VIDEO: New Hampshire Motor Speedway Press Conference

WARNING: Some of the language in this video may be inappropriate for children!



LOUDON, N.H. -- Vermont Motorsports Magazine took in the 20th Annual Vintage Racing Celebration at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Wednesday. Although it was a bit cold and rainy, there was still plenty going on.

An afternoon press conference brought together NHMS Founder Bob Bahre, NHMS Vice President and General Manager Jerry Gappens, NASCAR Champion Bobby Allison, and New England favorites Ricky Craven and Brad Leighton to remember their favorite moments from NHMS and Bahre's first track, Oxford Plains Speedway.

Stay tuned to VMM for more updates!

Gappens says ACT-NHMS Partnership is "Win-Win"

SOUTH BURLINGTON -- Jerry Gappens is a believer, in the American-Canadian Tour and in its fiery figurehead, Tom Curley.

The New Hampshire Motor Speedway Executive Vice President was presented with ACT's prestigious Don MacTavish Award on Saturday night at the annual Banquet of Champions, but his affinity for the series has roots much deeper than just being given a trophy.

Gappens took a chance on Curley's series at a meeting in 2008, agreeing to host the first-ever ACT Invitational on Sylvania 300 weekend in Septmeber 2009 -- the kickoff event of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase for the Cup -- and seems happy to have done so; grandstand attendance for the Saturday program at NHMS was around 40,000, up significantly from prior years, thanks in part to the Invitational. But his affinity for ACT is even deeper than just increased ticket sales.

In fact, Gappens is a short tracker. Growing up in Indiana, he raced dirt track Sprint Cars in high school and attended local races with his father as a boy. Gappens may be in charge of a high-profile superspeedway in the national spotlight, but he still takes time to appreciate where he came from. He's been to Thunder Road to watch the Milk Bowl, he's been to Lee USA Speedway, a weekly Friday-night track not far from NHMS, and he keeps tabs on who's doing what in the local circuits. In the middle of the interview for this story on Saturday night, he went out of his way to introduce himself to one of ACT's young stars, and called him by name.

Gappens knows how vital ACT and its band of grassroots racers have become to the success of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and he knows that's a two-way street.

"I think it's very important. We saw in September that our attendance was up over the previous three or four years by having ACT there, and I give them all the credit for increasing the crowd," he said. "The economy has been down, ticket sales have been down, but that [Invitational] gave us the shot in the arm to help us have a great crowd on Saturday."

A strategic promotional move by Curley and Gappens was to make each ACT race in the U.S. and Canada in 2009 an ACT Invitational qualifying event, thereby making the September weekend at New Hampshire the focal point of every race from April to mid-September.

"One of the reasons we wanted to do the partnership with ACT was that they're out there racing every weekend throughout New England, up into Canada, and that Invitational format gave us a chance to promote New Hampshire Motor Speedway and our September weekend at all the ACT events," said Gappens. "It was really beneficial for both of us. It gave the participants of ACT a venue for really a Super Bowl-type atmosphere, a chance to run in front of NASCAR car owners and drivers, and it helped us promote our event. It was a win-win situation for both parties."

New Hampshire Motor Speedway has invited Curley and ACT back for another go in September 2010. "It's still going to be an invitational, [but] I think there will be a day you'll see it be an actual points race on the calendar," Gappens said. "Right now Tom says let's do another year as an invitational, and I think that's good, I trust his guidance on what's best for the tour."

The 50-lap, 36-car ACT Invitational race, which featured several lead changes and competitive side-by-side racing, immediately followed a decidely lackluster 200-lap NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event as the sun began to set on September 19. Gappens says that he jokingly thanked NASCAR President Mike Helton in the pressbox that day for putting on the "lead-up event" to the ACT race, which proved to be the best show of the day. As it turned out, Helton and NASCAR were paying attention.

"[ACT is] definitely coming back," Gappens is quick to say. "We're working with NASCAR, and one of the things I'm talking about is shortening the truck race from 200 laps to 150 laps, just to make sure that we have more time for the ACT race on Saturday afternoon. They're actually pretty receptive to it, so I think we'll get that accomplished."

Curley had a dream to bring his series of local short track racers to the biggest stage in the northeast, and Gappens took a chance on it. And so far, it seems, everybody is a winner.

