The Chase for $10,000 Moves on to Mad Dog

The ProTruck Challenge gets back to action at Monadnock Speedway Saturday night, June 8th.  The 2024 ProTruck season started with a rainy weekend at Thompson Speedway's Ice Breaker.   Unfortunately Mother Nature interfered and caused the postponement of the season's first event. That race will be completed at Thompson's World Series Weekend in October.    The ProTruck teams soon headed to the New London-Waterford Speedbowl's Blast off weekend next. This event served as the 2024 season opener.
 
      Multi-time ProTruck Champion Allen Coates had a fast truck. The popular veteran was fast in qualifying, but had mechanical woes sideline him as the ProTrucks went to grid.  With Coates out, Randy Burr took ever the pole position. Tyler Chapman lined up second. Duane Noll slotted in third. Todd Taylor lined up 4th and Nikolas Frechetter rounded out the top five.  When it came to the race, it was Duane Noll that set himself above the rest. He made his way to the front early and looked untouchable until a late race caution.  The caution closed up the field and set up a Noll vs Chapman slugfest that ended up with Noll spinning and the top 4 all being sent to the back of the field.  

      The 47 of Todd Taylor and the 12 of Ed Ryan Jr. benefited from the melee up front. Taylor was on the point and Ryan lined up second. They were left to a one lap shootout for the win from the inherited front row . Taylor edged Ryan to the line for Victory number 1 of his ProTour career after an exciting door to door battle. 

      Taylor's win earned him the Evolve Bank & Trust Mortgage New Winners Bonus. Ryan had to settle for second.  #42 Chris Palamar finished 3rd in his first tour event .  He received the NorthEast Truck & Auto Hard Charger Award.  Jason Paquette brought the #94 home in 4th.  #52 Mercedes Caron scored a 5th pace finish.  This was her best tour run. Tyler Chapman turned the quickest lap of the weekend which earned his team the Taylor Lawn Care / Karns Automotive fast time bonus.

    Hudson Speedway was up next and Duane Noll was still the guy to beat.  He led 42 of the 55 laps enroute to a solid victory. He was also able to win the Fast time Bonus presented by Taylor Lawn Care and Karns Automotive. 

         Randy Burr in the 32 and Nikolas Frechette in the 11 battled throughout the event. With each restart, whoever was in third would sneak by the person in second. Burr was able to prevail and take the runner up spot . Frechette rounded out the top three.

      The 1ne of Dennis Charette had major mechanical issues throughout the day. Come feature time the team fought their way to 4th earning the NorthEast Truck & Auto Hard Charger Award. RJ Surdell rounded out the top five.

    The season is made up of 10 races.  Teams need to be in the top 8 in points at the end of the 8th race to qualify for the Chase. The pressure builds race by race to move up in the standings. Heading into Monadnock, the 2 team of Duane Noll is holding a one point lead over Todd Taylor.  #32 Randy Burr is in third.  Chris Palamar is the leading Rookie.  He is in 4th. #11 Nikolas Frechette rounds out the top five. #94 Jason Paquette, #52 Mercedes Caron and #5 Chris Taylor round out the top eight   Eight teams will make the playoffs. The Chase is on.

      Evolve Bank & Truck Mortgage sponsored the series in 2023. For 2024 they offer new winner awards to both the Supermodifieds and the ProTrucks. The $10,000 points fund that 8 teams will divide up in October has added some new sponsors.   Logic Automation, and Moonlight Physician's Group will combine to sponsor the Chase while Greenlight Simulation will be carried as sponsor of select individual races starting with Monadnock June 8th.  The help of these companies, along with Hoosier Tires East are what make the $10,000 Chase possible. 

   Below is a list of the awards for this week's 55 lap event at Monadnock:

      $1000 to the winner
      $  600 to the fastest time of the race from Taylor Lawn Care and Karn's Automotive
      $  200 for the ProTruck that improves the most positions from NorthEast Truck & Off-Road
      $  200 for any driver that gets their first win at Monadnock from Evolve Bank & Trust Mortgage
      $  tba to the pole position winner from Wasco Welding and Machine Supply

  It is possible for a team to win over $2000 on Saturday which is plenty exciting, however teams are also buzzing about the track itself.  Monadnock Speedway was repaved in the off season. This will be the first opportunity for any of the teams to turn laps on the new track surface. Chances are we are going to see a new track record at the banked quarter mile oval. They all want to be the fastest ProTruck ever to turn a lap and the first to win on the new Monadnock Speedway. Racing starts at 6pm.  Tickets are available at www.monadnockspeedway.com 

It is Officially Time to Break the Ice

      The 2024 Season will gets underway at Thompson Speedway's  IceBreaker  April 6.  The Jim Boyle Memorial 35 kicks off another Chase Season.  The ProTruck series had a huge void created when they lost veteran race driver Jim Boyle. Jim had a reputation of winning the specialty events including the World Series at Thompson. He also took home the victory in the only dirt race the ProTrucks had ever competed in. Jim race anytime and anywhere. if you raced with Jim you were going to have a great time. This race is run in memorial of Jim Boyle, a great competitor, grandfather, and friend.

    In ProTruck racing, the goal is to be Chase Champion.   This season 8 drivers will qualify by their season points to divide up $10,000 with $5000 going to the winner. Once qualified you must compete in a Chase event to get into the final four. The final four race to be Champion. Last years Chase race featured three drivers within sight of each other until the very last lap. Randy Burr was able to hold off Todd Taylor and Gerard Giordano Jr. to take home the title and the $5000.

     When the season kicks off in April, one main threat for the title will not be racing.  Multi time Ice Breaker winner and Series Champion Gerard Giordano Jr. will be moving to Late Model Competition. The battle up front will be just as fierce for 2024.  Chase and Points runner up Todd Taylor is looking to improve up one spot and grab the Title for himself.  Another player may be Ken Cassidy jr.  Cassidy entered his first tour event at Smacktoberfest  and won the event.  His first time attempt at Tour racing brought home a cool grand. 

      Nikolas Frechette will be back again for 2024.  He was able to win the regular season points championship.  He'll change numbers to the 11 for this season.  New for 2024 is the Evolve New Winner Challenge that offers a $100 bonus to any driver that gets his first ProTruck Series win. That payout increases by $100 every event. If there is not a new winner at Thompson, the award will be $200 at Waterford.  Nikolas runs well at Thompson and may be the first winner of the Evolve New Winner Challenge if things go as planned. 

   Caron Motorsports has a trio of drivers heading to the IceBreaker .   Mercedes Caron has filed her entry . The popular driver of the #52 Silverado will be competing for Rookie of the Year honors while racing her dad, Sean Caron in the 27.    Chris Palamar will also wheel the number 42 Silverado under the Caron Motorsports banner. Palmer is also a candidate for Rookie of the Year.

      Legendary ProTruck owner Harold Burdick will be back campaigning the Cindy Burdick Motorsports 151.  Howard Payne will take over as driver and for the first time the team will field a Silverado.  Roger Hunt will field a team ProTruck.  His driver, Damian Surdell impressed everyone in his four starts last season. Josh Stringer returns in his number 29 Silverado. His entry will round out the Cindy Burdick Motorsports team.    

  Some crafty veteran drivers will be coming to add Championships to their resume.  Randy Burr will defend his title in the 32 Ford F-150.  Multi time Champion, number 90, Allen Coates has his sights set on another.  Duane Noll lost a radiator in the Chase event last fall.  He is ready to add another Championship Banner for his race team.     One question is yet to be answered.  Will Shawn Monahan and

Tyler Chapman continue their battle ?   Could we see Emma Monahan or Brody Monahan at Thompson?  New entries are being filed daily. It looks like this year's Ice Breaker is shaping up to be a classic.  The 2024 season gets underway September 6th.  Be there if you can.