Tater’s NASCAR Bonus Cash—Pete Zakarite

Stan Mertz Bonus Cash—John Kelly

Sunoco Race Fuels Hard Charger—Shawn Swallow

Sunoco Race Fuels Winners Challenge—Mike Mason

Texas Roadhouse Gas Card—Danny Field

Racecar Engineering Contingency Bonuses

-          Mike Mason

-          Mark Panaroni

-          Cory Dentino

-          Desmond Skillings

Mike Mason of Skowhegan, ME made history Saturday May 12, 2012 by being the first driver to ever win on the road course at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in a stock car. Much earlier in the day over 30 teams from six New England states hauled their trailers from near and far to be a part of the first Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour event of the 2012 season.

At 11:00 AM all of the drivers were gathered around the NEMST tech area and given an instructional drivers meeting by NHMS Director of Operations Tom Blanchette and NEMST Promoter Bob Guptill. The drivers were given the tips and hints of road course success as well as instruction on the different types of flags and caution areas the excitement continued to build for the practice session rapidly approaching. At noon the drivers were instructed to strap into their vehicles and prepare for a 45 minute long practice session to build experience as well as set the starting order for the feature later on in the day.

As the time on the practice session wore down multiple cars ran many laps trying to find the best route to navigate the unfamiliar course at the fastest speedway. At the end of 45 minutes it was the rookie competitor, and eventual winner, Mike Mason with the fast time set at 1:24.122 around the 1.6 mile course. Mason beat out 2009 NEMST champion Emerson Cayer buy only .140 seconds to secure the first starting position in the event. Many competitors experienced wear and tear on their machines and required extensive drivetrain repair to be ready for the feature scheduled for 6:00 PM that evening.

Later on in the afternoon all of the cars went through pre-race inspection and were lined up according to their speeds earlier in the practice session.  Preparations for the event and final adjustments to the cars were still being made as NEMST Promoter Bob Guptill spoke to the drivers and crews before the start of the feature. The Tater’s NASCAR Merchandise award was won by Pete Zakarite and was in the amount of $50. Pro-4 Champion Stan Mertz also made a cash prize available and John Kelly received $100 from him. At 6:00 PM the feature began to roll onto the race track for the final event of the evening.

As the green flag waved the action was quick as the pole sitter Mason jumped out to a lead down the long front stretch. The horsepower of Mason’s Acura was strong but the Mustang of Emerson Cayer dogged the leader through the corners waiting to capitalize on any mistakes. Once the laps began to tick off the field spread out and a few competitors were forced to the garage area with mechanical issues. On lap 4 the second place vehicle of Cayer lost his transmission down the front stretch and brought out the first full caution of the event. When the field resumed Minot Maine’s Scott Farrington showed some strong power and began to tail mason through the windy turns of the road course.

With laps winding down a few cautions came out and closed the NEMST field up and made for exciting and challenging restarts, with young competitors Shawn Swallow and Cris King showing a very strong presence in the top 5. When the checkered flag fell it was cars from Maine controlling the top 2 positions of Mike Mason and Scott Farrington, with John Kelly, Shawn Swallow, and Mark Panaroni rounding out the top 5. Danny Field won the $25 Texas Roadhouse Gas Card for his 17^th position finish.

The NEMST is back in action on June 2^nd at the Waterford Speedbowl as part of their annual Four-Cylinder Fury night. For additional information please visit www.northeastministocktour.com and www.speedbowl.com

For full results CLICK HERE

YOU MUST SIGN IN TO THE NEMST WINDOW SO THAT WE CAN RECEIVE CREDIT FOR YOU BEING THERE

All drivers must register before going on the track to avoid insurance issues

Thanks

Thanks

Bob Guptill

At 7:30 a.m. on a cool windy morning in Loudon, NH the infield gates of the largest sports facility in New England rolled open and allowed competitors from the NEMST to enter for their first look at the stage for the most talked about race of the season.

NEMST officials had the technical inspection area setup and engines began to fire to warm up the cars for a challenge none of the teams had ever faced. The morning started off cool but the sun quickly burned through the clouds and made for a beautiful April day. 

At about 9:30 in the morning the cars of Danny Field, Nik Skillings, Desmond Skillings, and Mike Parker took their machines out onto turn 1 and 2 of the NASCAR oval for some laps around the quarter-mile mini oval that has only ever seen INEX Legends competition. The cars took the oval fairly well despite their setups being drastically altered for road course preparation later on in the day. A total of 3 practice sessions took place on the mini oval with Ricky Labrecque of Antrim, NH laying down the fast lap time in the 17.3 second range.

After an hour lunch break the track was reopened with the 1.6 mile road course fully setup and ready for laps to be made. Joining the previous cars were Justin King, Cris King, Loren Smith, Billy Osborne, and John Kelly. Cars ran 3 slow laps to learn the corners and layout of the configuration.

The cars quickly opened up the throttles and started pacing the track at times in the 1:30 range consistently. During the first session several cars were running with each other making this preview for the race draw attention of all onlookers at alarming speeds.

With speeds of well over 100MPH at the end of the long NASCAR front straightaway and high g-forces throught the twisting right and left corners of the chicanes coupled with many elevation changes around the entire course a few of the vehicles experienced transmission issues. While other cars noticed clutch and flywheel issues due the increased wear and abuse the mechanical systems see during road racing events.

By the end of the day many of the drivers were getting the hang of tossing the cars around the corners and using all of the pavement available to drop lap times into the low 1:25 second range and increasing speeds in all sections of the track. The review of the track and day by all drivers was the same, “EXCELLENT” said all of the teams that participated. With the race date for this legendary event less then 1 month away teams from all over New England are preparing their cars more then ever for the first race of the 2012 NEMST season. For any additional NEMST Info please visit http://www.northeastministocktour.com and like us on facebook to see all of the images of the event.