He’s a proven winner who’s looking to prove that fact to any local racing team looking for help behind the wheel or otherwise.
Seventeen year old Jacob Perry had the optimism riding high before the start of the 2019 with a chance to run for Rookie of the Year with the Granite State Pro Stock Series.
But after three events with the series Perry and his family made the difficult decision to suspend operations of the Jacob Perry Racing team due to a lack of funding.
Now Perry is looking to offer up his talents and stay on track in 2019.
“We started off having a pretty good year in everything we started with and unfortunately it started going downhill and me and dad had to make the really tough decision to shut down Jacob Perry Racing – our family owned team – where we just couldn’t afford fund it ourselves anymore,” Perry said. “Right now we’re looking to get as much funding together as possible so we can run as many races as possible in Modifieds and Granite State and anything we can. The funding has fallen short this year between sponsors that made promises. Unfortunately in the racing world everyone knows how that goes.
“I have experience driving everything from Sportsman up at Thompson, I’ve driven Late Models, I’ve driven Super Late Models, I’ve driven Tour Modifieds, SK [Modifieds], SK Light [Modifieds], Pro Four [Modifieds], Bandalero’s, Mini Stocks. I’ve driven everything that’s basically out there. If anybody needs a driver for any type of car, if they need some help with setup, if they need help with crewing – I was on pit road for the [Whelen Modified Tour] Catalano team at Thompson changing tires. If anybody needs any type of help I’m glad to help out and keep my name out there and keep racing as much as possible.”
Perry opened the Granite State Pro Stock Series season with a heartbreaker on May 3 at Claremont (N.H) Speedway. Running fourth with two laps to go his car lost an alternator belt and he had to settle for an 11thplace finish. The bad luck followed the team to the next two series events at Lee USA Speedway in Lee, N.H. and Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H.
“We had run Claremont Speedway, which we had a really good run going and unfortunately mechanical failures cost us a good finish with two laps to go,” Perry said. “We went to Lee USA which we had a mechanical failure cost us a good run. And then we went to Monadnock where we broke a sway bar on lap one. So we had a lot of bad luck right there to start off the year with the Granite State car.”
Perry decided to skip this past weekend’s event for the Granite State Pro Stock Series at Speedway 51 in Groveton, N.H. and opted instead to run for a Jencik family owned Truck at Monadnock Speedway, where he scored victory. It was the second victory of the season in the Truck for Perry, who also won at the Icebreaker at Thompson Speedway in the ride on April 6.
“Being able to run the Truck and win at the Icebreaker and win at Monadnock, that was a really really good boost for us and our team’s morale,” Perry said. “It’s about keeping us pushing and keep getting more sponsors and keep getting us back on track in hopefully some Tour Modifieds and hopefully with the Granite State Pro Stock Series later in the year.”
Perry, who just completed his Junior year at Stonington High School, was the Rookie of the Year in 2018 on the Valenti Modified Racing Series.
“It’s tough, not many people know it but last season was my first season in 13 years of racing cars that I didn’t get a win,” Perry said. “That really really bothered me last season. And coming into this season I knew no matter what I was going to go get wins. And I wanted to chase wins and championships. But after that heartbreak at Claremont at the opener after running so good and having a mechanical failure take us out that we couldn’t help with two laps to go with a shot at maybe a win, that definitely hurt.”
Leave a Reply