For the 25th edition of the
Northeast Motorsports Expo we are going to showcase the 25
top contributors to the sport over the 25 years of the show's
existence.
TWO FOR MAINE YOUNG GUN
THERIAULT: An NHMS Double Dip
ACT
Invitational, NASCAR K&N Pro Series Debut On Weekend
Slate
FORT KENT, Maine – Austin Theriault will
take part in the biggest weekend of racing in New
England with two opportunities at New Hampshire Motor
Speedway.
Theriault will try for his first career
ACT Invitational victory on Saturday, September 22, in
his family-owned ACT Late Model Tour ride not long after
making his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut for Go Green
Racing a little earlier in the afternoon.
The
18-year-old Brad Keselowski Racing development driver is
looking forward to a busy weekend on New England's only
one-mile speedway.
“I'm looking forward to it,”
said Theriault, who finished second in an ACT race at
New Hampshire last August. “We've run good at Loudon
before. Last year, we had a couple of good runs there.
We're coming off a little momentum, even though it's
been a while since we've been there.”
As the
winner of the inaugural “2012
Maine Young Guns” competition co-sponsored by Go
Green Racing and the Mainely Motorsports television
show, Theriault beat out nine other Maine stock car
drivers under the age of 21 for the honor of competing
in the G-Oil 100 – the lone NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
stop of the season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Theriault will drive the No. 38 Go Green Racing Ford
Fusion for owner Archie St. Hillaire and crew chief Todd
Graffam.
“Go Green Racing, Archie St. Hilliare,
Steve Perry – there's a whole bunch of people that have
put a whole lot of work into this race. Giving a young
person an opportunity like this is something that
doesn't happen every day,” Theriault said. “I know the
guys have been working hard on the car to make this
possible, and a lot of people behind the scenes that
don't get talked about a lot have really put in a ton of
work.
“It's a team effort, and I'm honored to be
the person behind the wheel and representing, in a
sense, Maine.”
Practice and qualifying for the
G-Oil 100 is scheduled for Friday at New Hampshire, with
the race taking the green flag on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
But only part of Theriault's focus is on his debut
in a NASCAR-sanctioned touring series. He's also keeping
a very keen eye on trying to get to Victory Lane in the
ACT Invitational in the No. 57 Pelletier Ford Ford
Fusion.
Forty-three Late Model drivers
representing the ACT Late Model Tour, ACT Castrol Series
in Quebec and weekly tracks across the northeast and
Canada have been invited to participate in the fourth
annual event during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Sylvania 300 weekend. Practice is scheduled for 8 a.m.
on Saturday with the main event at approximately 4:30
p.m.
After finishing second at New Hampshire last
August, he'd like to win on The Magic Mile. It's the
place that helped jump-start Theriault's ACT career.
“Last year, we were more cautiously optimistic when
we went to races – we weren't quite sure going to the
track every week that could run in the Top-5. We were
still figuring things out as a team,” Theriault said.
“But we finished second at Loudon, and then by the end
of the year we got things moving and ended the season
off on a good note.
“Loudon
was that point where we were running on all eight
cylinders.”
Crew chief Mickey Green said that a
big part of the team's raised expectations when it goes
to New Hampshire now is the driver himself.
“The
biggest thing we learned from the first year to the
second year was that Austin obviously learned the track
and got more familiar with it,” Green said. “It wasn't
so much what we did to the car, but what he wanted in
the car, what he wanted it to feel like.
“When
you go in there with limited practice time on Saturday,
it won't take him but two or three laps to say whether
it's good or not good – where some guys take longer than
that. They haven't had the run where they can say, 'This
is what we need to be better.' Austin can do that now.”
The votes for the Maine Young Guns held
at the NEM Expo have
been tallied! Bradley
Babb - Beech Ridge Pro Series Evan Beaulieu - Nelcar Legends
Corey Bubar - Beech Ridge Pro Series Joey Doiron - PASS SLM
Ryan Hewins - Oxford Strictly Dustin Hubbard - PASS SLM
Shelby Kimball -Speedway 95 Strictly Willie Pelotte - Unity
Late Model Bobby Timmons - Beech Ridge Pro Series Austin
Theriault - ACT TOUR
THE "MAINE YOUNG GUNS" COMPETITION for a GO GREEN Racing, K&N Series East
Race.
A Maine-based driver in
the 15-21 age bracket will be chosen to drive the GO GREEN
RACING NASCAR K&N Pro Series East car at New Hampshire Motor
Speedway in the September 2012 race.
The competition will
be run by a committee consisting of Archie St. Hilaire (GO GREEN
RACING owner), Stephen Perry (host of Mainely Motorsports TV),
Marco Thomas (owner of the Racin' Paper), Ricky Craven (two-time
Sprint Cup Series winner), Andy Santerre (four-time K&N East
Series champion), and Brad Leighton (eight-time winner at NHMS).
Expo attendees may vote for their favorite driver. The top
10 vote getters will keep the committe informed as to how their
racing seasons are going. The committee will select the final 3
who will then work with the GO GREEN Team at the July 14th
NASCAR Nationwide Series race at "The Magic Mile."
In
August a winner will be chosen to race the K&N car at NHMS on
September 22nd. Several test days will help prepare the winner
for their BIG CHANCE.
NORTHERN NEW
ENGLAND'S STOCK CAR RACING SHOWCASE
PORTLAND EXPO • PORTLAND, MAINE February 24th •
February 25th THE
DISPLAY AWARD WINNERS
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