(Press release from Star Speedway)
Star Speedway announced today a packed schedule of events for the 2023 season headlined by September’s Star Classic weekend and many other high-profile events including championship racing for local divisions and touring series action.
The schedule includes over 25 events with action on select Friday nights, many Saturdays and even a Sunday afternoon during the Classic. It all begins with the Bunny Brawl on Saturday, April 28, with the Woody’s Street Stocks, Slingshots, Six Shooters, Pure Stocks and Enduro racing.
During the season, racing includes the 350 Supers, Late Models, Slingshots, Six Shooters, Pure Stocks and even the Mighty Trucks on a regular basis.
Opening night for the local racing series divisions is set for Saturday, April 29, with the 350 Supers headlining the night with their first race of the season.
The Granite State Pro Stock Series returns to Star for the Hedges Excavating 100 on Saturday, May 6, joined on the same night by the historic Bob Webber Sr. Memorial for the 350 Supers. The Late Models get their first crack of the season in the first Friday night event on May 12, while they return to headline action on Saturday, May 20, when the MLM Fast 40 Series for the Woody’s Street Stocks begins.
June is headlined by the 350 Supers Jen Garland Memorial on the 3rd and the beginning of the $5 Friday night summer series on the 9th. On June 17, the 350 Supers will continue their memorial events with the Marco Turcotte Memorial, while the Late Models and more end the month of June on the 24th.
The track will be off for July 4th weekend – but will use it as a rain date if needed. July includes the Jim Belfiore Memorial for the 350 Supers (8th) and the return of the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series on July 22 for 100 laps. The R&R Raceparts Street Stock Open division will also join the card that night in a special 50-lap race.
After a Saturday event on the 29th of July, August will begin with a Friday special and the Steve Krupski Memorial for the 350 Supers on the 4th. The $5 Friday night series returns on the 11th, followed by the second annual Scottie Frazier Memorial for the Six Shooters on August 12. August will also include the $5 Friday Series championship round on the 18th, and more racing on Saturday, August 19, headlined by the Late Models. The final weekend of August will be another open in case needed for a rain date.
In September, Labor Day weekend includes a special on the 2nd, with the Slingshots set for 50 laps and the Pure Stocks for 40, along with Enduro racing and more. That will be the final event leading into the annual Star Classic barring the use of the next weekend as a rain date – as the Classic is set for Friday, September 15 through Sunday, September 17.
The race weekend will include the SBM 125 on Sunday, September 17 with the Modified Racing Series headlining the show with a large purse on the line. On Classic Friday, the Granite State Pro Stock Series will return for their second stop of the season. Saturday’s action is headlined by the 350 Supers Dennis McKennedy Memorial race and the NEMA Midgets, NEMA Lites and NELCAR Legends. All of Star’s local divisions will also race during the weekend, along with the EXIT Realty Truck Series.
The schedule will end with a massive month of October – including the return of the New England Nationals headlined by a potential $7,500 winning prize for Street Stock drivers, a $2,000 to win Pure Stock race and more. The Halloween Howler also returns to the calendar on October 28, with some of the top Enduro racing in the country ending the Star season once again in 2023.
New for 2023, the $5 Friday Summer Series will debut with six different rounds – starting on Friday, June 9 and ending on Friday, August 18. The series will showcase a mix of Star’s divisions throughout the summer for the cheapest price you will find for a race event anywhere in New England. The series will also include the New England Dwarf Cars for select events.
Star Speedway 2023 number registrations and Star Membership applications are now open and forms are available on the track Facebook page. Drivers and teams are encouraged to send those in as soon as possible so the track can start preparing for a new season.
For more information on Star Speedway, visit StarSpeedwayNH.com and follow the track on Facebook for the latest news and information.
The last two years at least the SBM 125 was the tri track race. I wonder why that was swapped to the MRS race. Doesn’t matter to me, I plan on going to both and any other tour-type mod event they would add 🙂
Interesting SBM 125 goes from Sat in July with Tri Track to Sun in Sept. with MRS!!
Marshall and wmass01013,
There’s really no real world implications to the name of the race moving from July with the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series to September with the Modified Racing Series. If anything it will only serve to create confusion among fans and drivers.
It’s a name of a race that was carried over from a previous individual who had been putting on an Open show at Star and then abandoned that event and it became the name of the annual Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series event at Star. The Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series will pay the same elevated purse they have paid in recent years at Star for their event in July 2023 despite not having that name on their event. Having that name on the race in July had nothing to do with the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series or anything the series put forward for purses for their events.
It really looks to be a kind of a smoke and mirrors thing of using the success and growth of the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series to prop up another event with another series because the original person who came up with the name of the event wants to be a part of it again. You’ve already seen the kind of strategic misleading about what’s happening taking place recently when the event was announced and the public relations announcement used the recent purses paid out by the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series to promote what will take place for the event in 2023, even though the event in 2023 will have nowhere near the purse paid out for events by the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series there in recent years. You’re probably going to see some teams getting confused and ultimately disappointed when they find out the September event will pay significantly less than than what the July event has paid in recent years.
