New England Racers Eyeing $10,000-To-Win Late Model Trio

It’s a good week to own a Late Model in New England.

In the span of four days, the six-state region’s top fendered racers will have three races in which the winner will celebrate with a $10,000 payday.

Maine’s Pro All Stars Series, Vermont’s American-Canadian Tour and the New Hampshire-based Granite State Pro Stock Series each have marquée events on the schedule to end the month of July, starting with tonight’s PASS-sanctioned Bay State Classic at Seekonk Speedway.

And those who can turn their equipment around in a hurry may be able to compete in two of the three races, potentially cashing in twice.

It’s a hectic yet lucrative opportunity.

The gold rush commences at the “Cement Palace,” one of the last tracks in New England to retain the Pro Stock moniker for its top weekly division. Seekonk Speedway is no stranger to midweek special features or to big-money Pro Stock events. For a few years, the track had both: Seekonk hosted the short-lived U.S. Pro Stock/Super Late Model Nationals from 2016 to 2018.

The Massachusetts track has since become a key destination for the PASS Super Late Models. The 2018 PASS North title was awarded at the historic oval in 2018 and 2019. But the season finale planned for 2020 was canceled, along with all of Seekonk’s major events and Saturday-night programs. Instead, the track sat largely idle, stifled under the terms of the commonwealth’s pandemic-mitigation policies.

Tonight’s Bay State Classic, then, is the first major touring Pro Stock or Super Late Model feature at the track since the 2019 PASS season finale.

The 150-lap feature is also the first of three planned Seekonk visits for PASS. The Super Late Models will return in September for the annual D.A.V. Fall Classic, sanctioned by PASS for the first time, and again in October for the season-ending “Haunted Hundred” tripleheader.

At least twenty-five teams are entered for the Bay State Classic, with multi-time track champion David Darling leading the weekly contingent into battle against PASS’ touring specialists. History suggests that Darling, Dylan Estrella, Ryan Kuhn and the other Seekonk regulars will not have an easy battle; Seekonk runs American Racer tires while PASS runs Hoosiers, and the long touring races are an adjustment for racers used to a 50-lap weekly feature.

But past history is an educated guess at best. And with neither of the last two PASS winners at Seekonk on the early entry list, there may be room for a different face in the winner’s circle.

While Wednesday’s Bay State Classic is an all-new event, this weekend’s other races have already forged brief historical records of their own. Saturday evening’s Midsummer Classic 250 is in its third year under the ACT Late Model Tour banner. The long-distance race traces its roots to the fall of 2018, when White Mountain Motorsports Park celebrated its silver anniversary season with a major non-points Late Model feature.

The North Woodstock, N.H. quarter-mile was sold to ACT principals Cris Michaud and Pat Malone after the 2018 season, galvanizing the track’s bond to ACT in the process. As part of that process, the one-off Late Model show was added to the ACT Tour schedule, the longest race (in lap count) on the Tour itinerary with a blockbuster prize purse to match.

The Midsummer Classic 250 adds to ACT’s legacy of long-tenured marquée events. Two of those events, the Spring Green and the Fall Foliage 200, have found a home at WMMP this season. In the Midsummer Classic, the ACT Tour now has a touring event with a purse to match the prestige.

Such an event was precisely what GSPSS founder Mike Parks had in mind with the inaugural Rocky Ridge 150 in 2018. The still-young GSPSS had events that held prestige within its own circle. But none drew significant interest from outside the series or its home tracks.

As the series matured from a companion tour to its own featured attraction, the Rocky Ridge 150 gave the series a major race around which to anchor the schedule. Fifty laps longer than the usual GSPSS feature, and with an increased purse to match, the race was booked for Claremont Motorsports Park, a quirky third-mile in western New Hampshire.

Last year, in his first season as promoter for the New Hampshire track, Parks christened Claremont’s Labor Day event as the Granite State Nationals, with the GSPSS contest headlining the weekend. With the increase in prestige came a $10,000 bounty for the victor, further polishing the crown jewel.

With the Midsummer Classic 250 and Granite State Nationals scheduled head-to-head on Saturday, teams will have to choose between one or the other. But a number of teams are expected to compete in two of the three races, provided they leave Seekonk with their equipment intact.

Derek Griffith claimed last year’s GSPSS Granite State Nationals, then followed up with a victory in the first-ever Freedom 300. (Jeff Brown photo)

Derek Griffith, a 2017 winner at Seekonk and the defending Granite State Nationals winner, plans to double up with the PASS and GSPSS events. Joey Polewarczyk, the reigning GSPSS champion, and Eddie MacDonald have the same plans in mind. Gabe Brown, the GSPSS points leader, will be at Seekonk with PASS before returning to Claremont in search of his first series win.

On the other side of the coin, DJ Shaw and Ben Rowe will head to WMMP Saturday for the Midsummer Classic 250. Both drivers are chasing Tom Carey III for the ACT Tour championship. Derek Gluchacki is running the PASS-ACT double as well, though the ACT car will be his primary focus.

A similar abundance of riches was in play late last summer for New England’s Super Late Model and Pro Stock hotshoes. August’s Oxford 250, followed in quick succession by the GSPSS Granite State Nationals and Lee USA Speedway’s inaugural Freedom 300 $10,000-to-win open-competition event, gave drivers three weeks’ worth of opportunities to cash in.

While the rush of money seems early this summer, there is plenty yet to come. With Jennerstown Speedway’s Motor Mountain Masters in a week, the $25,000-to-win Oxford 250 at the end of August, and the second Freedom 300 at Lee in September, there is a lot of prize money up for grabs.

As tracks, tours and teams rebound from last year’s economic hardships, the increase in big-payout events in the Northeast is an encouraging sign. Above all else, when it comes to inspiring participation, money talks.

And judging by the early entry lists, racers are listening.

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