NEMA Lites Series “More Than Ready” For Budweiser Blastoff At Speedbowl
Optimism Thrives As NEMA Lites Series Enters Third Season
Brockton, MA — “The NEMA Lites Series is “more than ready” for this weekend’s opener at the Waterford Speedbowl and we’re looking forward to a banner 2010 season.”
Those were the comments from Lites Series Race Director Steve Grant following a successful test session for the division held recently at the Seekonk Speedway in Massachusetts.
Entering its third-year, the Lites Series is part of the Waterford Speedbowl’s multi-division “Budweiser Blast-Off Weekend” set to go-green on the weekend of March 27 & 28. They’ll run qualifying and a 25-lap feature on Saturday.
The most-recent Lites winner at the Speedbowl was Anthony Nocella who scored last season’s “Nostalgia Weekend” 25-lap feature on July 25.
As expected, the Seekonk pre-season “test-session” yielded positive results.
“We held a recent test-session at Seekonk with a few of the divisions experienced drivers and it went really-well,” states Grant. “Even-though the track surface was “green” following the winter months, the guys turned some very impressive lap-times. The response to the division continues to be positive, with more people expressing interest every day. We’re expecting a healthy field at the Speedbowl opener, and we have every reason to expect rising car-counts as the season progresses. People continue to realize that this division is a “win-win” situation for teams looking to get involved in an affordable open-wheel division. Things are really taking-off,” he says.
With the exception of an affordable “spec” engine and a few other differences, the Lites Series cars are identical to the “full-midgets” of NEMA. The Helping Hands of America Foundation, Hoosier Racing Tires, and Bobby Seymour’s Racers Depot serve as the 2010 sponsors for the series.
With many of the Lites new driver’s recent graduates of the “First-Turn Driving School”, and some with years of prior experience in midgets, the class presents a well-balanced level of competition. There were a total of 7-different feature winners in 2009. Anthony Nocella headed-up the list with 4, followed by Jake Stergios, PJ Stergios, and Russ Wood Jr. each notching 2. William Wall, Anthony Marvuglio, and Paul Luggelle also scored.
Following the season-opener, the NEMA Lites Series heads to the high-banks of Winchester, New Hampshire’s Monadnock Speedway on May 29. It’s all part of a busy 2010 agenda that includes fourteen events for the division. For more information visit www.nemaracing.com.
Sources: Dave Dykes/NEMA PR