"No Pressure" Staging Lanes Before The Final Round

While the latest buzz around New England Dragway is its newly announced swap-over to NHRA sanctioning in 2011, some big progress is running down New England’s finest 1/4 mile in the meantime. While at first, a 1000cc engine might not sound menacing – stuff it into a lightweight, streamlined snowmobile with one big track of rubber, and it makes for one hell of a go-getter, outrunning most 4 wheeled foes right on down into the low 8’s.

Well chalk up another sweet event for the NSA (National Speed Association) as their most recent meeting between snowmobiles and asphalt just a week back have brought us this year’s first repeat winner, and even a MPH record set by Kristin Stanley, at 157.14 in qualifying. Checkout NSA’s website for the full story and pictures.

The Bangor Motorsports team pulled into Epping with one goal in mind – staying on top of everyone else in the points. Qualifying second right out of the trailer, Jay Pearl sent Dale Swartwout and Ed Armstrong home in eliminations, getting a bye run in the semi’s to face Scott Marsh, who qualified 4th for the event. Despite running a personal best 8.37 at 154 during early eliminations, Marsh couldn’t trigger the win light in the finals against Pearl, who brought home the $1,750 purse, a new MSD 75301 ignition and most importantly in the big picture, a 79 point lead over Brian Hamel with just one race left on the schedule. Luckily, if you happened to missout on the high-rev action in person, checkout the final round video provided by Kristin Stanley-

Will the cool fall conditions in mid-September bring out yet another record, or will Kristin Stanley’s ET record set in ’08, along with her recently reset MPH record be too tough to grab up? Either way, the NSA and all of its racers are living proof that snowmobiles aren’t limited to only having fun in the blistering cold winter, they love layin’ down some rubber too!