Scarborough, ME – Evan Beaulieu and the 56 Hancock Lumber team were back at their home track of Beech Ridge Motor Speedway this past weekend for the season opener of the Nascar All-American Series, Pro Series division. After two weeks of practice with some promising results, Beaulieu and the team felt confident in their car going into week one. However, track conditions threw the team a curveball, as Beaulieu fought his way to a 14th place finishing position in the 24 car field.
“I was really optimistic going into this race given the way the car’s handled the past few weeks at practice,” Beaulieu said of his night, “I thought for sure since we started the race on four new tires we’d be great, but the track tightened up a lot. I’m just ran the outside and drove the thing as hard as I could, and I’m surprised we finished 14th, we will take that and make the right adjustments for next weekends race so we can run near the front.”
After running a quick lap in his scuff session, Beaulieu drew the eighth starting spot for his heat race. Right from the start however, the car was too tight and he held on to finish ninth, giving him the 17th starting spot in the feature event of 24 of the best Super Late Models in the state of Maine. The crew went to work on adjustments for the ill handling car, and in the feature it helped. Once Beaulieu found the outside groove in the feature race, he started to show improvement out of the car, but a long green flag run to start the race kept him from gaining any position, and after surviving a few late race restarts he would finish in the 14th position.
The team will be back at it this coming weekend at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway once again, as they go on to week two and start the beginning of the always interesting tire program at Beech Ridge. In the first week, teams are allowed to buy six tires, with two of those tires being fresh to start with this weekend, and another two from the set from the first week. It makes for some interesting strategy, and the best teams can calculate which tires to use where and how to work them in perfectly. Get to the track this weekend at 7:00PM to see some of the best racing in the Northeast, tickets are only $10 and kids 12 and under are free! We would like to thank all of service men and women, past and present, for the sacrifices they have made for this great nation this Memorial Day, and every day!
To learn more about Evan and the Beaulieu Racing team, visit www.evanbeaulieu.com, on Facebook as Evan Beaulieu and on Twitter @EBeaulieu56.
