‘Alexander the Great’ Returns
The Valenti Modified Racing Series announced last weekend that Kirk Alexander will return full-time. The winningest driver (31) in series history and three-time champion dominated the formative years of the Canaan, NH series.
Alexander raced regularly with the series from the inaugural season (2004) until 2008. The three seasons he raced full-time (2004-05, 2007) resulted in championships. Alexander considers missing the Waterford race pivotal to losing the 2008 crown. He launched his title defense with three wins.
“If I probably would have attended Waterford, I probably would have had another championship,” Alexander said. “So we’re going to go back and see how it goes. If things are going well, we’re going to keep going, so I imagine they will be. I missed racing with everybody, miss the comradery with everybody and I get along with a lot of the officials.”
“It’s something that we wanted to do. “We talked about it awhile back. I kind of made my mind up back in October or so, but we’ve been getting the car all done. (The) motor’s been down at Bruneau’s and got a new clip on the car that (car owner John ) Corliss owns and it will look all brand new when it’s done.”
The No. 43 SPAFCO currently has the backing of Trader John’s Gun Shop, but Alexander said he is working on additional funding. He expects to have an answer next month. The car will look just like Alexander’s familiar No. 43 car (another SPAFCO).
Alexander has updated the car for the new season. Once Alexander began working on the car, he found that the car was bent.
“It doesn’t help when you got things that are bent. It kind of sucks ’cause you’re just wasting your time. Got to make sure if it gets hit, you’ve got to take it down and get it checked. … It got hit somewhere along the line and actually pushed the nose over to the right side, so it looks like they spun out and clipped somebody, and then if somebody blew the bumper off of it, and they just bolt the bumper on. They didn’t have any idea that things got bent…. (We) just had issue after issue with this car this summer.”
“Everything is updated in it. It was kind of a wreck when I got it. It was in pretty rough shape just needed a lot of maintenance and things were going breaking and everything. But we’ll get it all fixed. We tore it all apart down to nothing, so now it’s getting put back together now.”
Alexander still owns his own car, but has not run it recently. He expects to have his car on the track later this year.
“We’ll be in that one time. I got a feeling I’ll be running mine somewhere. I’m going to get that one out this year. I don’t know, maybe I can even find somebody else in it. I don’t know.”
Alexander has already received feedback on his decision.
“I know there’s a lot of people that are looking forward to me coming back …. It will be good for the fans.” Alexander encountered a fan last month that watched him race Modifieds. Once he heard the news, he made plans to attend the season opener.
Alexander plans on entering the Tri-Track Open Modified Series races for points. The sophomore series will consist of three Open-Competition Modified races at Lee (NH) USA Speedway, Seekonk (MA) Speedway and Monadnock (NH) Speedway.
“I look forward to it. it will be a challenge. there’s some good drivers there.”
Alexander made three starts with the Valenti Modifieds last season in the No. 88 car subbing for Jim Boniface.
“I kind of just want to come back to do it. I’ve got a really good team put together. … They asked me to drive it and I kind of just got pulled into it and then I really miss being away from it. I’ve still got all of my own equipment and everything. I’ve got my own car, but this opportunity with John came along and John owns that car and pays the bills for it, so that makes a big difference.”
Alexander expects to be “pretty competitive” against the current field of drivers.
“There will be some guys that will run better on different places obviously, but some of these newer guys that come in, they go pretty good. There will a lot of young guys, but hopefully there’s some of the guys that we used to race with quite a bit will still be there.”
Alexander won five times in 2008, his last regular season with the VMRS. When Monadnock added the Modifieds in 2009, Alexander competed for three years.
“Hopefully we’ll go good, everything will pick right back up. … I kind of want to come back and get the car done and come back and go racing, because maybe prove to myself that it wasn’t me. so we’ll find out.”
The West Swanzey, NH resident also has a pair of championships at Monadnock Speedway. If Waterford (CT) Speedbowl is unable to host the season opener, Monadnock will host it for the first time since 2006. He has 16 wins with the series there, including that 2006 race.
“Be smooth and keep your tires on your car, I guess,” Alexander responded to the key to the tricky quarter mile. “Just got to learn how to drive turn three. that’s kind of what I was raised. That’s where I started racing cars, so it kind of came easy for me, driven just about everything there is out there on that race track. (Mini Stocks, Late Models, Pro Stocks, and Modifieds)
“I’ve even won there with a bus before. Had the first bus race down there and I think it was in 1995, I think. I made a pass three wide on the outside with a bus, so it was fun, a good day. Well I guess if you can fit three buses, you can fit three race cars around there.”
Alexander began racing Modifieds at Claremont (NH) Speedway in late 1996 or 1997. Monadnock also had five Modified shows the next season, and he raced “a couple” of those events.
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com