What does an average finish of 1.50, leading 43% of your division’s feature laps, and a division-high 3 wins get you? Ask Sunapee’s Dana Smith. Smith comes into Championship Night with a 45-point advantage on Connecticut’s Nick Salva and while it may be a longshot Salva can overtake the point leader this Friday, Smith won’t take anything for granted. Smith has been on the accelerator all season. He was the opening night winner leading all 30 laps. A win in Race # 3 and # 5 complemented his initial win while finishing no worse than 2nd.  Should Smith be celebrating a championship in front of the fans Friday, it would be his first Tour-Type Modified championship.

While Nick Salva has been racing for the partial schedules for the better part of 9 seasons, this is his first at Claremont Speedway. Salva has two podium finishes and six top 5’s in 6 races here. Salva cut his teeth at Stafford Motor Speedway in the DARE Stocks later moving to SK Modifieds. In addition to driving the #44 Michaud Racing entry, Salva races at Thompson Motor Speedway in the Sunoco Modifieds.
Christopher Bolton is currently 3rd in points with 240, 26 behind Salva. The Weare, NH pilot has three top 5’s, and 6 top 10’s. Brandee Tree has enjoyed a successful season thus far as she enters the night 4th in the point standings, only 16 behind Bolton. Tree has one top 5 finish.

Claremont’s Jeffrey Murray rides 5th with 217 points. Murray started hot out of the trailer with two runner-up finishes to begin the season. He has three podium finishes, and five top 10’s in 5 races. Todd Patnode sits 13 markers behind Murray in 6th. Patnode swept the two segment races in the Daddy’s Pizza Twin 30’s on September 8th and also was crowned the Sportsman Modified Champion at Monadnock Speedway this season.

High school senior, Dylan Rock, is 7th in points with 185. Rock has one podium finish this season and has been the victim of some bad luck. He has four top 10’s in 5 races. The “Cornish Comet” Bucky Demers is 8th with 158 points. Demers has missed the last two races but has one top 5 and four top 10’s.

Brian Robie is 9th with 135 points. Robie grabbed one feature win, his first-career Tour-Type Modified win, on Race # 4. Robie has two top 5’s in 3 races this season. Cameron Sontag rounds out the top 10 with 107 points.
While the Casella Modifieds have been rained out three times this season, it all comes down to the final night for Smith or Salva to punch their name on the impressive list of Tour-Type Modified champions at Claremont Speedway. It should be an exciting night at the Thrasher Road speedplant.

With 9 different feature winners, 13 different heat race winners, and 19 different lap leaders, the R.E. Hinkley Super Streets have been one of the most competitive racing divisions in all of New England. With one race left in the season, only two drivers are left standing with a chance to win the championship and it will be the first one for both of them.

“Radical” Ricky Bly has had sole possession of the top spot since Race 8 and has outlasted the competition to this point leading Dylan Bodreau by 33 points heading into Friday. Last year’s runner-up, has posted a division-leading 3 feature wins, and 87 feature laps lead as well. His nine top 3’s are tops in the division as well. Since Race 8, he has four podiums in five races during that span. This is Bly’s 17th race season as he seeks his first-ever championship.

3rd generation racer Dylan Bodreau comes into championship night within distance of the title. Bodreau is enjoying a great season thus far and has done so in a stealth-like manner. Bodreau picked up his feature win on Race # 9, has posted five top 3’s, and is tied for the division lead with ten top 5’s. He is also one of three drivers to have recorded at least twelve top 10’s in 13 races. Bodreau last finished 2nd in points in 2011 and is seeking his first championship in his 11th season.

While Bodreau will pull every trick out of the Bodreau Racing stable to overtake Bly, he has 2nd year driver, Hayden Scott, only 25 points behind in 3rd. Scott opened the season with his first career Super Street win in the Mike Richardson Memorial 75 and won later in season on Race 12. Scott has been in the top 5 in points all season. He has four podium finishes, six top 5’s, and just like Bodreau and Bly, twelve top 10’s. Scott is 3rd in the division with 66 feature laps led as well.

