Yet another shot at a big Super Late Model purse for New England racers is on the table for next summer.
Star Speedway in Epping, N.H. unveiled preliminary plans Wednesday night for a major open SLM event in 2022. The 200-lap main event boasts a purse in excess of $75,000, with $20,000 to the winner.
The inaugural “Little Brickyard 200” is tentatively scheduled for next August 17.
Contrary to first impressions, the race’s name actually bears local significance. The speedway was built on the grounds of the former Star Brick Yard, one of many brickyards in the town of Epping. The Star Brick Yard opened in 1891 and was closed in the 1950s; the speedway opened in 1966. Track owner Bobby Webber, Jr. refinished the frontstretch victory lane in brick a few years ago in honor of the property’s former tenant.
Details of the Little Brickyard 200 have yet to be formalized, but the early entry form shared by Star outlines a 200-lap feature and a 50-lap last-chance qualifier. Twenty-four cars will start the feature, with one advancing from the last-chance qualifier. Lap-leader money will also be paid out, with another $15,000 up for grabs among those who can spend some time at the front of the field.
A rules package will be released over the winter, with an eye to allowing entrants from the Pro All Stars Series, the Granite State Pro Stock Series and weekly Pro Stock/Super Late Model programs throughout the region.
Seven teams have already filed entries for the event barely a day after its announcement. Current GSPSS points leader Gabe Brown, 2019 PASS National Champion Mike Hopkins, and Davis Chassis Works owner Jeremy Davis are among the earliest entrants, along with Star weekly competitor Randy Cole.
Star’s schedule does not lack for marquee events. The track’s signature event is the Star Classic weekend in September. Anchored by the Bob Webber, Sr. Memorial 125 sanctioned by the International Supermodified Association, the Classic is now a three-day blowout featuring weekly and touring divisions from pavement midget cars to Pro Stocks and ISMA’s big-block winged Supermodifieds. July’s SBM 125, a Tour-type Modified feature, will be in its eleventh running in 2022.
The Little Brickyard 200 adds a major event for fendered cars to Star’s itinerary, something that has been lacking in recent years. Not that fendered cars have been unwelcome at the quarter-mile oval; PASS and the American-Canadian Tour have competed at Star in the past, and GSPSS added a second visit in 2021 to accompany the annual Star Classic feature.
But circumstances have impacted Star’s PASS and ACT events in recent years. Midweek PASS shows at Star were scuttled by weather in 2017 and 2019. And last June, a planned PASS-ACT twin-bill was canceled when pandemic restrictions proved prohibitive. Neither tour was booked at the track in 2021.
The Little Brickyard 200’s midweek date should be friendlier to all comers, whether they chase touring schedules or a weekly program elsewhere.
And with $20,000 promised to the victor, the Little Brickyard 200 is the latest in a series of high-stakes Super Late Model events that have emerged in the last few years.
The regional gold standard, of course, has been the Oxford 250. The PASS-sanctioned crown jewel celebrates its 48th running this weekend, with a $25,000 winner’s share plus lap-leader bonuses making it the richest such race in New England. A short-lived event at Seekonk Speedway in Massachusetts promised a $10,000 bounty, but most regional major events paid far less.
Mike Parks’ GSPSS took the leap last summer despite the pandemic, announcing a $10,000 winner’s prize for the series’ Granite State Nationals in September. Lee USA Speedway followed with the Freedom 300 Pro Stock open, also paying $10,000 to win. Both races returned for 2021.
PASS joined the fray this year as well, adding a $10,000-to-win event at Seekonk in July. Traveling racers have also been enriched by the Motor Mountain Masters at Jennerstown (Penn.) Speedway Complex. This August, Derek Griffith became the third New England racer to win in the event’s four-year history, with New Englanders taking five of the top six positions.
Along with the American-Canadian Tour’s own $10,000-to-win Midsummer Classic 250 and the Vermont Milk Bowl, New England racers have not been without opportunities to cash in.
Until recently, teams looking for that kind of payday had to travel to find it, often facing teams willing to spend multiple times the purse to try and win it.
In 2022, they may not have to travel too far from home.
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