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By Jeff Brown, For Granite State Pro Stock Series
Rob Branning Photo
WALPOLE, N.H. – The Granite State Pro Stock Series is ramping up for the final run to the championship, and it starts with a big opportunity for teams to cash in. Lee USA Speedway welcomes the GSPSS stars for this Sunday’s Bosowski Properties 150, the sixth race of the year and the first visit to “New Hampshire’s Center of Speed” in 2023.
A late-breaking shift in regional racing schedules allowed GSPSS officials and Lee owner Ben Bosowski to pull together one of the biggest races of the season. And thanks to fellow sponsor EKeys4Cars, at least $8,500 goes to the driver who captures the checkers Sunday evening.
While this is the GSPSS’ first visit to Lee since last July, the venerable speedway has hosted the series since 2014, with 2020 champion Joey Polewarczyk victorious in that first event. Since then, five drivers have won twice each in 14 events, with Casey Call the last to visit victory lane under the GSPSS banner.
Sunday’s race is now the kickoff of three straight weekends of racing to close the GSPSS season, leading into Star Speedway’s Outside Groove Saloon 100 on September 15 and the series’ first-ever visit to Lancaster Motor Speedway in western New York on September 24, where the year’s champion will be crowned.
Maine veteran Travis Benjamin opened the season with back-to-back wins and has led the championship battle from the start. Fellow Mainer Brandon Barker has been his closest rival all year, though he still seeks his first GSPSS checkered flag of the season. Lee is one of Barker’s best tracks; the reigning Lee Pro Stock champion, he has two GSPSS wins at Lee in 2018 and 2019 and scored a touring victory earlier this year. If Barker plans to dethrone Benjamin by season’s end, that starts with a win on Sunday.
Barker’s drive for victory will be anything but easy. Big money brings big names, and former champions Derek Griffith and Polewarczyk are at the top of that list. Griffith scored a $10,000 victory at Lee this summer, one of a few big checks he’s earned at the speedway, and in a 150-lap contest, both Griffith and “Joey Pole” have the long-distance experience to come out on top. So does Wayne Helliwell, Jr.; “The Punisher” has not won with GSPSS since 2014 and would love to break his dry spell close to home.
Big-track ace Eddie MacDonald will return to the GSPSS ranks for the first time since 2021, with “The Outlaw” looking to score a win at his home track. Fellow Bay Staters Angelo Belsito and Ryan Kuhn have run out front with the GSPSS before and will be in the hunt on Sunday.
Casey Call, the winner of July’s 100-lap bout at Star, rising star Jeremy Sorel, last year’s championship runner-up Nick Cusack, Mike Mitchell and Kevin Folan are some of the long-time GSPSS supporters who can’t be counted out if the chips fall their way. Lee’s own Pro Stock racers will be in action, too, with Ryan Green, Evan Beaulieu, Corey Bubar and even Skeeter Bearce poised to challenge for a win for the locals.
Add names like Gary Smith, Brian Whalley, Charlie Buxton, Vinny Arrenegado and Billy Joerres to the mix, and Sunday is shaping up to be a showdown for the ages.
Grandstands open at 12 p.m. on Sunday for the Bosowski Properties 150, with qualifying rounds scheduled to start at 2:00pm. The GSPSS Bosowski Properties 150 closes out an evening that includes double features for Lee’s Pure Stocks and Late Models and a visit by the New England Dwarf Car Series. General admission seats are just $25.00, with senior and junior tickets $15.00 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.
