close to you or you like/do well at. Im not saying it will happen, but i have a feeling that it might be a tough year for the MRS.
    I’m shocked with the lee conflict both this year and next that they have a date at Stafford, I think that Stafford could get rid of the MRS all together and have 5 or so open shows that pay a decent purse that gets a decent field and maybe even give out a points championship at the end of it as a extra incentive and that would have been a nice addition.

  19. Conflicts are not just on the same date. Conflicts occur with dates near each other. It take time to prep a car, change the setup for another track, repair a car.

  20. Two thumbs up for Aaron! Spot on.

  21. For the race teams, I don’t know that scheduling conflicts with the WMT are an issue. Most WMT teams seem to be exclusive to that. Any WMT drivers that run the VMRS, TTOMS, or Open events usually drive for a different team. The only exceptions I remember this year are Eric Goodale, Anthony Nocella, Matt Swanson, and Calvin Carroll.
    It seems most of the TTOMS and Open events have VMRS teams for 1/2 – 3/4 of the field. Stafford’s Opens last year seemed to have a little more than the VMRS purse. SSSsssoooo… Do you run for the VMRS points and $3K (I think), the Opens for $3400 (I think), or the TTOMS for $6-10K? And then there is the AMT and new Open events, purse TBA.

  22. The Opens at Stafford last year were great in my view for the first year.
    I would hope this year they would build on it. 20 cars is not going to cut it.
    Time to step it up and get a eye popping purse that is appropriate for an Open.
    If the SK5K can end up paying the 50 5K plus contingencies that end up being mind blowing 10 grand it seems inappropriate to make these tour guys second class citizens with a mid 3’s payday to win. Should be 5K minimum. Criminee, Claremont had 5 grand to win. Mid 3”s is embarrassing.
    Unleash the hounds and make the trip to Stafford Springs a no brainer for the 4 barrel teams.

Leave a Reply

Copyright 2018 E-Media Sports

Website Designed by Thirty Marketing