NEMA Kicks of Season at Bowl’s Blast Off
Brockton, MA — Coming off one of the most competitive seasons in its 60-year history, the Northeastern Midget Association opens its 2013 campaign April 6-7 at Waterford Speedbowl’s Budweiser Blastoff Weekend. Both NEMA and the NEMA Lites are part of the busy agenda.
Defending champion Randy Cabral (Bertrand #47), one of 11 winners a year ago, heads up the entry list. John Zych Jr. (Zych #9), Russ Stoehr (Dumo’s Desire #45), Jim Miller (Miller #3m), Todd Bertrand (Bertrand #39), Seth Carlson (Feigel #71) and Anthony Marvuglio (Bourbeau #38), all 2012 winners as well, will also be back.
The 25-lap feature, slated for Sunday, kicks of a 15-race NEMA schedule. The Lites, scheduled to go 25 laps on Saturday night, will race 17 times this summer. Both divisions will qualify on Saturday.
Zych, the defending Blastoff champ, Bertrand, Marvuglio and Russ Stoehr were all winners at Waterford last year. Stoehr’s win earned him a tie with Cabral atop Waterford’s all-time NEMA win list, each with eight.
Openers at Waterford, however, tend to produce first-ever winners and there’s evidence that might continue as well. Youngsters Bethany Stoehr and Ian Cumens are first time candidates, Stoehr driving the same family-owned Beast she turned a 12.986 lap with last season. Cumens, the 2012 Hoosier Tires Lites champ, will be driving for the Seymour operation. Paul Scally (Scally 30), Lee Bundy (Miller #2), now part of the Jim Miller team, and James Santa Maria (Santa Maria #99) are other first-time possibilities.
Defending National NASCAR Modified champion Doug Coby, no stranger to the “Bowl, will be in a third Bertrand car. Coby was impressive in last year’s finale at Lee USA before being collected in a crash.
Blast Off marks the start of the sixth season for the Lites, a division that ran for the first time at the Speedbowl in 2008. Avery Stoehr, a two-time winner in 2012 including once at Waterford, and Dylan Duhaime, who wound up second in the Hoosier Challenge points, head up the Lites class. Cabral also expects to run a full Lites campaign in the family car. Other Lites contenders are Logan Rayvals, Brandon Martinez, David Moriz, Brandon Igo and Carl Medeiros Jr.
NEMA and the Lites will visit 10 tracks in 2013. The club returns to Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY (first time since 1971), Monadnock Speedway and Riverside Speedway in Groveton, NH. It will also visit Seekonk (including the Boston Louie on June 2), Star, Stafford, Lee USA, Oswego and Thompson Speedways.
Sources: NEMA PR