NERRC #4 - a MAJOR event at Thompson Speedway

Thompson Speedway Hosts Majors

The weekend of July 13-14 saw 120+ entries for the only New England Region Majors event on the schedule this year. This was the second to the last Majors event for the Northeast Conference (New Jersey hosted the final stop July 20-21) before the champions were announced in preparation for this year’s Runoffs.

The Thompson Speedway event was also part of our regional NERRC schedule as well. In total, we hosted 6 groups of cars with a jam-packed Saturday schedule flowing into a more relaxed Sunday.

On Saturday, each group saw three opportunities on the track, including two qualifying sessions and an afternoon race. Getting all the groups out for three sessions each required the stewards to run a tight ship and keep traffic flowing on/off the course as smoothly as possible. Of course track incidents still occurred, but for the most part, even with the extremely hot temps, the schedule was completed relatively on time.

Sunday’s delayed start time meant drivers and workers both could get a little extra sleep, and then enjoy just the single race schedule for each group.

Hot weather is usually not conducive to fast times, but the heat and sun didn’t seem to slow down many of this weekend’s drivers. There were five racers that staked claims to new track records over the weekend.

The largest group for the weekend – Group 1, the touring and Spec Miatas with 34 cars – saw Travis Washby in his #30 B-Spec Mini Cooper set a new track record during Saturday afternoon’s first race of the day. Travis then switched to his #30 T3 VW Golf for Sunday’s race and finished second overall.

Group 2 was the SRF3s with one of the smallest fields, only 10 cars. Tom Riley, #11 took the win on Saturday after Steve Owens #20 and Lee McNeish #22 were in a knock-down drag out battle for the lead that ended with them sliding off course through the last turn before the straight. McNeish and Owens were at it again on Sunday, keeping it clean this time, and finishing first and second respectively.

STL and the production cars rounded out Group 3. Bob Beede won both races in his #28 STL Honda Civic and Greg Amy did the same in his #3 EP Civic. Group 4 was the smallest, with just seven formula cars. But both of these groups turned in new lap records. Jerome Hinkle did it in his #66 FP Lotus 7 Series, and Mike Jacques was one of the other five drivers setting a record in his #54 FA Swift 014. These each happened during Saturday afternoon’s races.

The FVs were joined by two F500 drivers for Group 5, putting on a fantastic race 1. F Russell Strate Jr. was the overall winner in his F5, but the battle between Andy Pastore, David Cardillo, Thomas Kenney, Chris Barry and Gary Kittell in the FVs was a superb race to watch. Pastore ended up taking the checker for both races at the end of the weekend.

Ground-pounding GTs were the final group of the weekend. Another one of the largest subscribed groups with 24 entries. Saturday’s race added two new track records from Jason Smith in his #97 AS and James Ashe in his #22 GT3. Glenn Kurkjian’s Corvette was surrounded by BMWs as they led both races from start to finish, howling around the speedway to wrap up the weekend.

Our next event is one of our biggest, as we host the Racing Against Leukemia fundraiser. We will meet back at New Hampshire Motor Speedway August 3-4. Road Racing will be joined with Solo and Rally for a trifecta of racing #funwithcars all over the NHMS grounds. Be sure to register, bring your friends, and join us for a great weekend of all kinds of racing action! We look forward to seeing you at RAL!