Stafford DARE Stock rookie Josh Parker and his new team owner U.S. Army Specialist Mark Richards were featured on Sunday's Wind Tunnel program on SPEED.
Archive for July 8th, 2012
7/8/12 – Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour
Stark, NH native Shawn Swallow became the thirteenth different winner in North East Mini Stock Tour competition, and the third winner of the 2012 season. This was the series second visit to the largest sporting facility in New England, New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Last time the high revving four-cylinders were at The Magic Mile they ran the famed 12 turn road course. This time was a completely different course constructed by NHMS and INEX officials originally intended for NELCAR legends racing.
The sharp turned ¼ mile track is very technical with half of the track being on the banking of the NASCAR turn 1&2 and the other half running around the flat apron of the road course. Cars and crews struggled all day trying to get the large passenger based race cars to negotiate their laps around the track. Through the first rounds of practice NEMST cars were turning laps in the 17.03 second range exciting NHMS officials and personnel.
As the teams approached their final practice round more preparations were made to the suspensions and the lap times dropped into the 16.9 range. Due to the setting sun and the lack of lights at the Loudon, NH track the heat races had to be dropped and the lineup was set off of fastest practice times. The top five cars were only separated by 0.103 seconds with Emerson Cayer from neardy Contoocook taking the pole, beating out Danny Field by a mere 0.004 seconds in lap time.
Continue reading ‘Swallow Shifts His Way Into Victory Lane at NHMS’
Seekonk, MA — Dave Darling is finding 2012 to be just what the doctor ordered after finishing second in the championship chase the last 3 seasons. Over the course of this season, Darling has been one of the fastest and most consistent cars at the speedway. He proved it for the third time last Saturday night, putting his Bristol Toyota Scion Camry anywhere on the track he wanted, and cruised to his first 40 lap win.
Kevin Casper jumped out to the early lead, and held off the challenges of Ken Spencer and Dick Houlihan for the first 11 laps. Mike Brightman took over the second spot and started to pressure the Phil’s Propane Fusion. That lasted for 6 laps before Darling started to make his move. Darling took over second on lap 17, and using a restart on lap 19, took over at the halfway point and never looked back. While Darling was dominating the final laps, a lot of action was going on for second on back. In the closing laps, Brightman had his hands full with Tom Scully Jr, who moved around and into the runner up spot with just 5 laps remaining. Brightman held on for third, while Ryan Vanasse and Tom Scully Sr rounded out the top five.
Bobby Pelland III shook off a rough couple of weeks, and an ill handling car to put his A&A Auto Parts Chevy into Victory Lane for the third time of this young season. In the 30 lap feature, Ron Barboza Jr took off and set the early pace, as Dylan Estrella ran behind. Pelland, who started fifth moved into third in the opening laps and followed the lead pair. It wasn’t until the 25th lap when Pelland made his move. Seeing an opening on the inside, as Estrella was trying to move around Barboza, Pelland stuck the nose of his Impala underneath, and in a 3-wide pass for the lead, moved past Barboza and Estrella, and took over the lead. Following him through was Jeramee Lille, who was trying to pick up his second win of the season. Estrella was knocked out of the race on the following lap, as he and Dave Hutchens made contact down the backstretch.
