NEMA First Timers A Speedbowl Trait
The Budweiser Blast Off April 2-3 will mark the seventh time since 1999 that the Northeastern Midget Association has opened its season at Waterford Speedbowl. The NEMA Lites are also part of the festivities as the club kicks off its 59th campaign.
Last year, Chris Leonard was the third driver in that span to score his first NEMA win at a Speedbowl lid lifter. The others are Rudy Boetticher in 2000 and Ben Seitz in 2004. Seitz went on to win the first of four straight championships that season.
“The best you run all year often happens at Waterford,” says Russ Stoehr, who’ll begin the defense of his 2010 title at the Blast Off. He won twice there last year in the Dumo’s Desire #45.
The all-time Waterford NEMA and Midget winner is Randy Cabral with eight. He has not won there since 2008 and will looking to end that streak at the Blast Off in Tim Bertrand’s #47 Drinan/Esslinger. Bertrand also has a driving win.
Bobby Seymour is the leader in combined owner and driver wins. Owner of five Speedbowl wins as a driver, Seymour calls the Speedbowl “a near perfect” Midget track, the right combination of width, length and surface.
Also among the drivers scoring their first Midget win at The ‘Bowl are veterans Jim Miller and Barry Kittredge, both probable entries for this year’s Blast Off as are Leonard and deRitis.
Among the strong possibilities to join the group are John Zych Jr., who comes into the campaign with a Drinan/Esslinger and the determined Mike Horn.
The Waterford Midget win list – it actually starts with the immortal Johnny Thomson– is lengthy. Thomson, generally acclaimed as New England’s premier open cockpit racer, won a couple OF ARDC events in 1951, the Speedbowl’s first season.
A brand new NEMA visited Waterford on May 31, 1951, Billy Eldridge the winner. It was NEMA’s second event. Since then there have 44 different winners in 63 events.
Legends Johnny Coy, Lenny Boyd, Dutch Schaefer, Johnny Mann, King Carpenter, Billy Randall and Len Thrall are all on the Speedbowl Midget win list.
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR