Big Holiday Weekend Ahead For Modifed Racing Series

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- In keeping with the tradition of being the biggest motorsports weekend of the season, the Modified Racing Series sponsored by BobValentiAutoMall.com will spend the Memorial Day holiday weekend competing in two states in two days. It’s the first time race events have been scheduled back-to-back by the touring series.

Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y., will host the series on Saturday, May 29, for the first time at the US Army/Greg Atkins Logging/Taylor Rental 100. On Sunday, May 30, the action shifts to the famed Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt., for the running of the Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic, the third appearance there by the MRS.

MRS drivers expected to enter at Airborne include defending champion Jon McKennedy of East Chelmsford, Mass., 2006 champion Dwight Jarvis of Ascutney, Vt., veteran Carl Pasteryak of Lisbon, Conn., recent Albany-Saratoga Speedway winner Rowan Pennink of Huntington Valley, Pa., defending Rookie of the Year Jacob Dore of Sanford, Me., and Kenny Barry of Preston, Conn., to name a few.

Each is also expected at Thunder Road on Sunday, along with defending Thunder Road winner Stephen Masse of Bellingham, Mass., three-time MRS champion and former T-Road winner Kirk Alexander of Swanzey, N.H., and former series champion Charlie Pasteryak of Lisbon, Conn., who is returning to competition after being sidelined with health problems.

Veterans Mike Holdridge, Sean Bodreau, Jimmy Dolan, and Les Hinckley, are also expected entries. Koszela Speed Rookie of the Year candidates Joey Jarvis, Norm Wrenn, and Kurt Vigeant are also planning to enter the holiday program.

Saturday’s Airborne Speedway race program gets underway at 5:00pm, while Sunday’s race card starts at 1:30pm at Thunder Road. For additional information log on to www.modifiedracingseries.com

Airborne Hosts Modified Racing Series Memorial Day Weekend

(From track press release)

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- Airborne Speedway will celebrate Memorial Day weekend by hosting a Modified Racing Series event for the first time Saturday, May 29, and the tour’s top drivers are looking forward to racing their low-slung 600-horsepower machines on the progressively-banked half mile.

“We’re hearing that there are three or more racing grooves to play around with,” defending Series champion Jon McKennedy of Chelmsford, Mass., said. “That should be a lot of fun and it should make it a very interesting, competitive race.”

Veteran Dwight Jarvis of Ascutney, recent Modified Racing Series winner at Monadnock Speedway, feels the same way. “We’re excited,” Jarvis said. “We’ve heard a lot of good things about Airborne.”

“The Airborne race is the first part of a big doubleheader for our series,” founder, promoter and competitor Jack Bateman said. “We race the next day at Thunder Road. It’s something we’ve never done before. This is our seventh season and we have 65 teams entered, which is a record for us. It’s really exciting.”

Greg Atkins Logging and Taylor Rental present the Modified Racing Series 100-lap event. All Airborne divisions will also compete. Post time is 5 p.m.

“I think this race will be a treat for our fans and it should bring in some race fans from outside the area,” Perrotte said. “The Modified Series cars are the type that race so well at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. They’re a link to a lot of Airborne history from the '50s and '60s.”

This Saturday, May 15 is Econo Lodge Kiddie Rides Night. Kiddie rides begin at 4:40 p.m. Post time is 5 p.m. All Airborne divisions will be in action. Admission is $10 for adults, kids 12 and under free.

PHOTOS: Budweiser Blastoff 100

Presented by "Fifty Years of Excitement"

Budweiser Blastoff 100

Modified Racing Series Boasts Historic Registration Numbers

(From MRS press release)

CANAAN, N.H. -- The recently released roster of 65 race teams intending to compete with the BobValentiAutoMall.com Modified Racing Series in 2010 is the largest pre-season count in the seven-year history of the series. Competitors from all over the northeast are preparing for the new season and a strong car count is anticipated for the season opener at the "Budweiser Blastoff" weekend at Waterford (Conn.) Speedbowl on March 27-28.

"It is unbelievable when you think of it," said tour announcer John Spence. "We have always had respectable numbers going into a new campaign, but to have 65 teams saying they are going to give your series a try speaks volumes of where this tour is at. Those numbers are where you like to be going into your seventh season."

As the tour makes its way around New England on a 19-race schedule, fans can expect to see series favorites like defending champion, Jon McKennedy of Chelmsford, Mass., 2008 champion Chris Pasteryak of Lisbon, Conn., 2006 series champion Dwight Jarvis of Ascutney, and occasional appearances by three-time champion and all-time winner Kirk Alexander of Swanzey, N.H.

Twelve different drivers visited victory lane last season and all are returning in 2010. Joining the four champions will be New Hampshire racers Rob Goodenough and Andy Seuss, Doug Coby and Kenny Barry of Connecticut, Massachusetts drivers Stephen Masse and Jimmy Kuhn, Rowan Pennink of Huntington Valley, Pa., Rookie of the Year Jacob Dore of Sanford, Me., and Mike Stefanik of Coventry, R.I.; seven of those drivers claimed their first MRS checkered flag last season.

Many new names fill the roster coming from other sanctions, weekly programs, and outside the six-state New England region. New to the series this year will be NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour regular Eric Goodale of Riverhead, N.Y., and former NASCAR Busch North Series regular Bryon Chew, of Inlet, N.Y.

North Hanover, N.J., driver David Cranmer plans to spend his racing season in New England. "I'm looking forward to the full MRS schedule this year," said Cranmer. "This will be the first full season of tour racing for me. After Wall (N.J.) Stadium closed in 2008 we ventured south to the ASA Southern Modified Tour. I think the MRS is the best touring series that is still within reach for the grassroots racer."

Household names familiar to New England race fans will also debut this year. Ronnie Silk of Norwalk, Conn., will drive the Eddie Partridge entry in selected events, and former MRS winner Rob Summers of Vernon, Conn., also hopes to run as many shows as possible that do not conflict with his ISMA Supermodified schedule.

"Stormin" Norman Wrenn, of Nashua, N.H., a twenty-plus year veteran, moves to a full-blown modifieds after much success with the New England Pro4 Modified Series. Wrenn, also an accomplished pro-stock and super-late model racer, will run select events.

Series mainstays Les Hinckley, Jack Bateman, Jimmy Dolan, Mike Douglas, Jr., Eddy Spiers, Kevin Ianarelli, and Joe Doucette are all registered as well.

The Modified Racing Series will help Waterford Speedbowl kick off its 60th season. Teams will be afforded the opportunity to practice on Fri., March 26. For additional information log on to http://www.speedbowl.com/.

McKennedy Continues TVMRS Hot Streak at Oxford

OXFORD, Me. -- It seems that each racing season one driver has everything figured out. For the True Value Modified Racing Series in 2009, that driver is Jon McKennedy.

The 22 year-old from Chelmsford, Mass. earned his third TVMRS win of the season on Saturday night at Maine's Oxford Plains Speedway after a long battle with fellow young gun Andy Seuss, building on his point lead in the series. McKennedy started from the pole position and led the first 15 laps of the Maine-ly Action Sports 100 before giving way to Rob Goodenough, then raced hard with Seuss during an 82-lap green-flag stretch, first for the second position, then later for the lead again. Seuss ran in the high lane with McKennedy on the bottom. Seuss' car was a tad better off the corners in the beginning, but McKennedy said one final, daring move between Seuss and the lapped car of Ken Barry was what made the difference.

"It was wild and fun, I'll tell you," he said. "The first 40 laps I felt like I was putting too much pressure on the tires. A few times I got a run underneath [Seuss], but he was able to burst back by me. I just kept telling myself to slow down and wait another 20 laps or so. We caught up to some traffic and I decided to go and it worked out, at the end of the race we still had some tire left. My car was a little tight at the beginning and I needed the whole race track to run off the corner. To clear him on the bottom was tough at the beginning, the car was tight and I really didn't want to push the tires too much, but I found a good opening there and I really sailed it in and it stuck and we cleared him."

Unofficially, the pair each led twice from laps 43 to 76 before McKennedy made what proved to be the winning pass.

"We knew he was going to be the car to beat, and he has been lately on the True Value tour," Seuss said of McKennedy. "To win, you've got to stay ahead of him. That's all I was doing, and I was trying not to burn it up at the same time. He obviously had a far superior car and got by us and just took off. It was a ball, we had a good side-by-side battle, but by the end he must have just been sick of running with me because he kind of pushed me up and around that lapped car. But you know, he was going forward and he needed to do that to get some clear air, so congratulations to him."

From that point on, McKennedy was long gone; the only thing that slowed him down was a caution flag for a spinning Kevin Iannarelli on lap 97, erasing the quarter-track lead McKennedy built over Ascutney racer Dwight Jarvis, who passed Seuss, of Hampstead, N.H., for second place on lap 87. David Pinkham of Buxton, Me. slipped under Seuss five laps after Jarvis for third place. Eddie Dachenhausen of Danbury, Conn. finished fifth.

"This is our third win, we're leading the points. I feel like we should have won a few more races, but we just had some mechanical failures that took us out," said McKennedy, who also has victories at Twin State and Seekonk this season, and was in contention late at Monadnock and Thunder Road before trouble. "I can't say enough [about the team], the car's been running great. I think the biggest thing is we have a notebook this year, you know, we raced all these tracks last year and some the year before, so we know what we need as far as suspension and stuff like that when we get to the track and it's showing this year. We unload and nine out of ten times it's fast."

OFFICIAL RESULTS -- Maine-ly Action Sports 100
True Value Modified Racing Series -- Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
Saturday, July 18, 2009

Pos.-Driver-Hometown

1. Jon McKennedy, Chelmsford, Mass.
2. Dwight Jarvis, Ascutney
3. David Pinkham, Buxton, Me.
4. Andy Seuss, Hampstead, N.H.
5. Eddie Dachenhausen, Danbury, Conn.
6. Peter Jarvis, Ascutney
7. Rowan Pennink, Huntington Valley, Penn.
8. Rob Goodenough, West Swanzey, N.H.
9. Jack Bateman, Canaan, N.H.
10. Steve Masse, Bellingham, Mass.
11. Sean Bodreau, Claremont, N.H.
12. Eddy Spiers, Beacon Falls, Conn.
13. Chris Pasteryak, Lisbon, Conn.
14. Les Hinckley, Windsor Locks, Conn.
15. Ken Barry, Preston, Conn.
16. Jacob Dore, Sanford, Me.
17. Mike Douglas, Jr., Auburn, N.H.
18. Jimmy Dolan, Bethel, Conn.
19. Joe Doucette, Framingham, Mass.
20. Kevin Iannarelli, Maynard, Mass.
21. Tony Ricci, Westbrook, Me.
22. Mike Holdridge, Madison, Conn.

(PHOTO: Jon McKennedy in victory lane at Oxford Plains Speedway. It was his third True Value Modified win of 2009; photo by Justin St. Louis/VMM)