Swallow Shifts His Way Into Victory Lane at NHMS
7/8/12 – Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour
Stark, NH native Shawn Swallow became the thirteenth different winner in North East Mini Stock Tour competition, and the third winner of the 2012 season. This was the series second visit to the largest sporting facility in New England, New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Last time the high revving four-cylinders were at The Magic Mile they ran the famed 12 turn road course. This time was a completely different course constructed by NHMS and INEX officials originally intended for NELCAR legends racing.
The sharp turned ¼ mile track is very technical with half of the track being on the banking of the NASCAR turn 1&2 and the other half running around the flat apron of the road course. Cars and crews struggled all day trying to get the large passenger based race cars to negotiate their laps around the track. Through the first rounds of practice NEMST cars were turning laps in the 17.03 second range exciting NHMS officials and personnel.
As the teams approached their final practice round more preparations were made to the suspensions and the lap times dropped into the 16.9 range. Due to the setting sun and the lack of lights at the Loudon, NH track the heat races had to be dropped and the lineup was set off of fastest practice times. The top five cars were only separated by 0.103 seconds with Emerson Cayer from neardy Contoocook taking the pole, beating out Danny Field by a mere 0.004 seconds in lap time.
At 7:30 PM 17 NEMST race cars took the green flag for a 50 lap feature. Action was everywhere on the tight course with a lot of bumping and side by side action. The race was slowed due to spinning cars on only 3 times. Rookie Shawn Swallow started fifth on the grid and made eventful leaps to the front to begin pacing the field early on in the race. The outside line was hard to gain traction as the banking upset all of the cars on transitions.
In the final laps NEMST Inaugural champion Emerson Cayer got spun and was relegated to the rear of the field and race his way back to the front. Emerson made an impressive charge getting all the way back up to fourth place before getting turned again in the track transition along with Roger Ducharme. Cayer’s machine was unable to finish the event and returned to the pit area as the cars received the 2 to go signal from NHMS starter Peter Marshall. Danny Field pulled every move he could in the final lap but it wasn’t enough to shake the young rookie from the top spot. The father and son duo of Loren Smith Jr & Sr came home 3rd and 5th sandwiching Hooksett, NH driver Nick Maniatis in 4th place.
The NEMST will return to competition at Lee USA Speedway on Friday July 27 for a 50 lap main event. For more information on the Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour please visit www.northeastministocktour.com or find us on facebook!
NHMS Bonus Awards
NEMST Pole Award- Emerson Cayer
Sunoco Race Fuels Winner Circle Challenge- Shawn Swallow
Sunoco Race Fuels Hard Charger- Loren Smith Jr
Texas Roadhouse Gas Card- Cory Dentino
Racecar Engineering Gift Certificates- Shawn Swallow, Loren Smith, Desmond Skillings, Matt Sonnhalter
Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Points
1 5 04 Shawn Swallow Stark , Nh 80.00
2 2 18 Danny Field Deep River, Ct 75.00
3 16 42 Loren Smith Jr Bow , Nh 72.00
4 11 74 Nick Maniatis Hooksett , Nh 69.00
5 14 41 Loren Smith Allenstown , Nh 66.00
6 12 34 Roger Ducharme Foster, Ri 63.00
7 8 61 Cory Dentino Lancaster, Ma 60.00
8 10 5 Jeff Prindall Lisbon Falls, Me 57.00
9 4 60 John Kelly New London, Ct 54.00
10 15 90 Desmond Skillings Antrim, Nh 51.00
11 1 88NH Emerson Cayer Contoocook, Nh 48.00
12 9 22 Alicia Thatcher Pascoag, Ri 45.00
13 13 25 Nic Skillings Warner, Nh 42.00
14 3 28 Mike Parker Bradford, Vt 39.00
15 17 33 Matt Sonnhalter E. Thetford, Vt 36.00
16 6 38 Cristofer King Derry, Nh 33.00
17 7 69 Louis Maher North Brookfield, Ma 30.00
Sources: Bob Guptill/NEMST PR