Plenty of Familiarity On NEMA’s Agenda
The seven tracks on the 2009 schedule have run over 300 Northeastern Midget Association features. That is one-third of all races the 58-year old club has had since beginning way back in 1953.
Waterford Speedbowl (80), Seekonk Speedway (73) and Thompson Speedway (80) are the leaders. Stafford Motor Speedway (32), Monadnock (26), Lee USA (25) and Twin State Speedway (3) follow.
NEMA opens its 17-race 2009 schedule on Saturday night, May 23 at Lee. The agenda includes such traditional stops as Stafford’s Carquest Extreme Tuesday (July 7), Seekonk’s Boston Louie (Aug. 8), Twin State’s Open Wheel Sunday (Oct. 4), Seekonk’s DAV (Oct. 11-12) and Thompson’s World Series (Oct. 17-18).
Seekonk, which hosted the first NEMA race on May 30, 1953 (Fred Meeker was the winner), Waterford, which ran the next day (Bill Eldridge prevailed) and Stafford (John DeLeo was the winner) are “charter members.” Thirty NEMA races have been run on the present Stafford layout.
Midget immortal Dutch Schaefer was Thompson’s first NEMA winner in 1960. The Lee relationship dates back to 1966 (Walt Gale was the winner), Monadnock to 1972 (Dave Humphrey was the first winner) and Twin State to 1973 (Humphrey again). Twenty of Lee’s NEMA races have come on the present third-mile layout.
Bobby Santos III is the only driver with wins at all seven tracks including ’08 checkereds at Twin State, Lee, Monadnock and Stafford (where he has three). Nokie Fornoro has missed only at Twin State, Russ Stoehr only at Twin State and Stafford. Greg Stoehr has won at Monadnock, Seekonk, Thompson and Waterford; Jeff Horn at Lee, Seekonk, Stafford and Waterford.
Defending driver champion Randy Cabral is the all-time win leader at both Waterford (8) and Thompson (7). Cabral and Russ Stoehr, each with five, are tied for second behind Nokie Fornoro (8) among active drivers at Seekonk. A field including seven or eight former winners is not uncommon at Waterford and Seekonk.
Among active drivers, Jeff Horn (3) is the win leader at Lee, Greg Stoehr (2) at Monadnock and Bobby Santos III (3) at Stafford.
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR