NEMA Has New Opening Date; May 6th At Star

Story By: TIM BERTRAND / NEMA – EPPING, NH – With the cancellation of the New London Waterford Speedbowl opening event, the Northeastern Midget Association will head to the famed Star Speedway in Epping, NH on Saturday night, May 6th. It has been a favorite stop for the midgets since the 60’s, in fact Star has hosted more NEMA events than any other facility.

“NEMA is extremely excited to return to Star Speedway and especially as part of their PASS weekend, and further, to expand our 2017 schedule with the Webber family,” said NEMA President, Tim Bertrand. “Some of the best races in the history of the club have gone down at Star, and we look forward to making some more memories together. Our car counts are looking strong for 2017, and the club is on the upswing,” said Bertrand.

“We learned of the issues with Waterford, and extended the opportunity to our friends at NEMA to participate in our opening weekend,” said Bob Webber Jr. “This show should be an unbelievable bargain for the fans, with both the PASS, NEMA and NEMA Lite cars on hand,” he went on to say.

Some of the greats have gotten their first NEMA victory at Star including Joey Coy, Mike Favulli and Billy Mann, as well as modern day drivers like Randy Cabral, Jeff Horn, Joey Payne, Bobby Seymour and Russ Stoehr. There will be plenty of drivers gunning for their first on Saturday night May 6th, including New Hampshire’s Alan Chambers.

Russ Stoehr leads all active drivers with 10 wins at Star, and Randy Cabral captured last year’s Star race in convincing fashion. Drew Fornoro is the all-time NEMA winner at Star with 23, the first coming in 1982. The others in double figures are Dave Humphrey (16) and Russ Stoehr.

Among the others to score their first win at Star were three-time (’89, ’91, ’93) champ Joey Coy, Hall of Famer Mike Favulli and 1984 champ Billy Mann. There are two sets of brothers (Drew and Nokie Fornoro and Bobby Seymour) and three father-son combinations on the win list. The later category includes Johnny and Joey Coy, Johnny and Billy Mann and Ronnie and Johnny Evans, the latter winning for Jimmy O’Brien.

Additional announcements will be forthcoming about NEMA’s participation in the upcoming opener at Star, over the coming week.