(Press Release from American-Canadian Tour)
The 48th running of the prestigious Icebreaker weekend has just grown a little more lucrative for Northeast Tour-type Modified drivers and teams. As if the $10,000-to-win purse wasn’t incentive enough, Thompson Speedway, Thunder Road and Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series officials announced today that there is a provisional up for grabs to the highest finishing driver in the Icebreaker 125 who fails to qualify for the Granite Capital 100 on Memorial Day weekend at Barre, Vermont’s Thunder Road Speedbowl.
Any Thompson Outlaw Open Modified Series driver who takes the Icebreaker 125 green flag is eligible for this provisional, meaning victory isn’t essential to earn this award: a starting spot into the $10,000-to-win Granite Capital 100 on May 29th. The provisional will be awarded to the driver with the highest finishing Icebreaker position who didn’t qualify into the inaugural Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series event at Thunder Road.
“We’re excited to offer this provisional with specific drivers in mind,” said Thunder Road managing partner Cris Michaud. “Qualifying for an event at Thunder Road through heats and B-Features can be one of the hardest feats in a driver’s career, especially without any experience [at Thunder Road] and with the fields Tri-Track brings in. This will provide a chance for drivers and teams to take part in two $10,000-to-win Modified races and hopefully start their year on good footing.”
After more than a decade without the ground-pounding action of Tour-type Modifieds in the State of Vermont, anticipation is running high for the Monaco Tri-Track Modified Series debut at Thunder Road. An already stout list of registered competitors includes former Tri-Track champion Ronnie Williams, multi-time winners Chase Dowling and Sam Rameau plus standouts Jake Johnson and Max Zachem. With car-counts often exceeding thirty of the best Tour-type Modified drivers in the Northeast, the $10,000-to-win Granite Capital 100 on Sunday, May 29 will be one of the biggest events for the division on the 2022 calendar. The Monaco Modifieds join the Thunder Road weekly divisions in the annual Memorial Day celebration, including the 59th Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic 125 for the Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Models.
Before the Mod Squad returns to Thunder Road, however, they’ve got to Break the Ice at Thompson Speedway. The 48th running of the Icebreaker 125 on Sunday, April 3rd is set to kick off the Northeast Tour-type Modified season in style. The $10,000-to-win Thompson Outlaw Open Modified 125 headlines a two-day weekend of racing that includes the Pro All Stars Series Super Late Models, EXIT Realty Pro Truck Series, NEMA Lites and opening events for the five Thompson local divisions.
For more information about the American-Canadian Tour, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, [email protected], or visit www.acttour.com. You can also get updates on Facebook and Twitter at @ACTTour.
For more information about the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series visit www.monacomodifieds.com and get up to the date news on Facebook.
For general Thompson Speedway inquiries, call (860) 923-2280, email [email protected] or visit www.thompsonspeedway.com. You can follow Thompson Speedway on Facebook and Instagram at @ThompsonSpeedway or on Twitter at @ThompsonSpdwy.
OK I’ll say it. No one wants to hear it but you have to wonder what teams are thinking with the gas deal getting into the eye popping range. Local racing with local teams are one thing. These long distance hauls like to Thunder Road and the NWMT events fuel has to be a major consideration. I know it’s not my money but wouldn’t it be nice if by magic some way could be found to introduce a new incentive like gas money. Nothing too crazy and purely a stop gap measure but something to offset a portion of the added cost that no one was thinking of when they noodled the races to far off places out.
So FloRacing just got a little better. Seekonk is streaming 3 events via FloRacing one of which is the Wednesday Tri Track event. That makes three Tri Track events shown on FloRacing Seekonk, Thunder Road and Stafford. Pretty cool huh?
Speaking of FloRacing and streaming we saw the roll it played in with spectator limits in 2020 providing a much needed added stream of revenue. This year it may play an outsized roll as well as more spectators find they need to cut back their plans because of the added expense. Not optimal but at least it keeps fans in the game. The FloRacing money helping teams as well. That plan Stafford has to pay the bonus out at the end of the year they might rethink and do it like last year. The money every week would be helpful for obvious reasons.
Why? Why is that Tri Track date at the Speedbowl still in question? One might ponder the Tri Track management known to be pretty competent and like their ducks in a row got a little tired of the drama Creepy Bruce and his house if ill repute are known for.
Why is Lia racing the bigger tracks and Johnson more of the bull rings I can tell you. Lia is rusty of that there is little doubt. One thing you don’t want to be is rusty on tracks like Wall and Riverhead. Bigger tracks afford you more time to think about what you’re doing, relearn what you forgot and redevelop muscle memory. That and in looking at Lia’s last three years in NWMT races he did better on the bigger tracks.
So we had the big splash about teams dropping out of the NWMT last fall and the usual hand wringing and head shaking. Where do we stand now? The gas issue aside I’m still seeing a lot to be excited about at least in the top 10. The 16 and 79 more then made up for the loss of 10 and 85. Lutz and the 46 ownership moving to the 82 with that reconfigured team looking very racy at New Smyrna. The 58 seems to have upped their game. The icing on the cake and Lord knows how they did it is a full season or near full season from the 3. You have to figure there are more chassis and engine’s ready to compete this year and as we saw at New Smyrna the 3 is fast. Bonsignor starting in a hole so that’s will be fun watching the 51 try to dig themselves out.
Start with fuel, end with fuel. One thing 2020 and the tire shortage last year proved is that the racing promoters, teams and fan base can adjust to changing circumstances pretty quickly. We’ll see how it goes and the real impacts if any but nothing should be off the table. If the NWMT or any other series or track finds it necessary to drop events due to tighter budgets my money is on the racing community adjusting very nicely to it.