(PHOTO: Tom Curley (left) and Jerry Gappens are working together to benefit both ACT and NHMS. Leif Tillotson photo)

Hoar, Gappens, Cyr Honored at ACT/Thunder Road Banquet

NHMS' Gappens "humbled" by MacTavish Award

SOUTH BURLINGTON -- A crowd of some 500 honored Brian Hoar of Williston on Saturday night at the Sheraton-Burlington Hotel & Conference Center, celebrating Hoar's sixth American-Canadian Tour championship.

Hoar, 37, captured his first championship on the series since 2000, driving for RPM Motorsports and car owner/crew chief Rick Paya. Paya previously won seven ACT championships with driver Jean-Paul Cyr; Cyr left the team after 2008 to drive for Joey Laquerrre and challenge for the track championship at Barre's Thunder Road, which he did successfully.

"The irony behind it all is that probably if [Cyr] hadn't decided to go with [Laquerre], I might not have the opportunity to be where I'm standing right now," Hoar said during his championship speech.

Jerry Gappens, Executive Vice President of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, was presented the prestigious Don MacTavish Award by ACT President Tom Curley, for the speedway's contributions to ACT racing.

Dover, Mass. native MacTavish, the 1966 NASCAR National Sportsman (present-day Nationwide Series) Champion, was killed in a crash at Daytona Int'l Speedway in 1969. MacTavish won his national title racing weekly at places like Catamount Stadium in Milton, and New York tracks including Airborne Speedway and Albany-Saratoga Speedway. Past recipients of the award include NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr., Thunder Road founder Ken Squier, Curley, and drivers Robbie Crouch, Jean-Paul Cabana, Hoar, and Cyr.

NHMS hosted the first-ever ACT Invitational in September during Sylvania 300 weekend for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. As a result, NHMS saw an increased Saturday crowd of 40,000 spectators, and ACT and its drivers gained national attention throughout the year.

"(The ACT Invitational) was a win-win for both parties," said Gappens, who grew up around the short tracks of Indiana. "Any time you get an award with Bill France, Sr.'s name on it, and all the other great people that have contributed to the success of short track racing, is quite an honor. I appreciate short track racing and haven't forgotten where I learned the sport from the grassroots up, so to get what I consider the highest honor, other than being the champion of the series, is very humbling and very much appreciated."

Shawn Duquette of Morrisonville, N.Y., was crowned with his first ACT Tiger Sportsman Series championship. Duquette earned the title after a tie-breaker with St. Albans driver Jason Bonnett.

John Doiron of Berwick, Me., was given the ACT Crew Chief of the Year Award; Doiron coached his son, 16 year-old Joey, to the ACT Rookie of the Year title.

Tucker Williams of Hyde Park won the Dr. G.R. Nielsen Rookie Achievement Award as the top-performing freshman driver across all ACT/Thunder Road divisions; Williams, 18, was a four-time Street Stock winner at Thunder Road in 2009.

Cyr, of Milton, was honored with his first Thunder Road Late Model "King of the Road" championship in the track's 50th season. Thunder Road's support division champions were also honored: Jimmy Hebert of Williamstown (Tiger Sportsman), Gary Mullen of Tunbridge (Street Stock), and Donny Yates of North Montpelier (Junkyard Warrior). Rookies of the Year were Dylan Smith of Randolph (Late Model), Erik Steel of Barre (Tiger Sportsman), and Williams.

ACT/Thunder Road announcer Troy Germain was given the Ken Squier Award for his decade-long contributions to the sport.

Seth Leavitt of WCAX-TV Channel 3 was named the winner of the first-ever Pete Hartt Memorial Media Award. Mike McCune, Leavitt's colleague, accepted the award on his behalf. Hartt, the Sports Editor at the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, passed away in March.

Sportsmanship and "Most Improved Driver" awards were also given out in each division. Sportsmanship award winners were Chip Grenier (ACT Late Model Tour), Brooks Clark (TR Late Model), Brendan Moodie, Jr. (TR Tiger Sportsman), Mike Martin (TR Street Stock), and Ken Christman (TR Junkyard Warrior). Most Improved awards went to John Donahue (ACT Late Model Tour), Craig Bushey (TR Late Model), and Derrick O'Donnell (TR Tiger Sportsman).

While Thinking of the Past, Curley Can Look to the Future

New Hampshire Motor Speedway coverage presented by RPM Racing Engines

LOUDON, N.H. -- American-Canadian Tour President Tom Curley looked over a crowd of about 65 people on Saturday. It was just past noon on September 19, 2009 in Loudon, New Hampshire. ACT and the entire decade-long business model of northeastern Late Model racing was about to debut at the 1-mile track, in front of the most important personalities in stock car racing, and in front of certainly the largest spectator crowd to attend an ACT event. For most of the people in that crowd of 65, everything happening around them that day was happening for the first time.

But Curley was having a bit of déjà vu.

"I remember it like it was yesterday," Curley told the drivers, officials, team members, and media assembled before him. "We had [21 cars]. We had some big names like Beaver and Bobby Dragon, Dave Dion, and Robbie Crouch, but not much else. There were twenty-five thousand seats, and about twenty-five hundred people."

It was September 18, 1982, and Curley had just pulled into Dover Int'l Speedway with what was then known as the NASCAR North Tour. It was his series' first appearance on a superspeedway, running as the support show to the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National Series. The track's promoter, Dennis McGlynn, had taken what Curley called "a wild gamble" by bringing in a group of New England and Canadian-based racers that had mostly never left the tiny, quarter- and half-mile bullrings of the northeast.

In addition to a thin field of cars and a short head count in the grandstand, the race itself was lackluster. Only ten cars were running at the finish, with just two of them completing the entire 200-lap distance. Randy LaJoie finished fourth, six laps off the pace. Gardiner Leavitt was eighth, 20 laps down. Bobby Dragon posted a ninth-place finish after crashing out 46 laps from the end. After Dion collected the trophy for his victory, McGlynn asked Curley what he wanted to do. Curley suggested McGlynn pay only half of the $43,000-plus purse and let him return home with his tail tucked between his legs. McGlynn wouldn't hear of it.

"It was not a promotional success," Curley says, "but it was a start. [McGlynn] told me after that first race that almost nothing works the first time, and to give it three years and then analyze things."

Sure enough, the NASCAR North Tour returned to Dover in 1983 with, as Curley recalled, 25 cars and 5,000 fans. In 1984, there were 37 cars and 17,000 ticket holders.

Fast forward 27 years and one day to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where Curley was telling his ACT drivers the story. Like Dover so many years ago, it was the first time for Curley's present group of racers to be racing on a superspeedway. Like Dover, there were important people watching. And like Dover, the promoter, Bruton Smith, had taken a gamble.

Unlike Dover, though, there were 36 cars, most of the region's most recognizable full-fendered short track drivers, and, including those that attended the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Whelen Modified Tour races earlier in the day, about 40,000 fans in the grandstands.

The ACT drivers ripped off a competitive 50-lap exhibition race, one that was promoted heavily on both sides of the border from last November until post time, with just two cautions in 38 minutes. ACT's traditional pre-race pomp played well into Curley's hands at NHMS; an energetic introduction, followed by the series' traditional wave-off lap with battle flags displayed on the track's edge, pushed the already excited crowd into a football stadium-style cheer. There were multiple passes for the lead, a solid mix of veterans and youngsters -- as in 66 year-old Joey Laquerre taking on 16 year-old Brandon Watson for third place with two laps to go -- an even representation of every part of the region's racers among the top finishers, and a host of track officials that were impressed by the event.

The official New Hampshire Motor Speedway press release following the finish appears to be a good omen for ACT; one of the two short quotes printed from winner Eddie MacDonald was "I'm sure there will be many more ACT Invitationals here," indicating that the series has a place at NHMS in the future. Another report from Green-White-Checker quoted NHMS General Manager Jerry Gappens saying that he was "very impressed" and that he wants to have ACT back at the track.

Tom Curley's mind may have been stuck in 1982 at Dover on Saturday. But it appears he might be better served now spending his time thinking about 2010 at New Hampshire.


(PHOTO: Tom Curley's rocky debut at Dover in 1982 was no match for his successful first event at New Hampshire on Saturday. Photo by Justin St. Louis/VMM)