Thompson Readies for New and Exciting Weekly Racing
Thompson, CT — With a successful season-opening Icebreaker, Thompson officials are very optimistic about the regular weekly racing calendar for this season. Mother Nature pulled out all the stops and provided exceptional weather for the two-day event. As a result, fans flocked to the famed oval for the track’s opening event and witnessed a truly great weekend of racing.
“We have an exciting schedule of events for 2010 with several new additions to previous year’s race schedules. A good start like we had at the Icebreaker makes us very optimistic about our Thursday night weekly events that begin on May 20th,” said track owner, Don Hoenig.
Thompson has added four Tour-Type Modified events to its line up this year. These will be open competition with qualifying heats and 40-lap feature races. Fans and competitors alike have expressed great enthusiasm for these races as they will, for many, bring back the type of racing that many grew up with prior to “Touring” formats and longer races begun back in the mid 1980s. These races will inspire a “dash for the cash” style of racing with every lap being important as the drivers scramble for position in such a short distance event. These “Shoot out” races are scheduled on the Thursday nights of June 3rd, July 1st, August 5th and September 2nd.
In addition, the Modified Racing Series (formerly the True Value Modifieds) will race at Thompson on June 17th and August 26th and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will return on August 12th and October 16th and 17th. Add to that the annual Memorial Day weekend Eve of Destruction and the year-ending All Automotive Flea Market and it becomes apparent that 2010 will be an action packed year of excitement. The entire race schedule is available on the track’s web page. www.thompsonspeedway.com.
The speedway will offer competitors two more opportunities to ready their race cars for the opening of the new season’s Thursday Night Thompson Thunder (TNTT) series. Like the series itself, these open practice sessions will be held on Thursdays in May. The dates will be May 6th and May 13th. These open practice sessions will be the final chance that race teams will have to get their cars race ready before the TNTT series begins.
Like earlier sessions, the May 6th and 13th dates will offer track time to any safe race car. Many competitors take full advantage of these dates to fine tune their equipment or to simply test new ideas prior to an actual race night. New drivers and newly formed teams find this time to be invaluable in developing or honing the skills of the race team and the driver. The on-track time will run from 11 AM until 6 PM on both days. The Thompson grandstands will not be open for these dates.
Sources: Russ Dowd/Thompson International Speedway PR