“Joey Pole” wins fourth GSPSS Gate City Classic

Winning in front of the hometown crowd never gets old. Just ask Joey Polewarczyk.

The Hudson, N.H. native led every lap en route to victory in Sunday evening’s Gate City Classic at Hudson Speedway, the third event on the Granite State Pro Stock Series calendar.

And as he emerged from his familiar black Ford in front of a cheering crowd for the fifth time in his touring career, he took in the thrill and the responsibility of keeping the win local.

“I live right down the street, I drive by here every day,” said Polewarczyk, who lives less than a mile from the speedway gates. “There’s all these awesome fans out here.”

The humble high-banked oval in southern New Hampshire is where Polewarczyk’s career took shape as a boy. However, limitations imposed on Hudson Speedway have prevented it from being a hotbed for touring competition. Despite racing with the region’s touring series for over twenty years, “Joey Pole” has only a handful of touring starts on the quarter-mile, most of them with the GSPSS.

Suffice it to say, Polewarczyk has made them count.

The 2020 GSPSS champion lived up to expectations early, blitzing the track in time trials to top the 18-car lineup. Lending to time constraints, the customary heat races were waived, with a redraw merely swapping the front-row starters. Two-time series champ Joey Doiron rolled off in the pole position, with Polewarczyk to his outside for the green.

The battle for the lead was short-lived, though, as Polewarczyk sprung to the point, settling in front of Doiron before the field had reached the backstretch. The leaders singled out for a few laps, before contact deep in the pack between Jamie Wright and Bobby Frappier sent the latter for a hard skid into the turn-three wall only nine laps in.

On the restart, Polewarczyk and Doiron once again secured first and second, leaving third-place starter Angelo Belsito to fend off the rest of the field for third. Belsito, the 2020 Gate City Classic victor, fended off recent first-time winner Evan Beaulieu as drivers like Eddie MacDonald and Cole Robie worked their way forward.

Beaulieu slipped by Belsito just past halfway, on the hunt for a second-straight GSPSS trophy. MacDonald had cracked the top five not long before, and “The Outlaw” set his sights on Belsito as slower cars began to factor into the proceedings. Season opener winner Wayne Helliwell, Jr. had maintained pace just outside the top five, but faded suddenly and dipped into the pits with plenty of laps still left on the scoreboard.

Polewarczyk was closing quickly on a pack of traffic in the back half of the top ten when Cory Casagrande tagged the slower car of Morgan Call in turn three, sending the second-year driver into a spin that also collected Robie. With twenty-five laps to go, the yellow flag waved, giving third on back an apparent reprieve.

Sure enough, Polewarczyk and Doiron escaped from the pack once again, but the battle for every position on back was alive. Beaulieu bested Belsito to take third, opening the door for MacDonald to take fourth. MacDonald then went to work on Beaulieu for third, while the hard-charging Robie pursued Belsito for the top-five slot. Casagrande, mired deep in the field on the restart, made his own moves as some of the early frontrunners began to fall off.

But out front, it was all Polewarczyk, who gapped Doiron by .481 seconds at the line to earn his second straight Gate City Classic win and his fourth GSPSS victory at Hudson.

Doiron, reacquainting himself with a car he lent to close friend Ryan Green for multiple races last season, never was able to mount a charge on Polewarczyk, but was never seriously challenged for second. MacDonald wheeled car owner Dale Drew’s entry to third place.

Speedway 95 winner Beaulieu broke even on the evening with a fourth-place finish. Robie, despite the spin with 25 laps to go, drove to a top-five finish without raising too much ire on the track.

Casagrande was sixth at the stripe, a solid rebound from a first-lap exit at Speedway 95 one week before. Belsito faded to seventh in the final laps, ahead of Frankie Eldredge, who managed his best GSPSS performance yet in a car he purchased for a pittance in the offseason. Connor McDougal, the Star Speedway Late Model champ making his GSPSS debut, finished ninth, while Josh St. Clair rounded out the top ten.

Defending GSPSS champion Casey Call struggled to find speed, finishing 11th.

There were no such struggles for Polewarczyk, who finished second at Claremont Motorsports Park earlier in the season. All the same, the hometown hero admitted that the strength of Sunday’s field made his win anything but a cakewalk.

“It’s hard to come here with expectations,” he told GSPSS announcer Mark Thomas. “Being your home track, you’re expected to do it, but it’s hard to back up. Guys like Joey Doiron, Eddie MacDonald, Wayne Helliwell, I mean…it was a tough race.”

In seven touring-series starts at Hudson, Polewarczyk has five wins. A victory in the Pro All Stars Series’ sole visit to Hudson in 2021 underscores GSPSS wins in 2019, 2021, 2024 and now 2025. Polewarczyk’s early exit from an American-Canadian Tour race in 2021 is his only touring finish worse than third at the track. In an open-competition Gate City Classic in 2023, Polewarczyk finished second to Max Cookson.

Polewarczyk’s win is his ninth career GSPSS victory, breaking a tie with Jeremy Davis to secure second on the series’ all-time win list behind D.J. Shaw. Interestingly, Polewarczyk won his first three series starts, then won twice in his 2020 championship season, the only time he ran for the series crown.

Davis has not competed with the series since 2020. Shaw raced at Claremont earlier this season and won there last July in his only 2024 appearance. Polewarczyk needs two more wins to tie Shaw atop the records sheet. While Shaw’s GSPSS appearances are sporadic, in deference to his full-time status with PASS and ACT, Polewarczyk remains a semi-regular competitor.

One of the Northeast’s rising stars in the late 2000s, Polewarczyk established his legacy with ACT, winning the 2014 championship and 22 feature wins so far, including an ACT-sanctioned Oxford 250. With another seven PASS wins and his GSPSS record, Polewarczyk is one of the region’s top threats whenever and wherever they unload.

But those “whenevers” are fewer in number now. At 36, with a busy father-and-son business and a young family, Polewarczyk’s priorities have changed. Quality outranks quantity. And right now, the GSPSS offers a balance of travel and competition that Polewarczyk and his family team can manage.

Because winning is quality. And nothing beats winning close to home.

Unofficial Results
Granite State Pro Stock Series | Gate City Classic 100
Hudson Speedway, Hudson, N.H.
1. (97) Joey Polewarczyk
2. (73) Joey Doiron
3. (50) Eddie MacDonald
4. (56) Evan Beaulieu
5. (29) Cole Robie
6. (7CT) Cory Casagrande
7. (8B) Angelo Belsito
8. (09) Frankie Eldredge
9. (8M) Connor McDougal
10. (14) Josh St. Clair
11. (90NH) Casey Call
12. (48) Mike Mitchell
13. (84) Jamie Wright
14. (81) Dan Winter
15. (95) Morgan Call
16. (27NH) Wayne Helliwell, Jr.
17. (93) Ryan Green
18. (05) Bobby Frappier

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