NHMS 25: Doug Heveron’s Early Success
Saturday’s Andy Blacksmith 100 pres. by Donate Life New England at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is the 62nd NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at the 1.058-mile oval. With 25 years of history, names like Ted Christopher, Tony Hirschman, Jr. and Mike Stefanik may jump out as candidates for the best average finish. The answer is Doug Heveron, who drove in the first eight races with a 6.5 average finish. Heveron won in the famed Ole Blue No. 3 in 1991 in his third start, and also had five top fives and five top 10s.
“I’m good on flat tracks,” Heveron said. “I was raised on flat tracks and I really seemed to shine on ’em and I think I had maybe a little more advantage with the drafting part of it than other people ’cause I’d been down south racing in the Winston Cup. So maybe that helped me a little bit more and then when everybody figured out the draft it was evened it up some … I had a good cars obviously and when you like a racetrack you just seem to run good there all the time and that happened to be one of the tracks that I really enjoyed racing at.”
A NEAR Hall of Famer, Boehler fielded cars since the 1950s, winning three consecutive NASCAR National Modified championships with Bugs Stevens. Boehler continued to be successful with Fred DeSarro, Leo Cleary, Ron Bouchard, Mike McLaughlin, and Kenny Bouchard among his drivers.
“The Boehlers they’ve been around so long and heck I couldn’t have been a better person to win with than that group of people. They were like family to me, still are, but when you’ve got a good car it makes a lot of difference, makes my job a lot easier.”
Except for the 3/4 mile track at Pocono, New Hampshire represented a new group of tracks for the circuit. Richmond hosted its first race in 1990 and Nazareth joined the next season. All three tracks used restrictor plates on the cars.
“Actually it was a little bit intimidating, but yet very exciting. You didn’t know what to expect and now you’re going at speeds that you’re not used to going in a Modified and things happening that you’re not used to. …. I tell you that, and Richmond ,and Nazareth were like awesome races to race the Modifieds at. The best racing that I ever did in the Modifieds were there.”
Double digit official lead changes were common in the early races at the Magic Mile.
“I think the racing was a lot better back then. It just made for better having all of that dirty air and just sucking you up and flying you on by and then hit a wall. And then hit the air wall when you get out front and it happens to you so there’s a lot of timing back then. I think I won one race with fuller on the last lap.”
“I remember one year the roof had bowed up and we still finished fifth or fourth and that showed you how much aerodynamics was not in play as much as it is today. But not knowing what to expect it, I don’t know it was just weird cause you could pass 20 times on one lap it seemed like. I don’t know what you can do today, but back then you could.”
Speed was nothing new to Heveron. A veteran of 31 NASCAR Winston Cup Series starts from 1984-86, Heveron had drafting experience at Daytona and Talladega. This would be beneficial as the Modifieds used a restrictor plate in their debut. A July test by former champion ‘Magic Shoes’ Mike McLaughlin confirmed that this would be the setup for the open-wheeled ground pounders.
Prior to joining BRE for 1989, Heveron was an outstanding Supermodified driver. His father Tom was one of the pioneers in the International Supermodified Association. Heveron was the champion four years running from 1979-1982. He won 14 races at Cayuga, Flamboro, Lancaster, Shangri-La, Spencer and Thompson. Additional honors came in the Sandusky Hy-Miler (1981) and the Star Classic (1982-83)
Heveron won 33 times at the famed Oswego (NY) Speedway. Heveron won the International Classic and the track championship in 1981. He repeated his title run in 1982.
“Those were some fun days I tell you that.”
Heveron owns his own business, Doug Heveron Lawn Service, in Jensen Beach, FL. He also competes on iRacing regularly.
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com