Renfrew claims Hudson home track honors in GSPSS Gate City Classic

When Pro Stocks come to Hudson International Speedway, one home-track racer comes to mind immediately.

But Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. wouldn’t let his stake in the homestead go ignored.

Renfrew made his first start since last year with the Granite State Pro Stock Series presented by Hudson International Speedway count, leading every lap en route to victory in Sunday evening’s annual Gate City Classic 100.

And even as Renfrew’s racing goals reach further and further from New England, he still holds his home track dear.

“I wanted to come back here and race here,” he said. “I started racing here when I was a kid in the kids’ class here. And it’s cool to come home once in a while on a big stage, and try to pick up another win.”

Tucked in a residential neighborhood on the border of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, Hudson has long belonged to Joey Polewarczyk, the driver who lives less than a mile from the pit gate. A multi-time Pro All Stars Series winner and former American-Canadian Tour champion, “Joey Pole” entered the weekend second in GSPSS points with four Gate City Classic trophies to his credit, including wins in three of his last four appearances in the event in 2021, 2024 and 2025.

Just to reassure that little had changed in the pecking order, Polewarczyk set fast time in qualifying.

But Renfrew, the 2022 Gate City Classic winner, timed in second, gridding alongside the odds-on favorite for the 100-lap feature.

Renfrew got the jump on the green flag, though a spin for Dan Winter drew the yellow immediately, resulting in a spin for Cory Casagrande and Tom Carey III as they got on the binders across the race track.

The Candia, N.H. racer flexed his muscle on the restart, only for the effort to be recalled when veteran racer Pete Frappier’s mount gave up the ghost in turn three.

Once again, the field came back to the green flag with Renfrew overpowering Polewarczyk and settling into a rhythm at the front.

Forty laps in, Renfrew had built a significant advantage over Polewarczyk, lapping up to ninth place. D.J. Shaw, fresh off back-to-back wins and looking for his third straight GSPSS trophy, had started eighth but was only up to sixth as Renfrew picked off the top-ten cars one by one.

Polewarczyk, meanwhile, was patiently working through lapped traffic, unable to clear one car for several laps. With thirty laps to go, Polewarczyk was solidly in second, but nearly a half a track behind Renfrew as even Shaw went a lap in arrears.

Then rookie Joe Kendall spun down the backstretch, and as he came to a stall in turn three, Renfrew’s massive lead evaporated with 25 laps to go and only six cars on the lead lap.

Head games between the leaders forced two restart attempts to be waved off, with Evan Beaulieu pulling pitside with rear-end trouble as the field slowed up. On the third, Renfrew edged out ahead, but trouble for Frankie Eldredge kept Renfrew from running away.

Another restart attempt put Renfrew in control, while Polewarczyk suddenly found himself in a battle for second with Mike Mitchell. Mitchell, who restarted third, pinned Polewarczyk in the less-favorable outside groove, and the pre-race favorite slid back to fourth as Cory Casagrande followed Mitchell’s line.

Winless with the GSPSS since 2017, Mitchell suddenly found himself poised to play the spoiler, if only he could catch Renfrew.

But Renfrew had not burned his car up on the long green-flag run. After a few laps, he drove away from Mitchell, too, while a battle for sixth waged between Shaw and Angelo Belsito after contact during the late-race restarts.

With darkness yet to settle in on the speedway, Renfrew cruised to a 2.268-second victory, his third career GSPSS win and his first since the 2022 Gate City Classic.

Renfrew admitted he had been concerned how the final stretch run could play out.

“I didn’t know how much they were saving,” he said of the long mid-race run. “I knew I was kinda way out there. I was kind of expecting it to go green all the way to the end, to be honest, just kind of the way the race was going with that long green flag run.

“I thought I maybe went a little too hard there through the middle part of the race, and I kinda got in my head a little bit about it under that yellow, and my guys kind of calmed me back down and told me that if I just drove smooth, I could drive back away, no problem, with the lap times we were running.

“Just tried to keep it smooth and steady there, and pull away at the end.”

An enthusiastic Mitchell finished second, his second straight top-five finish in his own car after spending much of last year driving for car owner Rollie Lindblad. Casagrande, who hoped to improve on back-to-back second-place finishes, instead settled for third despite his first-lap spin.

Polewarczyk held onto fourth in the closing laps, gaining a sliver of ground on point leader Jeremy Sorel, who finished fifth after spending most of the race in third.

Shaw, who has struggled at Hudson in only a handful of starts, finished sixth, ahead of late-race rival Belsito. Carey was the first lapped car in eighth, while Winter and Rhode Island’s Bobby Pelland III rounded out the top ten.

Struggles continued for title hopefuls Beaulieu and Casey Call, with the latter parking his car halfway through the race while running deep in the field.

With four races left in the title chase, Beaulieu and Call sit well out of the battle in fifth and ninth, respectively. That sets up a two-man title race with a third and unlikely outsider.

Sorel, whose first GSPSS win came in the season opener at Stafford Motor Speedway, has led the standings all year long, earning consistent finishes and dodging adversity. Polewarczyk sits 24 points back, chipping away but in need of a turn of fortune to draw even with Sorel.

Shaw, who has not run all the races, sits third in the standings, another 20 markers back. However, the Center Conway, N.H. veteran has won at all three tracks remaining on the schedule. A win at any of the last four races paired with catastrophe for Sorel and Polewarczyk could conceivably vault Shaw into the title race, if he opts to run the final four races. Shaw has already filed an entry for the upcoming Langis Caron 150 at Autodrome Chaudière.

Renfrew, with a full-time PASS schedule and multiple race dates in the Southeast on his calendar, is not part of the title picture. He is, however, appreciative of the opportunity to build a notebook with the Hamke chassis he has put through its paces in 2026.

“This car’s been really good everywhere this year,” he said. “We’ve been really happy with it. Just thankful for all the support we’ve been given, and all my guys for busting their butts on it every weekend. Just happy to be kind of riding the wave.”

And with a PASS win only a couple weeks ago, things are looking up for Renfrew wherever he hauls to next.

“Just happy that we could have a dominant car today,” he said. “And happy to get to the next one.”

Unofficial Results
Granite State Pro Stock Series | Gate City Classic 100
Hudson Speedway, Hudson, N.H.
1. (00) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
2. (40) Mike Mitchell
3. (7CT) Cory Casagrande
4. (97) Joey Polewarczyk
5. (7MA) Jeremy Sorel
6. (60) D.J. Shaw
7. (8) Angelo Belsito
8. (5MA) Tom Carey III
9. (81) Dan Winter
10. (12) Bobby Pelland III
11. (62) Joe Kendall
12. (82MA) Mark Hudson
13. (84) Jamie Wright
14. (09) Frankie Eldredge
15. (56) Evan Beaulieu
16. (90NH) Casey Call
17. (27NH) Wayne Helliwell, Jr.
18. (05NH) Pete Frappier

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