Major Short Track Racing Event is Announced for New Hampshire Motor Speedway New England Short Track Showdown will Feature VMRS, GSPSS, NEMST and Street Stock Open
2017 will bring a major racing weekend to the New England region as the inaugural New England Short Track Showdown has been scheduled to take place on the one-mile oval track at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Friday, June 30th and Saturday, July 1st.
The event is designed to showcase four popular classes of grassroots racing that can be found at dozens of tracks throughout the Northeast on any given summer weekend. The race lineup will consist of 50-lap feature races for the Valenti Modified Racing Series and Granite State Pro Stock Series along with 30-lap events for the Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour and open competition Street Stocks.
Weekly racers from various tracks, and tours, are encouraged to enter the events with their Tour-type Modifieds, Super Late Models, Four Cylinder Mini Stocks or V-8 Street Stock/Strictly Stock race cars. The mini stock and street stock portions will feature a $1000 to win and $75 to start payout as well as lap leader bonus money available from sponsors. NEMST rules will dictate the mini stock division and a full open competition style rule book will be released before January 10 for the street stock portion of the event.
The event is the brainchild of Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour founder and promoter Bob Guptill – a former weekly series driver who hung up his own helmet several years ago in order to provide a healthy touring series for four cylinder race cars in New England.
“I am really excited to bring such a great event featuring all corners of our great short track community to a headline facility like NHMS,” said Guptill. “Short trackers are the backbone of racing in America and what better stage to showcase them than in the magic mile around Independence day.”
Friday June 30 will have practice time available for all divisions and leave plenty of time for adjustments and changes. Saturday July 1 will feature 1 30 minute practice session for each division followed by pre-race ceremonies at 12:30 and heat racing starting at 1 P.M. sharp. Following heat races the divisions will run consolation races if necessary and finish setting the field for all 4 legendary feature events.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway is the premier oval track racing facility in New England. It is the host of two NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series events each year along with the NASCAR XFinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour has raced at the NHMS twice before, with Maine’s Justin Larson winning in 2014 and New Hampshire’s Toby Wells winning in 2015. The VMRS and GSPSS tours will each be making their first trips to the track.
In the coming weeks and months, a number of announcements will be made about the race formats, marketing partners, lap sponsorship opportunities and more.
For more information on the inaugural New England Short Track Showdown or to inquire about rules or marketing opportunities, please contact Bob Guptill at neministocktour@yahoo.com or 207-577-2681. For all Modified Racing Series question please contact Jack Bateman; 603-523-1179. For Granite State Pro Stock questions please contact Mike Parks; 802-558-8954
Sources: Mike Twist and Bob Guptill/NEMST PR