Heading into September 8th, 2015 track champion Jack McClay was only 16 points behind Bly in the Newport Chevrolet Weekly Racing Series Point Standings. Finishes of 21st (Lap 1 wreck) and 15th (mechanical issue fighting for the lead) in the past two events has sent McClay back to 4th in points, 25 points behind Scott. McClay has 2 feature wins on the season, six podiums, nine top 5’s, and ten top 10’s.

Positions 4 through 7 could change easily change hands before the night is over as 2012 track champion, Craig Smith (23/52) sits in 5th with 522 points, 2 points behind McClay. In what has been an emotional year for Smith, he has a feature win, three podiums, eight top 5’s, and eleven top 10’s doing so with two different cars.
Rookie Craig Smith (97) has 513 points and is 6th heading into the final night with his 1st career Super Street win under his belt. Smith has logged three podiums, five top 5’s, and ten top 10’s. His 5 heat race wins is tied for tops in the division with Ben Poland.

Poland has 500 points on the year and is 7th. Poland has four top 3’s, five top 5’s, and eight top 10’s. The 2011 Super Street champion finished 4th in points in 2016.
“Judge” Joe Brown (353 points), Bryan Town (353 points), and Kenny Fowler (334 points-1 win) make up the remainder of the top 10. Andrew Martell (324 points) and Ryan Currier (321 points) are lurking outside the top 10 and hope to have good showings this week.

With an average starting field of 21 cars this year, 33 points is within striking distance. From 1st to 21st, there is a 42-point span. Whoever ends up taking home the title of 2017 R.E. Hinkley Super Street Champion, they did so by beating the best in one of the best racing divisions in the Northeast.  

Even though Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey folded up their tents earlier this year, the Pepsi Limited Sportsman division will contin-ue the tradition of the three ring circus this Friday night as their  division boasts the most championship attractions and the clos- est point battle. “Polish Prince” Tyler Janovsky, Chris Colburn, and “Hot Stuff” Kenny Thompson have been atop the Newport Chev-  rolet Weekly Racing Series Point Standings all season long and it all comes down to one final show.
 
Janovsky currently sits in the center ring with a 15-point lead on  Colburn and 23 points on Thompson. A high school senior at       Twin Valley High School, Janovsky has led the point standings       since Race # 2 with 2 wins, 3 runner-ups and 3 thirds. His 65 laps led is tops in division.
 
The hottest driver right now in the division may very well be Colb-urn. With 2 feature wins and 10 top 5’s over the 12 races sched- uled, the rookie Colburn has struck lighting (McQueen) in a bottle at the right time. At the beginning of the month, the 2nd generat- ion racer trailed Janovsky by 29 points and over that three race    span since, he has closed the gap to within 15 points. Colburn al-so is tied for the division lead with 3 heat race wins.
 
Thompson, the other high school senior (Fall Mountain Regional), leads the division with 3 feature wins, adding 6 top 3’s, and 9 top 5’s to his dance card. Thompson was on his way to his 4th feature win last week until a wheel bearing failed on the # 39 ending his night. As a result, an 18-point deficit grew to 25 heading into this Friday night.
 
The players from positions 4 through 10 are penciled in but not  necessarily in the order in which they arrive. Cornish’s Chris Gil-  bert rides 4th in points after missing the first 3 weeks. Gilbert has 1 podium (2nd-Race # 8) and 7 top 5’s and is ahead of Joe Te-       treault by 16 points. Tetreault has 358 points with 1 feature win and 3 podium finishes to his credit while rookie Briana Akusis,        runs 6th in points with 337. Josh Ruel (312), 2-time winner David Greenslit (287), 2016 champion Scott Vien (240), and Cote Swen- son (234) round out the field.
 
By comparison, last year, Vien headed into championship night    with a 3-point lead on Colburn’s father, Gary, and 36 points on      Janovsky. When the dust settled, Vien grabbed the feature win      and his 1st title. Colburn finished 2nd and lost by 6 points. Will      the “Polish Prince” do what he needs to do to be crowned track   champion? Will Colburn add another championship to the name? Will “Hot Stuff” catch fire and win both the heat and feature to     give him a shot at the title? Any way you slice it, someone will be  drinking a nice cold Pepsi as there will be a new first-time champ-ion!