I think any Tritrack race on a 1/4 mile track should be 125 laps. It makes the race distance similar to 1/3 & 3/8 mile tracks. And they can pit, unlike the MRS. A longer MRS race will be more “saving tires” racing. The SBM was always an “open” mod race. I think it should stay that way.
Shawn / Eddie,
It sucks for teams if the longer, more prestigious event doesn’t pay more to the MRS teams than it typically did. There were a couple MRS races this year that had low car counts and I was concerned that the series would fold. The race at Star in September had a good field though. I do wonder if shifting the name might encourage better attendance than I saw in September, but that might have been down due to the weather. The 2021 race had a good crowd, and it was already classic weekend so I thought that had some cache already. It’s hard to say I’m shocked by how low the prize money seems for these races but sometimes I’m like, “wow really?” In that line of thinking with the MRS having tighter roles than an open series maybe it’s less money to run one of those teams? I’m not an insider so I really don’t know. In any case it would be great to get more money for these teams because the racing is always entertaining no matter the rules. Sometimes I think the cheaper series like the SK lites at Stafford run way harder because they’re less afraid to tear up the car, whereas the open events cost so much just to run the drivers are way too careful to put on a good show.
Star still has Tri Track Race and still has MRS race nothing has changed. Elevated MRS purse and longer distance I guess is the diffrence but adding 1 change tire kills the purse increase for the MRS teams so seems silly.
75 laps 4 tires x 225(900$) for normal 600$$$ MRS take the green.
125 laps 5 tires x 225(1125$) for elevated 800$$$ MRS take the green
just fyi they aint running 125 laps on 4 tires
Rich, do you have insider news about the MRS and tires? They have never allowed a tire change unless you have a flat or some other wheel damage. That’s part of what made them a less expensive alternative to the WMT when they started.
Right after the MMTTS race
Facebook
“July 24, 2022
Dear racers, fans and officials,
My family has been at this business for over 44 years which equals out to over 1100 nights of racing events. Those of you that know me also know that I never back done from having races even if the weathermen and internet wizards feel they know the best course of action. This time though I have no choice. To start with I am postponing the Friday, July 29th events. I need to take time to regroup, reorganize, re-strategize the plans for the remainder of the 2022 season and beyond at Star, the current way cannot continue. I can’t pour my heart and soul into the scheduling and promoting of a race event to have to cost myself money out of my own personal savings week after week. I love racing and all that it offers, but it must be self-sustaining. During this off week, I will try to come up with a better business plan that will help to keep the track afloat.
Some of the other things that I need to think about and address will be situations that arose last night during the race events and post-race in the camping lots. ”
Sounded ominous and they had all kinds of problems during the season.
Very impressive how they regrouped, finished out the season and now a pretty gosh darned aggressive 2023 schedule.
Way to go Star Speedway! Nod to the fans up there as well rallying to help the track.
Fast Eddie,
No inside info just common sense, MRS already is having issues with Sandbaggin in 75-80 lap races, if you try 125 laps forget about it. The distance is just too long, and not in the normal MRS event range. Now with Star having issues in the Pitts like last year Tri Track dangerous speeding crap maybe they would do a red/yellow at lap 75 everyone puts on tire at the same time, keeps it safe and calm
Rich, do not assume there will be a tire change because the race is longer. Unless there is a major shift in their rules it won’t happen. Case in point: the MRS race at Lee. Due to a rough surface and saving tires, they now have twin 50’s intead of a 100 lap race. Not a mid-race stop, but 2 seperate races. At Beech Ridge they went to 75 laps from the original 100 for the same reason. The MRS just doesn’t do tire changes
Fast Eddie,
Absolutely correct about the twin 50’s at Lee, but the MRS was not at Lee in 2022 and I’m not sure there are any plans for the series to return there in 2023.
Shawn, you’re most likely right on that. I think Rich may think there will be a tire change for the MRS at Star due to the race being longer, but I highly doubt that would happen. Its too bad the MRS car count are so erratic now, as the racing itself is usually good, even with a small turnout.
Didn’t some of the cars in the Miller Lite 200 at Riverhead go well over 200 laps on the same tires. Hoosier has a compound that can do it I do believe.
Everyone goes 200 laps on a set of tires at riverhead minus flats and the 256 lapper they had. Has been as much as 160-170 green the last few years, too. The field does get pretty stretched out at the end since the moved to 500’s instead of 630’s on the RR though.
The problem is, the tour compound is just that. A TOUR compound. Not sure NASCAR would be willing to let Hoosier open that up to other series. Especially with the tire shortage these days. Dont think they want to risk their supply, nor do they want the headache of managing different sets of tires that have the same compound but different code.
A lot of series/divisions have been consolidating compound codes recently as a way to help production. Wonder if we will see that in modified land 2023.
I do believe there was a tire test a Thompson fairly recently for the tour, though. Be interesting to see if they make any changes.