RESULTS: NERRC #4 – RAL

Photo by James Ray

NERRC #4 – Over Halfway Through

With more than half of the 2024 season completed, it’s been a great year of racing here in the New England Region. This last weekend was our one and only race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where almost 150 entries took to the track for our regional event. 4 cars also participated in the Open Wheel Drivers Experience. There was plenty of sunshine, bringing clear skies and dry tracks, which made it possible for 4 drivers to end the weekend with new track records. Congratulations to James Cutler, Gerard Owen Callaghan, Joe Zanavich, and Christopher Milton-Hall on their fast turns.

As we head toward our one Majors event at Thompson Speedway, August 9-10, regional racers might want to check their points standings, because there will be just one more race left after that – the Pig Roast at Palmer, September 7-8 before the final Championships weekend back at Thompson October 18-19.

Racing Against Leukemia

This weekend was also road racing’s annual RAL fundraiser weekend. During our Saturday night party, the annual raffle, 50/50, and auction were held to raise funds for the the UMass Memorial Medical Center. This charitable tradition for the region goes back decades, and is our way of supporting the children and families battling pediatric cancer.

Up for raffle this year included free entries to all NER events (road racing, rally, solo, CRE, etc), radio communications gear, corner balancing kits, cases and gift boxes of beer, Celtics tickets, G-loc brake pads, NER collector memorabilia, NASCAR collectibles, LimeRock sweater vests, beach kits, and vintage racing books.

Two major items were up for auction. The first came courtesy of Motion Dynamics, which was the donation of a free SRF rental for a CRE weekend, which went for $995.

The other was a one-of-a-kind autographed helmet. Alison Turpin collected more than 15 original signatures from Indy Car drivers on this helmet, included 5 Indy 500 Champions! After a lot of back-and-forth bidding, Andy Bentinck Smith secured the winning bid at $3400 to claim the helmet. Sharing a moment (that did include some tears with Alison), Andy explained that this weekend was the first time Andy and his two sons were racing together on a track. Being such a momentous occasion, to share his love of racing and competition on track with his two boys, his family purchased the helmet to commemorate it. We couldn’t think of a more honorable family to send this helmet home with and a deserving tribute for such a unique and treasured keepsake.

In the end, the road racing team raised almost $11,000 for the RAL program. Solo and Rally will still be holding their events later this summer, so the region is excited to make another generous donation to the medical center.

The other was a one-of-a-kind autographed helmet. Alison Turpin collected more than 15 original signatures from Indy Car drivers on this helmet, included 5 Indy 500 Champions! After a lot of back-and-forth bidding, Andy Bentinck Smith secured the winning bid at $3400 to claim the helmet. Sharing a moment (that did include some tears with Alison), Andy explained that this weekend was the first time Andy and his two sons were racing together on a track. Being such a momentous occasion, to share his love of racing and competition on track with his two boys, his family purchased the helmet to commemorate it. We couldn’t think of a more honorable family to send this helmet home with and a deserving tribute for such a unique and treasured keepsake.

In the end, the road racing team raised almost $11,000 for the RAL program. Solo and Rally will still be holding their events later this summer, so the region is excited to make another generous donation to the medical center.

Trackside Experience

On Saturday, NER also held the first ever Trackside Experience. Spearheaded by the region’s Recruiting Team, the effort was the result of 6-months of work to find ways to recruit and bring on new volunteer workers for our road racing program.

The day was designed to allow individuals interested in cars and motorsports to come to the track and experience our volunteer worker program. During the morning, they toured and visited each of the volunteer specialties – F&C, T&S, Tech, Grid, Registration, Hospitality and EMS. Then after lunch, they each picked their two favorites and went to work in those areas. At the end of the day, most stuck around to join us for the dinner, party and RAL auction.

With 20 people registering and showing up to participate in this first-ever recruiting event, it’s safe to say this was a big success. We had a couple participants return on Sunday, some purchase SCCA memberships, and others tell us they’ll be back for future events. The team definitely took notes on what worked well, and ways to improve for the next time.

A huge thanks needs to go out to Recruiting team and Specialty Chiefs for all the hard work in planning, organizing and running this event. Stay tuned for a more detailed recap of this event next week!

New Track Records

C-Spec – #192 – James Cutler – 1:20.143

FVR – #12 – Gerard Owen Callaghan – 1:17.001

GT2 – #29 – Joe Zanavich – 1:08.688

SMT – #50 – Christopher Milton-Hall – 1:20.715