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By Jeff Brown, for Granite State Pro Stock Series
With an all-star lineup of talent and big money on the line, Sunday’s Bosowski Properties 150 at Lee USA Speedway is set to be the biggest race of the season for the Granite State Pro Stock Series.
But not to be lost in the grandeur of the $8,500-to-win showdown, the GSPSS championship battle concludes at Lee as well, with two drivers vying to be crowned the series’ tenth-ever champion.
Sunday’s racing is part of Russ Conway’s Oktoberfest, Lee’s three-day season-ending spectacular. After a one-year hiatus, the GSPSS returns to the Oktoberfest lineup to firm up a strong closing afternoon for the historic event.
Indeed, the GSPSS’ last visit to “New Hampshire’s Center of Speed” was in July 2022, when Casey Call thwarted big-league ringer Tyler Reddick’s last-ditch effort to take the evening’s $10,000 prize. Call became a GSPSS winner that night, as well as the ninth different racer to win under the GSPSS banner at Lee.
Late-season schedule adjustments and weather delays shuffled the back half of the GSPSS’ 2023 calendar, with this weekend’s race announced in September only to meet a rain delay of its own. But it sets the stage for a season finale like no other, with over thirty drivers throwing their hats into the ring.
The big picture, of course, is the season-long championship battle. The title race has come down to two contenders, with Travis Benjamin in the catbird’s seat. The Belfast, Maine, veteran, a former NASCAR racer and a multi-time champion in his home state, has won three times this season, sweeping the first two rounds of the year and scoring a third win two weeks ago at Star Speedway. Benjamin carries a healthy advantage into Lee.
With the biggest field of the season at hand, Brandon Barker has an outside shot to steal the crown away. A former GSPSS winner and last year’s weekly Pro Stock titlist at Lee, Barker counts the venerable oval as one of his best tracks. Catastrophe for Benjamin could be a windfall for Barker in the end.
But Benjamin and Barker will have to play the long game to perfection against a stout field of racers with no points on the line, only the $8,500 winner’s purse.
Recently-crowned Lee Pro Stock champion Wayne Helliwell, Jr., 2015 GSPSS champion Derek Griffith, reigning series champ Joey Doiron, and home-track hero Eddie MacDonald are all entered for Sunday’s show. All are former GSPSS feature winners, and all four will surely factor into the battle for the win after 150 green-flag laps.
Wiscasset Speedway winner Josh St. Clair, Star winner Call, and other GSPSS veterans like Angelo Belsito and David Oliver will face off against Lee Pro Stock regulars Corey Bubar, Evan Beaulieu and Frankie Eldredge. Ryan Kuhn is still looking for his first career GSPSS win, and Rusty Poland returns for another start with Bobby Webber Racing in search of his first touring checkered flag.
Road-trippers like Rhode Island’s Vinnie Arrenegado and Connecticut’s Cory Casagrande, as well as Jeremy Sorel and Adam Gray from western Massachusetts, help to round out a diverse cast from all around New England, from decorated champions to touring rookies.
And with the GSPSS sharing Lee’s Sunday stage with the always-exciting 350 Supermodifieds, the NHSTRA Modifieds’ Quest for the Cup and a 60-lap Street Stock open, fans are in for a show from start to finish.
Grandstands open at 12 p.m. on Sunday for the final day of Russ Conway’s Oktoberfest, headlined by the Bosowski Properties 150 for the Granite State Pro Stock Series. Qualifying rounds for the afternoon’s features are slated to start at 2:15pm. The GSPSS Bosowski Properties 150 closes out an afternoon that includes features for the NHSTRA Modifieds, 350 Supermodifieds, and Street Stocks. General admission seats are just $30.00, with senior and junior tickets $25.00 and kids under 10 admitted for free.
For more information on the Granite State Pro Stock Series, visit www.gspss.net or find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
