Goodbye … And Welcome Back: Mark St. Hilaire Back Working In The Pits At The Speedbowl Saturday

How’s that old Neil Sedaka song go? Breaking up is hard to do … ?

Apparently that’s the case with the New London-Waterford Speedbowl management and longtime tech inspector Mark St. Hilaire. 

On Wednesday New London-Waterford Speedbowl race director Brad Lafontaine confirmed to RaceDayCT that track management had made the decision to part ways with St. Hilaire. 

Then again, it is the Speedbowl, where up is often down, hot is probably cold and left regularly means right. 

So it comes as no surprise that on Saturday at the Speedbowl St. Hilaire was right back where’s been on most Saturday’s during racing season for the last decade … for a little while.

According to multiple sources at the track today, St. Hilaire was back working with members of the tech staff at the Speedbowl on Saturday afternoon in preparation for tonight’s weekly racing card. 

And then apparently St. Hilaire left the track before the start of features.

Asked Saturday by text about St. Hilaire working in the pits Lafontaine said: “Not sure what his position is yet.”

Multiple sources confirmed that Lafontaine was not at the driver’s meeting Saturday at the Speedbowl and had apparently also left the track before the start of features.

Lafontaine, a former championship winning crew chief on the NASCAR Modified Tour and longtime car builder and race shop owner, was named the race director at the Speedbowl in early April.

St. Hilaire has had a role with the tech inspection team at the Speedbowl since 2015, including stints as the lead tech inspector.

On Wednesday Lafontaine said: “Mark has been here for a long time, he’s a good guy. It’s just, I think where we’re going is going in kind of a different direction a little bit as far as the rules and the tech and all the rest of the stuff. We kind of parted company with Mark. Nothing personal, it’s just the way we’re going. They knew there was going to be changes with me going in there. We’ve got to do what’s best for the Waterford Speedbowl and if not, we wouldn’t want to see the place close with negative talk and all the bullshit that’s gone on in the past history. So my goal was go there to help try and straighten out some of the problems there. I’m not saying anything negative about Mark by any means, but we’re just in different directions. We’re changing up a few things. There’s going to be a few changes coming still.”

Before moving into tech roles at local tracks, St. Hilaire was a standout racer. 

St. Hilaire was an 18-time winner at the Speedbowl, with 15 Late Model wins and three Street Stock wins. He was the 2005 Late Model champion at the Speedbowl. St. Hilaire also had three Late Model wins at Stafford.