Jarret, Fornoro Return To NEMA Scene
Brockton, MA — Mike Jarret will not commit himself nor driver Nokie Fornoro as 2009 Northeastern Midget Association championship contenders. The 17-race NEMA schedule opens Saturday night, May 23 at Monadnock Speedway.
“Who knows what’s going to happen,” says Jarret. “Right now we plan on making every race.” There is a back-up car in place. It is, however, much too early to think about anything past that.
Jarret is NEMA’s “corporate sponsor.” Although the club uses the logo of Jarret’s “Helping Hands of America” company, it is, he says, “pretty much a personal thing using the allowance my wife (Lu) gives me.” Lu Jarret is very involved with the club as well.
While his duel role of sponsor/car owner leads to “worrying about people getting the wrong idea” he has become content with the latter position. “The team is four guys, my brothers Roger and Guy and a friend Don Lanoue,” says Jarret. “We’re all senior citizens, all over 65 and we love it. The wives come along. We’re cooking up things in the pits and having fun.”
Fornoro, midway through his third decade in Midgets, is 51. “Nokie had some physical problems last year and says he took care of them over the winter,” Jarret says. “He remains a great driver.”
MJ Motorsports comes off “an up and down year,” a strong second at Thompson’s World Series the highlight. With four top threes, Jarrett and Fornoro wound up eighth in their respective standings.
Mike Scrivani Jr., NEMA’s president, is a “consultant,” but Jarret and his fellow senior citizens “maintain the car and transport the car.” The shop is at Jarret’s home.
Jarret went from a sponsor to an owner inside of a year. He sponsored a car that Fornoro drove in 2004. When Fornoro lost that ride the next season, Jarret began putting together a car with the help of Peter Valeri, a summer neighbor on Cape Cod. The car won the World Series and the next year wound up second in points, 16 behind Valeri.
The relationship with NEMA and Fornoro goes back some 30 years. Jarret was the business manager of the legendary Mike’s Truck Stop in the late 1970s and early 80s. Mike Scrivani Sr. campaigned some of the strongest cars in Midget history out of that place, Mike Jr. doing much of the wrenching. “I used to run the business so Mike Sr. and Mike Jr. could take care of the Midgets,” Jarrett recalls.
The Scrivani/Fornoro team won 10 of 21 races in 1981, still one of the most dominating seasons in NEMA history.
Jarret went off to do other things – primarily a junk yard and then, after declaring himself “semi retired,” forming Helping Hands with a partner in 2002. A few years later company headquarters wound up next door to where Mike’s Truck Stop once stood in Wrentham, MA.
It is not, he says, difficult to “rekindle memories” and while he admits to enjoying doing that, he’s still very much into the present.
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR