New England Auto Racer Hall of Fame member Vic Bombacci, co-owner of V8, passed away Feburary 2 at Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, CT. He was 78.
Bombacci and Bob Vitari, boyhood friends in Essex, CT, brought a race car to the Waterford Speedbowl in 1958. With driver Bill Slater, they won the Speedbowl championship in 1959 in the car soon known as the Connecticut Valley Rocket.
Oxford, ME — Kevin Harvick is stock car racing’s equivalent of a big-game quarterback.
Consider the 2007 season, when Harvick swept the season-opening Daytona 500 and Orbitz 300 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Three months later, with another million-dollar jackpot sitting on the table, Harvick scored his first-ever victory in the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe’s (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
Harvick also is part of a new NASCAR generation that pledges its allegiance to racing anything, anywhere, at any time. Pull all those clues together and it’s no surprise that Harvick has announced his entry into the 2008 TD Banknorth 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway.
Stock car racer Travis Adams of Canton, ME was a threat to win the American-Canadian Tour (ACT) New England Dodge Dealers 150 at Oxford Plains Speedway on Saturday evening, but the he went about it was a surprise. Adams battled with Colchester, VT driver Scott Dragon for the lead throughout the event, but was resigned to second place as the final laps approached. With nine circuits remaining, however, the lapped car of Doug Coombs spun directly in front the leaders, and Dragon’s Jeffords Steel & Engineering Chevrolet slammed into Coombs’ car. Both drivers were uninjured, but Dragon’s bid for the win was over. He was credited with the 29th finishing position.
Following the restart on lap 141, Adams picked up where Dragon left off, and lead the race uncontested on the way to his first career ACT Late Model Tour win. Adams led the race on three occasions, and finished on the ACT podium for the second time in 2007 – the Oxford Plains Speedway Track Champion was a third-place finisher in ACT’s Time Warner Cable 100 in August.
Stock car driver Jean-Paul Cyr of Milton, VT is on the verge of breaking two all-time American-Canadian Tour (ACT) Championship records on Saturday at Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway. Should Cyr finish 23rd or better in the season-ending New England Dodge Dealers 150 at the 3/8-mile oval track, he will clinch his fifth-straight ACT Late Model Tour title and seventh overall. Both marks would be new records across all ACT divisions dating back to 1979.
“Records are meant to be broken, and some day my records may be surpassed,” said the driver of the #32 Ehler’s RV/Sticks & Stuff Chevrolet, “but it means a lot to be here right now.”
It seems as though Patrick Laperle’s name has taken up a lot of space in this column of late. Truth is, the Frenchman has been on rails since overcoming a severe illness this spring, and just keeps making headlines. In 17 combined starts between the Série ACT Castrol and the ACT Late Model Tour this year, Laperle has taken four victories, four runner-up finishes, three additional top-fives, and has just a single result outside the top-ten: Just days removed from his hospital stay, Laperle took one lap at Autodrome Montmagny in the Série ACT Castrol opener, finishing 23rd.
Five-time American-Canadian Tour (ACT) stock car racing champion Brian Hoar of Williston, VT is hunting after the victory that has eluded him all season long, as he returns to Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway for the New England Dodge Dealers 150 on Saturday. Hoar rejoined the ACT Late Model Tour in 2007 after spending several seasons racing the NASCAR Busch East Series, and looked like a potential winner at
“Looking back, that was the most legitimate shot we’ve had to win a race all season,” Hoar recounted. “We could have won that race, but it’s been pretty up-and-down since. It would be fun to end the year strong at
Oxford, ME — For the fifth consecutive year, Oxford Plains Speedway has announced that the richest single-day late model stock car race in the region will coincide with an off weekend for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.
The 75-lap triumph was the ninth victory in 12 starts this season for Perley, who also won an event at Lee USA Speedway in
“Rocket” Roger Brown made national headlines last month by winning the 34th Annual TD Banknorth 250 open-competition stock car classic at Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway, and the Lancaster, NH ace is ready to pick up where he left off at the track in Saturday’s Time Warner Cable 100 for the American-Canadian Tour (ACT) championship series.
“I’ve got kind of a lot riding on this race,” explained Brown, 28. “We’re only two points out of fifth place on the Tour, we’re leading the Challenge points, and I want an ACT win before the year is over. I think we’ll have a good day if we can qualify for the main event, but we’ll have plenty of cars in the pits to get through first.”
Roger Brown dominated the second half of the TD Banknorth 250 Sunday night, but Dale Verrill’s incredible rally on the final lap forced the New Hampshire ACT driver to sweat out the win by less than a half car length in one of the closest finishes in the 34-year history of the summer classic.
Brown is the first Granite State competitor to win the 250 since Dave Dion in 1992. His victory ended Maine’s 11-race winning streak.
Oxford, ME — Almost 10 years to the day from when he qualified and competed in the famed Oxford 250 race, Kirk Alexander, W.Swanzey, NH; returned to the historic 3/8 mile speedway Saturday night July 21, and won the inaugural True Value Modified Racing Series “Maine-ly Action Sports 100” before a huge crowd on hand for the special weekend.
The win by Alexander was his third of the season and his 23rd career victory with the traveling series. The race was also a qualifying event for the upcoming Mod Mania 400 weekend at Thompson, CT; Sept 8, 9.
30 modified race teams hauled to Maine for the inaugural event with 26 cars qualifying through 12 lap heat races and a 15 lap last chance race. The prelims were garnered by Jimmy Dolan, Bethel, CT; Les Hinckley, Windsor Locks, CT; and Jarvis, with David Pinkham, Buxton, ME; returning to the series winning the last chance race.