Busy Season On Tap In 2017 For Derek Griffith

Column By: MATTHEW WIERNASZ / RPW – HUDSON, NH – Derek Griffith is planning to run the full 2017 PASS North Super Late Model schedule as well as the full PASS National Schedule. He is also planning to run some other races as well. Griffith is the 2015 Granite State Pro Stock Series Champion.

Griffith believes the 2017 PASS North schedule is pretty stacked as the 18 race schedule will kickoff at the Icebreaker at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on April 1st and 2nd.

” I am glad really because the more racing we do. Its just exciting for all of us. We’re in the sport because we love it. We like racing. We want to race as much as we can. Every week when we work hard. We kind of work a little bit harder to get everything done now that we’re going to be stacked up every week maybe even racing once or twice.” Griffith Said

Griffith is looking forward to it. He did pretty in 2016 as well as 2015. He would like to continue the momentum for the 2017 season. Griffith took a lot of people by surprise winning the 2016 PASS North Super Late Model team Rookie Of The Year. Griffith won his first PASS race at Lee last summer after battling it out with Derek Ramstrom during a 150 lap race. He made it out on top and was very surprised.

Its definitely that feeling where he got the monkey off of his back where he won. Griffith won his very first race in a Pro Stock/Super Late Model in 2012. Griffith grew up racing at Lee, Star, and Hudson.

The team barely outsources for anything. They will do everything in house. Louie Mechalides is the chassis and motor builder. Griffith feels he is lucky to have him because everything that needs to be done to him and Griffith has learned over the years.

” Money has never been our strong suit. My father owns a used car dealership. We struggled to get by. Me and him we’ve been doing it since 2009. I help out as much as I can but I mean I am only 19 years old. There is only so much I can do and I feel bad. I’m lucky to have these guys on my side because we wouldn’t be racing.” Griffith Said

When his comes to the scheduling, Griffith leaves up to his crew guys. This past season the crew wanted to race as much as they can. There was a race at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway that got rained out and was postponed to Tuesday. He raced at Beech Ridge that night and did not do so well. He was left with the tail behind his legs. The next night they went to Seekonk for the U.S. National Pro Stock/Super Late Model $10,000 and almost won the event after battling with Dalton Sargeant for the lead.

He is in a situation where he has a couple cars and they are ready to go. If the points battle work out . He can come back and swap cars or prepare them for certain tracks they are going to run. He feels he is in a good position and feels he has a shot at doing well He wants to go out and win races.

There were definitely some ups and downs from the 2016 season for Griffith. He finished second in the Icebreaker last season at Thompson with the PASS Series. He competed for the win after starting in 12th. There were some downs where he had some bad luck especially at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway.

” Beech Ridge killed us. We’re gonna work on that a little bit and get the car better.” Griffith Said

They acquired a Dale Shaw race car. They will be running that at a lot of the flat style tracks. Its brand new and ready go. Its the first brand new race car Griffith has owned. There was a lot of good last season with getting the win at Lee USA Speedway. He won at the DAV at Seekonk last October. He did very well at his first race at Speedway 95 last spring with no practice time and finished second. He is looking forward to going back to these race tracks.

Some of these tracks Griffith will be going to will be his second or third time there. He feels he has a little bit of knowledge on them and could help him a lot more having the experience on racing at these tracks.

His goal for 2017 is just to win races. He believes points are points and that they play out in how they should.

The PASS National Schedule will kickoff this weekend at Dillon Motor Speedway in Dillon, SC on Saturday.