(Loudon, N.H.) – Evan Beaulieu went into the doubleheader weekend for the INEX Legends cars at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) feeling like he had a shot at winning both races. He wound up with two second place finishes and one last shot at repeating as Amsoil Nelcar Series Champion.
Saturday’s race featured damp track conditions and Evan never really found the handle. Starting deep in the field, he worked his way forward and was able to make a hard charge late in the going. The race went caution with five to go, bunching the field and allowing the Hancock Lumber No. 56 one last shot at the leaders.
“I got shuffled to fifth,” Evan said. “But I got up on the wheel and was able to charge back and get by Matt Bourgoine on the last lap for second. That was an important pass, too, because now I’m just 17 points behind him going into the final race next week at Oxford. What started out to be kind of a down day turned into another strong finish for our team.”
Sunday’s race featured much better conditions. Evan set fast time in qualifying by over a half-second. After leading the first few laps of the race, however, what promised to be a strong shot at a win suddenly took a bit of a downward spiral.
“We developed a problem with the shift linkage early in the race,” Evan confirmed. “Once it started coming loose the car wouldn’t shift right for the rest of the race. I was able to adapt to that but it took a few laps and by then Tom Gray and Shaun (Buffington) were out front. I got by Shaun on the last lap for second but couldn’t quite make a run at Gray. It sure is frustrating to have the best car all day and finish second but it was still a strong run.”
The final Amsoil Nelcar race of 2012 will take place at the Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine. Evan grew up watching races there and is excited to run there for the first time as part of the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) North race weekend that was postponed earlier this month due to weather.
