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"Tires Designed for
Champions"
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SATURDAY, APRIL 27th - 2:00 PM

claremontmotorsportspark.com

52 Blackwater Road
Canaan, NH 03741
(603) 945-1213
shakervalleyauto.net

521 US-4
Enfield, NH 03748
(603) 632-4500
twinstatetractor.com
RANDY CABRAL #74
DAN ROCK #49 - RANDY CABRAL #74 - PAUL SCALLY #30
HEATS
PHOTOS BY JOHN DADALT
NEMA MIDGETS - CLAREMONT - 4/27/24
Pos. # Driver Hometown Owner
1 74 Randy Cabral Kingston, MA Bertrand Motorsports
2 49 Dylan Rock Enfield, NH Dan Rock
3 30 Paul Scally Raynham, MA Paul Scally
4 39 Avery Stoehr Assonet, MA Bertrand Motorsports
5 16 Matt O'Brien Wilmington, MA Matt O'Brien
6 87 Doug Cleveland Sudbury, MA Doug Cleveland
7 77 Jake Dumas Brockton, MA Mike Luggelle
DNS 93 Mike Horn Ashland, MA Mike Horn
DNS A1 Derek Robbie Bellingham, MA Mike Horn
Heat 1 - 49, 74, 87, 77
Heat 2 - 30, 16, 39
JAKE TRAINOR #29
RANDY CABRAL #74 - JAKE TRAINOR #29 - KYLE VALERI #17
HEATS
PHOTOS BY JOHN DADALT
NEMA LITES  - Claremont - 4/27/24
Pos. # Driver  Hometown Owner
1 29 Jake Trainor  Medway, MA  Matt Seymour
2 47 Randy Cabral Kingston, MA Randy Cabral
3 17 Kyle Valeri Monument Beach, MA Peter Valeri
4 16 Ryan Locke Raymond, NH Dennis O/Brien 
5 2 Joe Bailey Monroe, NJ Nick Poe
6 28 Mike Pernesiglio Ronkonkoma, NY Pete Penesiglio Sr.
7 53 Dylan Coutu Griswold, CT Ron Coutu
8 8 Ethan Dion Oakdale, CT Stephen, Dion
9 44 Trent Goodrow Carver, MA William Keller
10 88 Tyson Adamik Salem, CT Tom Adamik
11 94 Tiana Kibbe Macungle, PA Curt Kibbe
12 59 Brayden Egan Ashford, CT Eric Egan
13 88j PJ Stergios Nottingham, NH Matt Seymour
DNS 3 Christopher Vose Gloversville, NY Christopher Vose
DNS 5 Ethan Derocher Canterberry, CT Skip Matczak
Heat 1 - 88j, 8, 17, 44, 94, 28, 53, 88
Heat 2 - 29, 47, 16, 2, 59, 5, DNS 3
Trainor and Cabral Take Wins at
the Inaugural Ray Kelley Memorial
Claremont, NH  -  After a long and cold winter season, this past weekend on a sunny Saturday afternoon, the Northeastern Midget Association gathered at Claremont Motorsports Park for their season opener and Inaugural Ray Kelley Memorial sponsored by Shaker Valley Auto & Tire and Twin State Tractor.

NEMA welcomed back familiar faces as well as new faces for an exciting 18 race season. NEMA would like to welcome our new drivers and owners including the Adamik Family, Tyson Adamik driving the #88 NEMA LITE, Seals- IT Racing's Ethan Derocher driving the #5 NEMA LITE, and Jake Dumas driving the Mike Luggelle powered NEMA Midget #77.

As the NEMA LITES took the track for their feature, Ethan Dion in the #8 led the field to the first green flag of the 2024 season. Going down the backstretch, Trent Goodrow in Keller Motorsports #44 and Jake Trainor in the the Seymour Racing #29 took over the top three positions. Going into turn one on the second lap, Trainor took the low line from Goodrow to take over the second position and soon worked his way to the back bumper of Dion. On the following lap, Trainor took the lead and following close in tow was Goodrow, as Goodrow took over the second position over Dion.

On lap 5, starting from his 10th place starting position, Randy Cabral in the #47 raced his way into the top 3 just as a caution came out on the field. As the cars realigned for a double file restart, Trainor alongside Goodrow led the field to green flag racing. Trainor rocketed to the lead while Cabral worked the outside line going out of turn two and took the second position over Goodrow.

Unfortunately on lap 7, the caution flag was thrown. Trainor, once again, led the field to green, this time alongside Cabral. Going into turn one, Cabral diamonded the corner to try and take the lead from Trainor, but Trainor was able to pull away. On the following lap, going down the backstretch, Kyle Valeri and the Valeri Motorsports #17 and Ryan Locke in the O'Brien Racing #16 began competing for the third position. As the two raced into turn three, Valeri took the low line to take third.

On lap 10, as the top 4 spread out amongst the field, starting from his 11th starting position, Mike Pernesiglio in the #28 took over the 5th position. Following close behind and on his back bumper was the #2 of Joey Bailey, who worked his way from the tail of the field. Over the next few laps, Bailey waited to make his move and on lap 13, going down the front stretch, he took the low line to take over the fourth position over Pernesiglio.

As the laps began to dwindle down, on lap 19, Trainor skillfully navigated through lapped traffic, as he continued to extend his lead. On lap 25 as the checkered flag flew for Trainor, his lead extended to nearly 2 seconds over Cabral and Valeri.

To round out the top 10, were strong finishes by: Trainor #29, Cabral #47, Valeri #17, Locke #16, Bailey #2, Pernesiglio #28, Dylan Coutu #53, Ethan Dion #8, Trent Goodrow #44, and Tyson Adamik #88.

A few divisions later, the Mighty NEMA Midgets took the track, as Matt O'Brien in the Jim O'Brien and Sons Engineering #16 alongside Dylan Rock in the #49 led the field to 25 continuous green flag laps. Going into turn one, O'Brien led with Rock right beside him. But going down the backstretch on lap two, Rock took over the lead.

On lap 3, going down the front stretch on the following lap, Randy Cabral in the Bertrand Motorsports #74, took the low line going into turn one to take second over O'Brien while on the same lap, Paul Scally in the #30, took the inside line to take the third position over O'Brien.

On a quest to take the top spot, on lap 4, Cabral, now on the back bumper of Rock, took the high line going into turn three to take the lead coming out of turn four.

Once Cabral took the lead, he began to extend his lead to one and half seconds over Rock. While Scally from the third position was able to close the distance between him and Rock and looked to challenge for second.

With five laps remaining, as the field began to separate out amongst one another, Cabral increased his lead to over 4 seconds.

As the checkered flew for the first time for the NEMA Midgets for the 2024 season, Cabral took home the Inaugural Ray Kelley Memorial win followed by Rock and Scally to round out the podium. Cabral's win marked his 24th consecutive year winning a NEMA race and Team Bertrand Motorsports 106th total win.

After the race, Cabral commented on his win, "When I saw the schedule come out with the Ray Kelley Memorial race on it, I knew this was one I wanted to win. I knew Ray since I was 10 and once I was working at the dealership he would stop by and talk racing with me so it was really special to me to win this race and make some of the younger drivers aware of who he was and what he has done for this club. He was Marvin's right-hand man. Marvin and Ray played a big part in helping me get into racing. I won the first Marvin race, but there was not a Ray Kelley race prior so this completes that puzzle for me. It was absolutely awesome."

To round out the top 5, were strong finishes by: Cabral #74, Rock #49, Scally #30, Avery Stoehr #39, O'Brien #16.

The NEMA Lites are back in action, this weekend, May 4th, at Monadnock Speedway for the 3rd Annual Granite State Derby. You will not want to miss out on the NEMA fast action, we hope to see you there!
     

From right to left: Ray Kelley, Marvin Rifkin, Drew Fornoro,
and Sam Kelley in 2003 for final Wen Kelley Memorial.

NEMA to Honor Ray Kelley
at Claremont Season Opener

3-30-24  --  The lightning fast and powerful Midgets of the Northeastern Midget Association, and the wheel-to-wheel action of the NEMA Lites, will kick off their jam packed 2024 racing season on April 27th at Claremont Motorsports Park with the first ever Ray Kelly Memorial Race, sponsored by Shaker Valley Auto and Twin State Tractor. The two divisions of NEMA will join the track's Spring Fling 2024 event for the venue's 77th season opener.

Ray was a charter member of NEMA when it was founded in '53 and became a two-time NEMA car owner champion in '56 and '57. Alongside his brother, Wen, they collected numerous feature wins and supported the club for decades. Even after Wen's untimely death in 1989, Ray continued supporting the club with his M&H tire sales at every NEMA race for years until his retirement in the late 90's. He created, advocated, and supported his brother's memorial race for years from 1990 to 2003.

Ray certainly brought everything to the table when it came to midget racing. Through a modern lense, in a contemporary context, Ray would still be a formidable innovator and boundary pusher. He was putting surge brakes on trailers in the early 50's, to the bemusement and interest of the Mass State Troopers around Boston. He and Wen would sand cast aluminum heads for the Chevy II engines, machine them, melt them down, and try again if they didn't work. Beyond that, he worked with Marvin Rifkin creating tire compounds and setups for the midgets. He created some of the first personal computer spreadsheets to record NEMA race results, quantify performance, predict future performance and drive innovation.

"The sheer volume of profoundly random and singularly useful, various and sundry things, and stuff that he had was beyond imagination" said Ray's nephew Sam in a recent email.

NEMA will be offering lap sponsorship  SEE BELOW for both NEMA features in the upcoming weeks prior to race day. For those who cannot attend in person, be sure to catch all the action on www.RaceDayTV.com .

The Ray Kelley Memorial is one of two new memorial events for NEMA this season. They will also honor the great Drew Fornoro, this June 30th at the Lee USA Speedway for an unforgettable day. More information to follow in the coming weeks.

52 Blackwater Road
Canaan, NH 03741
(603) 945-1213
shakervalleyauto.net

521 US-4
Enfield, NH 03748
(603) 632-4500
twinstatetractor.com
www.RaceDayTV.com

Contact Matt O'Brien for Laps
email: arcracer16@yahoo.com
or text: 617-549-8663
     
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