NEMA Veteran Scally Readies for 2013 Waterford Blastoff
Brockton, MA — One of NEMA’s long time mainstays, Paul Scally, has spent the winter preparing for the 2013 season. A mix of mechanical improvements and concentrated efforts around the “finer details” made up Scally’s busy off- season.
An open wheel competitor since the early 1990’s, Scally made his mark running early on with the Granite State Mini Sprint club, and later came to NEMA. Like many NEMA teams, Scally’s is no different in that most of his racing career has been spent with family, mainly his father. “Me and my dad have been racing together since 1990. We have had some success, and a lot of fun. My Dad and I have different skill sets mechanically,” states Scally. “What I lack he excels at and vice versa. So it makes working on the car very practical. I could not even maintain a car with out him.”
Scally has also had new additions to the crew over the past few years, one of the most important being his girlfriend, Rachel LeClerc. “Rachel is like a breath of fresh air for us. She is from a racing family and doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty,” said Scally. “For example, she doesn’t let the car go on the race track without checking the wheels to ensure they are tight.” A mistake far too many NEMA teams know, from experience, can be very costly and dangerous.
Scally also counts two key sponsors as part of his success and effort to attend every NEMA show. “Charter environmental has been a 4 year sponsor, the owner Bob Delhome is a huge NEMA fan. He went through the driving school 2 years ago and has been hooked ever since,” said Scally. “Security and Alarm technologies has been on for 3 years, Brian and his son Riley love going to the shows. I couldn’t do it without these guys.”
When asked about 2013 – Scally focused on one word “reliability.” “We consistently start every race, but mechanical failures don’t allows us to have a consistent finish. We feel if we finished consistently we could improve our overall series performance. To go out and win some races would be the ultimate goal,” said Scally. An improved braking system is one thing the team invested in, during the winter months.
Citing Seekonk, Waterford and Star as his favorite tracks, “Usually the smaller, tighter tracks is where the 30 car is most competitive,” said Scally. “We’ve got some new tracks on the schedule as well – Mike has worked really hard and has got NEMA into new places and that’s exciting.”
When asked when he misses most during the off-season, he misses “the people.” “I really miss the people. In the off-season racing takes a different tone, and after a while you just start to miss your friends. Some times we take the off-season too serious, and its just time to have fun with good people,” he said. I’m sure most would agree…
NEMA kicks off its busy season in just four weeks at Waterford Speedbowl’s 2013 Blast Off.
Sources: NEMA PR