NELCAR Announces Organizational Changes and 2014 Schedule
Durham, ME – The Amsoil Nelcar Legends Tour is gearing up for their 21st season in 2014. After a successful 2013 season, the Tour is eager to get things started in 2014. Many changes are taking place for the Tour including a new president, more racetracks and rule changes to help continue the growth of the largest Legends Car tour in the United States.
The first change came during the annual banquet, where the Nelcar board of director’s election was held. Terry Kirk, who has been at the helm for close a decade, decided to step down as Nelcar President, and handing the keys over to Brett Alexander. Alexander has been involved with motorsports since he was born, as his father, Bob Alexander, is a Maine racing legend. After racing several seasons himself, Brett now owns the car for his son, third year Legends Car driver Wyatt Alexander. Kirk will continue to serve as the official parts dealer of the Nelcar Tour with New England Legends Sales & Service.
“I’m very excited to take over as Nelcar president,” Alexander said, “I have many new ideas to continue to grow this Tour and we have a great group of directors, drivers and teams that will help make this transition easier.”
Along with Alexander, Tom Winter was elected as the series new Vice President. Winter owns the Legends Car for his son Dan Winter who is going into his fourth season of Legends Cars. Matt Chagnot, or “Shaggy” as he referred to in the pit area, another fourth season Legends Car driver, was elected as the Tour secretary. Tim Grant, who owns his third year driver’s Matt Grant car, was elected as the Tour treasurer. Todd Beaulieu, Ed Getty and Virgil Bourgoine will remain on the board of directors as well. This gives the Tour a fresh outlook with many new faces that have great ideas going forward to preserve the great reputation the Tour has.
This past weekend during the Northeast Motorsports Expo, the Nelcar Tour announced its schedule for 2014. Many of the tracks that the Tour is familiar with, including Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Oxford Plains Speedway, Wiscasset Speedway, Star Speedway and Speedway 95, will remain on the schedule. New to the schedule this season is the addition of Lee Speedway, a track that has been off the schedule for the past three seasons. Spud Speedway is also on the schedule with a date on August 16th, which will be an American/Canadian showdown event. After a year hiatus from the schedule, New Hampshire Motor Speedway is also back on the schedule with four events on their quarter mile oval. The Nelcar Tour and Granite State Legends will be working with each other in 2014 to ensure that Legends Car drivers are offered the best quality and variety of racing available in New England.
The season will start off with a bang as they are companion events with both the PASS North season opener at Oxford Plains on April 12th, and the American Canadian Tour season opener at Lee Speedway on April 13th. The season will end on September 20th at Wiscasset Speedway, Maine’s fastest oval. Also returning is the always popular “Thursday Thunder Series” that is run during the summer months at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway. The ten race series will be run as a separate series from the 21 race Nelcar Legends Tour schedule. This gives local drivers 31 races to choose from under the Nelcar banner. Include that with the series at NHMS, Seekonk Speedway and Waterford Speedbowl, Legends Car drivers have the largest variety of races to run of all cars in New England.
The final announcement is that US Legends Cars engine officials will be heading north on a date to be determined to check and reseal all 1250 engines that have the old style seals that will be transitioned out this season. This will give the northern teams the chance to have their motors checked without taking them out of their cars and sending them down south to be checked. Please keep updated on Nelcar.net for an official date that you can get your engine checked. If you have any questions of whether you will need to reseal your engine, please contact one of the Tour directors.
The directors are still in discussion about a few rule changes for the 2014 season, including a change to the lineup structure that determines where the drivers start for heats and feature events. The Arrive and Drive is also back in 2014, and will take place May 18th at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway. The popular event gives the regular fan a chance to try a real Legends Car and feel the rush of driving a racecar. We are all excited about the new direction that the Nelcar Tour is taking and we look forward to seeing you in 2014! For more information, news and how you can get into a Legends Car, visit Nelcar.net.
2014 Nelcar Tour Schedule
#-Date-Day of week-Track
1-April 12, 2014-Saturday-Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, ME PASS North Opener
2-April 13, 2014-Sunday-Lee USA Speedway, Lee, NH
3-April 19, 2014-Saturday-Wiscasset Speedway, Wiscasset, ME
4-May 3, 2014-Saturday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME PASS North Weekend
5-May 10, 2014-Saturday-Speedway 95, Hermon, ME
6-May 16, 2014-Friday Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, ME
May 17, 2014-Saturday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Open Practice
May 18, 2014-Sunday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Arrive and Drive – Rain Date 6/1/14
7-May 25, 2014-Sunday-Wiscasset Speedway, Wiscasset, ME
8-May 31, 2014-Sunday-Star Speedway, Epping, NH
9-June 14, 2014-Saturday-Speedway 95, Hermon, ME
10-June 21, 2014-Saturday-New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, NH
11-June 27, 2014-Friday-Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, ME
12-July 12, 2014-Saturday-Wiscasset Speedway, Wiscasset, ME
13-July 20, 2014-Sunday-Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, ME Oxford 250/National Qualifier
14-July 26, 2014-Saturday-New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, NH
15-August 2, 2014-Saturday-New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, NH
16-August 9, 2014-Saturday-Star Speedway, Epping, NH
17-August 16, 2014-Saturday-Spud Speedway, Caribou, ME
18-August 30, 2014-Saturday-New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, NH
19-September 6, 2014-Saturday-Wiscasset Speedway, Wiscasset, ME
20-September 13, 2014-Sunday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME PASS North Weekend
21-September 20, 2014-Saturday-Wiscasset Speedway, Wiscasset, ME
Beech Ridge Thursday Thunder
1-June 12, 2014-Thursday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Thursday Thunder
2-June 19, 2014-Thursday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Thursday Thunder
3-June 26, 2014-Thursday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Thursday Thunder
4-July 3, 2014-Thursday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Thursday Thunder
5-July 10, 2014-Thursday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Thursday Thunder
6-July 17, 2014-Thursday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Thursday Thunder
7-July 24, 2014-Thursday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Thursday Thunder
8-July 31, 2014-Thursday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Thursday Thunder
9-August 7, 2014-Thursday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Thursday Thunder
10-August 14, 2014-Thursday-Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, ME Thursday Thunder
About NELCAR
NELCAR, Inc. started in 1994 as New England Legends led by the sole dealer for the southern cars in the north, Gary Dunphy. The beginnings of the group were small with Gary selling a handful of cars to a few fo rmer racers in the state of Maine.
In 2010, a new page was turned in Nelcar. Not only did Terry Kirk take over the newly renamed New England Legends Sales & Service from John Gibbs, but it was also the first time the Tour ran at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, on the newly configured quarter mile track in turns one and two on the morning of the September Sprint Cup Series race. Anthony Flannery went down in the record books as the first winner of the prestigous event.
NELCAR, Inc has brought together men, women, new, and former racers from all forms of the sport including motorcycles and stock cars. The atmosphere at the races is still open and welcoming where the drivers may compete ferociously on the track but will still join each other for “Pit Parties” and dinner. If you are interested in joining this staple of New England racing and being a part of its diversity please Contact NELCAR.
Sources: Evan Beaulieu/NELCAR PR