Optimism Continues High for NEMA’s Paul Scally
Northeastern Midget Association mainstay Paul Scally had some near misses in 2011. He was running second at Waterford Speedbowl when a radiator hose let go eight laps from the finish. Again at Waterford, the man called “Dangerous” was leading when, on lap 19, he “got messed up in lapped traffic” and wound up fourth. At Seekonk Speedway’s DAV, he was third when the drive shaft quit.
It’s more than enough to fire-up Scally’s optimism heading into NEMA’s 60th season. It all begins at Waterford Speedbowl’s Budweiser Blast Off on March 31-April 1. Both NEMA and the NEMA Lites will be on the Blast Off agenda.
It is, of course tough company with the likes of defending champion Randy Cabral, Greg and Russ Stoehr, Joey Payne Jr., Adam Cantor all with something to prove in 2012.
“I’ve won somewhere between 20 and 25 races on the dirt,” says the one-time Mini Sprint competitor. “I’ve won a championship (1992 at Sugar Hill Speedway) but I haven’t won a NEMA race yet. It’s not far away.”
Paul and his dad, also Paul, combine equal shares of optimism and dedication. “In the winter, we’re probably out in the garage four nights a week,” says Scally, a construction supervisor. In season, the two Drinan and single Hawk chassis, the latter a Lites division entry, demand attention every night.
A memorable crash last summer at Thunder Road Speedway is testimony to the Scally’s dedication. He and his dad had the car back for the next race. They have not missed a race in two years, a major accomplishment for a “low buck’ operation. Last year, they actually repaired a broken rocker arm in the pits at Seekonk.
“You’ve got to make sacrifices,” he declares. “You’ve got to dig deep sometimes to make things happen.”
Scally came to NEMA in 1993 (“a dream come true) and won top Rookie honors the next season. One event from ‘94, a 50 lapper at Seekonk, remains especially vivid. “I think about it all the time,” says Scally who led the first 30 laps before “coming up on lapped traffic. The guy in second got into me and spun me out. Something broke and I couldn’t get going again.” He remembers actually believing “I had it won. That’s something you should never do.”
Idled for a while by family pressures, the Scallys have been at it since 2005.
NEMA NUGGETS – Randy Cabral pinned the “Dangerous” tag on Scally. “I broke a rear axle, spun around in front of everybody and Randy hit me,” says Scally. “He came over to me and said ‘you’re dangerous out there’ and it stuck.”\
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR