The Juice: Practice Was Actually A Lot Of Fun

-by Justin St. Louis
VMM Editor

For most racing folks up where we're located, this weekend is a big one. For Late Model fans, the American-Canadian Tour kicks its 25th season off at Lee USA Speedway on the New Hampshire seacoast on Sunday, while the open-wheel fans can enjoy the first-ever Modified Racing Series/Race of Champions Tour showdown at the all-new Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, New York. A bit further east, the Pro All Stars Series Super Late Models open their North schedule at Speedway 95 near Bangor, Maine.

As much as we'd love to be in two or three places at once, VMM is headed to Lee to find out who the first qualifier for the ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway will be.

Now if only Mother Nature can cooperate.

***

Getting back to Thunder Road for Tuesday's practice session -- strangely enough -- did this soul a whole lot of good. Yeah, we started the season a few weeks ago with an actual race at Waterford, but it was cold, windy, wet, and far from home. In fact, there was a pretty decent snowstorm that we trudged through on the way back north.

But the weather at Thunder Road was pretty close to perfect for mid-April in Vermont, and the ride home was about three-and-a-half hours shorter. In fact, I even got back in time for supper, in time to tell my new puppy, Witten, that no, this was my spaghetti, not his.

We got a pretty-much-complete list of the Late Models and Tiger Sportsmen that were there, but God help me if I was going to get all of the numberless and even paintless Street Stocks and Warriors.

Late Models we counted: Norm Andrews, Joey Becker, Cody Blake, Nathan Brown, Craig Bushey, Brooks Clark, John Donahue (two cars), Aaron Fellows, Jamie Fisher, Grant Folsom, Reno Gervais, Chip Grenier, Brian Hoar, Joey Laquerre, Cris Michaud, Doug Murphy, Scott Payea, Dave Pembroke, Chris Riendeau, Phil Scott, Nick Sweet, Dave Whitcomb, Matt White.

And Tigers: Eric Badore, Mike Billado, Jeff Bousquet, Jason Corliss, Josh Demers, Alex Ferno, David Finck, Shawn Fleury, Neal Foster, Kevin Godfrey, Troy Gray, Jimmy Hebert, Joel Hodgdon, John Lambert, Mike Martin, George May, Derrick O'Donnell, Matt Potter, Tim Potter, Ricky Roberts, Tucker Williams, Mike Ziter.

***

John Donahue had both of his cars at Thunder Road, including one with the new Ford crate engine. Donahue was happy with the switch and basically echoed the thoughts of others that have tried out the new powerplant.

"It's got a longer power curve," he said. "I feel like all my speed is at the end of the straightaway, rather than out of the corner with the Chevy motor." Donahue said he thinks it will be very interesting at shorter tracks like Thunder Road. He also practiced the engine at White Mountain Motorsports Park last week and was pleased with the performance of it there.

***

Our favorite Tweet of the week: "@LaxSpeedway: We are proud to announce that Festival Foods' Oktoberfest Bratwursts are the Speedway's official Bratwurst this year."

Gotta hand it to LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway for constant promotion. The Wisconsin track's annual Oktoberfest is a national short track happening, and to me, the Bratwurst thing seems like a fantastic year-long reminder of that event. (And honestly, who wouldn't want to eat a couple of those every Saturday night at the races?) Good work, LaCrosse.

It's been suggested that VMM should sign some sort of endorsement deal for an official food.

I wonder if I can get Mike Perrotte to get on board with this. Eight Airborne Speedway Michigan Dogs a week and you've got a deal.

***

Check out these cool videos produced by the Air National Guard in association with Vermont's own Latitude 43 Motorsports. And while you're at it, check out some cool videos we put together from Thunder Road.

***

An interesting deal: Jay Webb will be back behind the wheel of a Tiger Sportsman car this season. Webb struck a deal with car owner Chris Burnett that brings a new engine under the hood of the #19 car driven weekly at Thunder Road by Neal Foster in exchange for a seat in the car at the four ACT Tiger Sportsman Series races at White Mountain, Canaan, Thunder Road, and Riverside. Webb will also turn some wrenches on the car when Foster drives.

The Milton racer won the 1997 Renegade championship at Airborne and was one of the Tiger division's top racers in the early 2000s with six feature wins there and in long-distance series events. He and Burnett have each spent the last few years as crew members for RPM Motorsports on the ACT Late Model Tour, winning titles with both Jean-Paul Cyr and Brian Hoar.

I'll say it now: it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see Jay Webb snare a win or even contend for the Tiger Sportsman Series championship this year. On top of that, Foster made big gains at the end of last year, and his program should improve quite a bit more this season with Webb in the pits.

***

Notably absent from Thunder Road Late Model practice: Jean-Paul Cyr, Tracie Bellerose, Brent Dragon, Eric Chase, Mike Bailey, Tony Andrews, Rich Lowrey, Dylan Smith, and Tom Tiller.

That's right, Tom Tiller was not there. Come to think of it, he's missed the last few practices, too. Hmm.

***

The best moment from practice was a conversation with Cris Michaud, who has become a gold mine for instantly classic quotes. You see, Michaud is as much a hockey fan as he is a racer, loving specifically the Montréal Canadiens. (He's a smart man. Habs over Washington in six. Ovechkin who?)

While we can't reprint everything from the conversation, it started something like this:

VMM: "Hey Cris, how are ya?"
Michaud: "(Expletive) Canadiens... They can't (expletive) get one (expletive) win before the (expletive) playoffs?"

...and it went on from there. We feel your pain, Cris Michaud, we feel your pain. Hang on to 1993. It could happen again.

***

THIS WEEK:

Saturday, April 17
Airborne Speedway, Plattsburgh, N.Y. -- 1:00pm (Open Practice)
Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, N.Y. -- 12:00pm (Quarter-Midgets, NETS Trucks, Enduro)
Canaan Fair Speedway, Canaan, N.H. -- 9:30am (Tire Sale)
Monadnock Speedway, Winchester, N.H. -- 12:00pm (Open Practice)

Sunday, April 18
Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, N.Y. -- 1:00pm (MRS/ROC Modifieds)
Big Daddy's Speedbowl, Rumney, N.H. -- 12:00pm (Car Show)
Lee USA Speedway, Lee, N.H. -- 1:00pm (ACT Late Model Tour)
Twin State Speedway, Claremont, N.H. -- 12:00pm (Open Practice)


TOURING SERIES:

ACT Late Model Tour: Sun., April 18 -- Lee USA Speedway, Lee, N.H. (1:00pm)
Modified Racing Series: Sun., April 18 -- Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, N.Y. (1:00pm)
Mr. DIRTcar 358-Modified Series: Sat., April 17 -- Can-Am Speedway, LaFargeville, N.Y. (4:00pm)
NASCAR Nationwide Series: Sat., April 17 -- Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Tx. (9:00pm)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Sun., April 18 -- Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Tx. (3:00pm)
Pro All Stars Series: Sun., April 18 -- Speedway 95, Hermon, Me. (1:30pm)

Brackett Encouraged by Truck Debut at Martinsville

Despite failing to qualify, Mainer plans 6 more NCWTS events

STRONG, Me. -- Dale Brackett may not have qualified for his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut at Martinsville Speedway two weeks ago, but it doesn't have him down. In fact, he's thinking much more positively now than he was before the event.

"I was in the back of the hauler on the way down to Martinsville, really down on myself and doubting everything," Brackett admits. "But that's gone now."

The 31 year-old Maine racer took what he described as "a huge jump" by breaking into the Truck series. His wife, Valerie, purchased two trucks from Tim Bainey, Jr.'s team with the modest goal of her husband -- a former asphalt racer at Unity (Me.) Raceway and dirt Late Model driver in the Carolinas -- simply qualifying for races and getting approved to run bigger tracks.

During practice sessions in his first attempt at the Martinsville half-mile, Brackett was only about a second off the pace of eventual winner Kevin Harvick and point leader Timothy Peters. Even better, in Brackett's mind, is the fact that his truck was not in faster "qualifying trim" while virtually every other truck was.

Brackett has made some connections that he thinks will help, including former Truck and Nationwide Series champion Johnny Benson.

"My crew chief is Shain Romanoski, and his brother Vern races [ISMA] Supermodifieds. Johnny Benson is into the Supers, and we've gotten to know him pretty well throught that. He's helped us a bit," said Brackett. "We ask a lot of questions. We've got a huge learning curve and the guys on the team are all volunteers. They all bought their own NASCAR licenses at $550 each, they paid for their own drug tests, and they took time off work and used up vacation days just to go to Martinsville."

Brackett fell victim to the NASCAR rulebook when qualifying was cancelled by rain, and as a first-timer with the series and no provisional starting spot to fall back on, he was sent home to Maine.

But, Brackett and his team came back with confidence. "We belong there," he said. "We have good equipment and we ran well. We have a ton of passion, focus, and determination, as corny as that sounds. We're hoping that [NASCAR, teams, and sponsors] will take us as seriously as we take it."

Brackett finshed 12th in the first leg of the five-race Pro All Stars Series National Championship at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida in January, but decided after Martinsville that he will forgo his plans to complete the entire PASS National schedule; he did not make the trip to Hickory, N.C., for last weekend's Easter Bunny 150. Instead, he will focus on returning to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in six more events: Dover Int'l Speedway (May 14), O'Reilly Raceway Park (July 23), Bristol Motor Speedway (Aug. 18), New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Sept. 18), a return trip to Martinsville (Oct. 23), and the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 19.

"We're running Homestead so that NASCAR can hopefully declare us eligible to run the superspeedways," Brackett explained. "I don't want to be a big talker, and it all depends on sponsorship of course, but we're looking at racing the full schedule in 2011."

He said he is still considering running occasional PASS events this season, including the PASS North opener at Speedway 95 in Bangor, Me., on April 18.

Brackett understands that his goals are big, but he says he and his team are willing to work hard to find out what they're made of.

"We're trying to make our own opportunity here. It's a huge jump from where we've been, and we know that. There's no real way to prepare for it," he says. "But you've either got it or you don't."

The Juice: Racing, Debates, and a Major Award

Woo! Racing season! The top two full-fendered touring series in the northeast kick off their seasons on Sunday, and if you're not at a race track, you're missing out.

***

It sure was good to take in some practice action at Thunder Road on Tuesday. A bit chilly toward the end, but still real good. And seeing 70 race cars on a Vermont Tuesday night in April is incredible.

Some of the surprises included Joey Doiron of Berwick, Me., who came to T-Road for the first time. "It was a long haul, but I got to skip school, so it was worth it," he said. Doiron, 17, held his own against the big guns, but more importantly, got some good seat time at a new track. "I actually liked it. People tell horror stories about hitting that wall in Turn 4, but I didn't have any problems. It's a neat place." Doiron will split his time in 2009 between the Pro Series (Super Late Models) at his home track, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, and the American-Canadian Tour.

Other Late Model young guns on the track included Kyle Caron, who at 18 looked like an elder statesman, and 16 year-olds Dylan Smith and Steven Legendre. Smith spun twice, while Legendre left a donut on the door of Brooks Clark's car after some close-quarters action.
We didn't bring a stopwatch, but the word on the street is that Nick Sweet might give the Thursday-night crowd a pretty good go at it this year, according to yesterday's unofficial lap times. Dave Pembroke and Brent Dragon were also at the top of the charts.

A nice-looking field of Tiger Sportsmen, Street Stocks, and Junkyard Warriors was also on hand. If you want our opinion, there may not be a better looking race car in the pits this year than David Allen's #11 Street Stock (right). David Greenslit's #20 car is pretty sharp, too. Check out Leif Tillotson's VLFPhotos.com gallery here.

***

Man, are they getting it done at Airborne. The progress is incredible - look at those banks!

***

Why am I getting into dirt racing this year? Because of pictures like this. That's Orwell driver Tim LaDuc at Albany-Saratoga Speedway at a recent practice. (Dave D'Alessandro/CVRA photo)

***

Thanks to Jason Schoellen and Bill Kimm, there's a raging debate on the message boards of nascar.com about whether or not the Sprint Cup Series should have more night races. In what began as one of the website's 'Head2Head' features, Schoellen was in favor of the idea, citing the fact that "Saturday night races hold true to the racing roots of local short-track events. It's what most drivers, especially those raised on dirt, are used to. Fans could watch the Cup race at night like they would at home and still be back in time for church on Sunday and work on Monday."

Kimm was agin the idea: "When I think NASCAR, I think Sunday afternoons with my dad ... I don't think about racing under the lights until well past midnight. Bristol ... remained the only nighttime event until the early '90s when Richmond and Charlotte added lights. Now, with money the driving force and TV ad time premium in the prime-time hours, we are seeing more and more nighttime events. Do we need more? Absolutely not."

As it is now, there are 12 such races on the schedule including the non-points Budweiser Shootout and Sprint All-Star Race, with nine of them running during primetime on Saturday nights between April 18 (Phoenix, this weekend) and October 17 (Charlotte), or, short track racing season.

It is this writer's opinion (and that of many on the nascar.com forum) that Saturday-night TV races do nothing to help the sport of auto racing as a whole. As Schoellen suggested, it is a proven fact that race fans often stay at home on the loveseat to watch the Sprint Cup Series under the lights, rather than attending a local short track that they regularly visit, like Bear Ridge or Riverside or Airborne. And if Schoellen was really concerned about "holding true" to the roots of short track racing, he would see that and understand that those TV events hurt the short tracks.
Kimm, and a lot of forum participants, touched on the long history of NASCAR running on Sunday afternoons. "Don't get me wrong, I like night races," Kimm wrote. "There's something to be said about seeing the cars sparkle under a fluorescent glow at tracks like Bristol and Daytona. But it should be a special event, not the norm - it takes away the uniqueness."

Poster 'Chevyfan41' agreed, also bringing up the short track thing: "NO! Saturday night is historically local dirt track night. Sunday afternoon is when Cup races should be!"

Followed in the very next post by 'kenhow8': "Yes, they should race as many as possible! The Sunday afternoon races are getting boring since they started racing (the) COT."

(Someone should probably inform 'kenhow8' that the cars, tracks, drivers, and therefore races, won't change whether the sun is out or not.)

One thing that bothers me is the idea posted by many that they grew up on Saturday-night racing at their local short track, and therefore that's where NASCAR belongs. I ask the question: If you enjoy the local track so much, why don't you continue to support it? I mean, TiVo and DVR have been around for a while now, and you can always fall back on the ol' reliable VCR if you need to. Tape the NASCAR race, go out and cheer on some local heroes. That's what I do, anyway.

Whether I'm right or wrong - and I'm probably wrong - the debate is interesting. There are positives to running the night races - increased TV exposure and advertising for the sponsors that support the upper levels of NASCAR, and some of the hosting tracks do see an increase in attendance - but surely as many negatives that affect more than just the top-tier NASCAR teams. Let 'em know what you think.

***

Montréal in 6. That's all I'm saying.

***

The ACT/Ford crate engine test went as well as expected, says Cris Michaud. He and Eric Williams took part in a practice session designed specifically to test the new Ford R&D powerplant on Tuesday afternoon at Thunder Road, to directly compare on-track performance against the exisitng Chevrolet 'spec' engine currently used in ACT racing.

Michaud and Williams raced each other at speed in several situations, including Michaud running in front of and behind Williams, and on both inside and outside lanes. Like his previous test with the engine at White Mountain Motorsports Park, Michaud was pleased with the results.

"Again, the lap times were the same here at Thunder Road as last year," he said. "The horsepower is exactly the same as the Chevy motor on the (dynamometer) sheet, but the torque is a bit different. There is definitely more high-end torque with the Ford, where the Chevy has better low-end power."

Williams said he thought Michaud's car performed as well as it would have with the Chevrolet engine, although he factored Thunder Road itself into the equation.

"It's hard to tell at Thunder Road, Thunder Road's not a motor track, so I wouldn't judge anything from it," Williams said. "I've run here with a plug wire off and run better than I did with it on. I ain't taking much from it."

Williams also thinks Michaud might have been playing a game of possum. "They're playing their cards," he suggested. "You know what I mean? Come on, they didn't start racing yesterday. They're better than they showed, and they were good."

It looks like the true test will be on Sunday at the ACT Late Model Tour opener at Lee USA Speedway on the New Hampshire seacoast. Michaud will be running the Ford engine in a race for the first time.

***

Going quickly back to last week's piece on car counts, we've got some good news to report: The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour attracted 25 cars for its event last Saturday night at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, N.C., while the PASS South 'Easter Bunny 150' brought 42 Super Late Models to Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway. The WSMT's previous season high had been just 20; the PASS event was only the second race on the series' schedule, but still more-than-doubled it's opening day count.

***

Do you know what that is? Do you? That's a major award. And it's mine. On the fridge. (Nevermind the Lightning McQueen magnet, here, focus.)

What's it for? It's the Pac Man Award.

What's the Pac Man Award? Uh... well, actually, most dodgeballs to the face.

...But it's mine.

***

Okay, race fans, here's your assignment: This weekend, get out and enjoy some racing. It doesn't matter if you go to Lee USA for the ACT race, Speedway 95 for the PASS North race, or if you clear out a track in your hayfield. It's the official beginning of spring!

Teenager Legendre Headed to PASS

"Steven Legendre is not your typical kid," says Cris Michaud. "You know how kids his age are, but he's respectful. I'd just as soon go out to dinner with him as anything."

It's a nice compliment to be paid, no doubt, and Michaud, the three-time track champion at Barre's Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, knows Legendre well enough to be confident in the young man's character.

Sure, some things about him are typical: he plays basketball for his high school team, the Danville Indians, he goes to proms, he's one of the fun guys. And like most sixteen year-olds, he likes to drive fast.

But that's where Legendre seperates himself from most fast-driving high schoolers; he does his speeding on the race track. And next weekend, he'll go even faster.

"We figured we'd try moving up a step this year," he says.

It seems like since his first race in 2005, all Steven Legendre has done is 'move up a step'. At 13, he carried the checkered flag in only his second start in the four-cylinder Kids Truck division at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, N.H. Just days after turning 15 years old, he retired from the youth class (with 14 wins) and moved into a V8-powered Chevrolet Camaro in White Mountain's Strictly Stock division, winning in his fourth start. And last year he moved to the track's headline Late Model class, and again it took only four races for Legendre - still just 15 at the time - to be a winner. He earned a second victory late in the year and finished sixth in points, winning the Rookie of the Year honors.

On Saturday, he moves up for the third time in two years, to the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) North Super Late Models. Driving a new Dale Shaw Race Cars chassis, Legendre will head to Maine's Speedway 95 near Bangor to take on the likes of Ben Rowe, Johnny Clark, Cassius Clark, and the young driver that blazed a trail easily comparable to Legendre's, D.J. Shaw, Dale's son.

The similarities between Shaw and Legendre are striking: both young drivers' fathers have checkered résumés behind the wheel, in the pits, and as chassis fabricators, both youngsters were instantly successful in White Mountain's Late Model division (as a rookie, Shaw was the track's champion in 2006 at age 16), and both are promising young racers in the PASS North class. Shaw was a two-time PASS North winner last year.

Legendre's father and crew chief, Kendell, has also called the shots for Michaud since 2007. The pair won a division-leading four races last year, narrowly missing the "King of the Road" title. The elder Legendre was a formidable competitor himself, winning multiple Late Model features at Thunder Road and White Mountain during his career. Kendell will again serve as crew chief for Michaud at Thunder Road and during a part-time American-Canadian Tour schedule, in addition to turning wrenches on his son's PASS car. And at times, he'll have two cars to work on, as Steven plans to bring the Late Model out to run against Michaud at bigger events like the TD Banknorth 250 at Oxford Plains (Me.) Speedway and Thunder Road's Labor Day and Milk Bowl events.

"We had a good year last year, and we wanted to give the (Super Late Models) a shot," Steven said. "I think to begin with, we just want to finish races every week and get some top-tens. But as the year progresses, we're going to try to win some races. We'd like to go south and do some racing, too."

But at 16, is he ready to win? Is he ready to face some of the nation's toughest race teams down south? A PASS Super Late Model is a faster, stronger monster than an ACT-type Late Model, and successful or not, Legendre has only a dozen or 15 Late Model races under his belt. Can he handle it?

"Oh, I think so, and he'll be good in those cars," said Michaud. "There's a learning curve, but by mid-way through the year he'll have it figured out. He'll make every race because PASS doesn't usually have enough cars to send home (in qualifying rounds), and he'll get some good seat time on the track. He can handle the power, and he's definitely got his family's support. Once they get their program together, there's a really good chance you'll see him running up front and maybe winning races. You throw in the Late Model stuff he's going to be doing this year - I think running Thunder Road or ACT a few times will really help him get comfortable - and he's going to have a good year."

And Michaud might be right, so far he's been a winner in everything he's driven. After all, at 16, Steven Legendre is not your typical kid.

(Photos courtesy White Mountain Motorsports Park/stevenlegendre.com)