Corey Fanning Prepares for Seekonk, Thompson Effort
Fanning Moving to Late Models at Thompson
Corey Fanning of Mapleville, RI will continue in Street Stocks full time at Seekonk (MA) Speedway this season. The team acquired a Late Model last year and finished it over the winter to run at Thompson (CT) Speedway Motorsports Park. The paint scheme will feature the same colors with a new ‘flashier’ look for the No. 11.
“We’ll take it in baby steps and when we finally catch a break we’ll take it and run,” Fanning said. “But it’s going to be a big learning curve for everybody me as a driver, my whole crew.””Seat time is key. You’re not gonna learn anything standing there looking at the car. It’s gonna take 90 percent of the time making the wrong adjustment to learn what the right adjustment is. … I think traveling to other tracks with my Street Stock helped big time with that. There’s just more things to touch on a Late Model. There’s a lot more that can be changed and go wrong or go right. … It will definitely be different, but we’re looking forward to it.”
“Seat time is key. You’re not gonna learn anything standing there looking at the car. It’s gonna take 90 percent of the time making the wrong adjustment to learn what the right adjustment is. … I think traveling to other tracks with my Street Stock helped big time with that. There’s just more things to touch on a Late Model. There’s a lot more that can be changed and go wrong or go right. … It will definitely be different, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Fanning expects to make his American-Canadian Tour (ACT) Late Model debut. He is looking at a partial season at New Hampshire, Seekonk, and Thompson. “We’re gonna try to run pretty much whatever ACT races we can that’s local. He called New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s annual September event “something we’ve been wanting to do for awhile.”
“It’s cool to go to other places and meet new people and a bunch of different things. You meet the people that are working the tracks. You meet the competitors that race at that track weekly and it’s different to see what the racing world is outside of your two home tracks Thompson Seekonk. You get to see what goes on every week at the other tracks. “
This season sees a number of changes at Seekonk. Cory Boudreau is the new Race Director and several major events are on the schedule. The American-Canadian Tour (2007) and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (2005) return after a hiatus and the inaugural US Pro Stock/SLM Championship.
“I think they made some good changes. Everything they’re trying to do they’re gonna improve with. … They don’t want to go backwards, so I think some of their ideas are gonna work very good and hopefully everything works out for them. I’m excited to be there and be a part of it.”
Fanning is supported by Organic Grow Hut, Jenkins Home Improvement, Camaro Parts Unlimited, and Dutch’s Auto Body.
“Dutch’s Auto Body’s a big one. He’s stepped up in many ways…. If you tell him you need something, everybody steps forward and gives you the hand, couldn’t ask for better sponsors. … They’re still on board for this year and they’re happy with what we did last year.”
Fanning will be at as many North East Street Stock Tour races as he can. He will not be driving as his father Scott is the series co-founder and Director of Technical Inspection.
“They will see my face. I will be talking to all the competitors. I know pretty much all the competitors. That’s also a great thing you get to go to other tracks. I get to see the other side of the fence, get to see what it’s like to be the official making the call and not the one mad that the call was made.”
The second year OTB Promotions tour has eight events at Claremont (NH) Speedway, Lee USA (NH) Speedway, Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH, New London-Waterford (CT) Speedbowl, Oxford Plains (ME) Speedway, and Thompson.
“They took baby steps the first year and saw how much interest was there and it’s quite a bit of interest. … I think a few people are gonna join that weren’t last year. Pretty much everybody that ran last year is coming back. So they get a few more cars every race and it’s going to make for good racing.”
Fanning ended his season with a victory at Star Speedway’s annual Halloween Howler race in Epping, NH.
“The win at Star was huge. We’ve been going back to that track for five years that one race only. … We don’t get to run there a lot, so it feels really good to be able to go up there and breakthrough ’cause those guys are fast. They are on their game. They know exactly what they’re doing and what they need to bring every day. … Things just didn’t go our way at first … We didn’t even care if we got a top five and like we said we broke through from the back of the pack. We just set a goal to come out in one piece and we came out on top and it felt good for everybody. … It felt really good to do that at a different track.”
Fanning had 1 win, 10 top fives, 14 top fives, and 17 top 10s in 21 starts. He finished fourth in Seekonk Street Stock points. He is looking to continue his strong finish to last season. His first win on August 15 was the start of six consecutive top tens at Seekonk.
“Hopefully set our goals the way they were last year and pick ’em off like we did last year and hopefully, we can pick up where we left off.”
“Be confident in what you’re showing up with and we do all our homework at home obviously and we hope for the best and we just take what we can get and you don’t go into the race thinking you’re going to win every week. You go in shooting for a top five and when you come out with a win you feel great. Hopefully we can click off more wins than we did last year. It was a good season last year hoping maybe a little bit better if not the same other than just want to keep moving forward.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com