0
0
By Jeff Brown, for Granite State Pro Stock Series
WALPOLE, N.H. – One of New Hampshire’s fastest paved ovals is set to welcome the Granite State Pro Stock Series this weekend to kick off the organization’s 14th full season of competition.
Sunday afternoon’s Road to the Gamble 125 at Lee USA Speedway not only sets the stage for one of the speedway’s biggest races of the year, but the eleven-race GSPSS championship battle that stretches into the early fall.
“New Hampshire’s Center of Speed” factors heavily into the 2025 GSPSS schedule, not only bookending the year with major events but hosting a third series visit in late July.
Seventeen rounds of GSPSS competition have been contested on the ⅜-mile oval since 2014, crowning winners from former series champions Derek Griffith, Joey Doiron and Joey Polewarczyk to local favorites like Eddie MacDonald and Joe Squeglia.
Sunday’s race has local significance as it serves as the preamble to Lee’s blockbuster Granite State Gamble, the track’s $30,000-to-win Pro Stock open on May 17. Sunday’s 125-lap tilt is the perfect opportunity for both touring aces and Lee’s stout class of Pro Stock combatants to test their long-distance strategy in anticipation of the 200-lap Granite State Gamble.
But several drivers will be thinking of the big picture, with Sunday’s race only one of eleven stops on an itinerary that stretches from western New Hampshire to Quebec’s Beauce region.
Last year’s chief challengers are back to reprise their duel from last season, with reigning GSPSS champ Casey Call leading the charge. The Pembroke, N.H. driver spent the second half of last year dialing in a new Port City chassis, clinching his crown with a third-place performance in the Bosowski Properties 125 at Lee. Call would love to open his title defense with a repeat of his 2022 Lee victory.
Evan Beaulieu came up one point short of the title at Lee. The young veteran from Durham, Maine, who shares Call’s background in Legends cars, is firing back with a new Alan Berry-prepared mount of his own. Beaulieu and his family team are gunning for their first GSPSS win, while hoping to back up that win with a championship trophy.
Beaulieu is in good company, with plenty of his fellow Pine Tree Staters on the GSPSS roster in 2025. Jamie Wright returns for his second season with the tour. Ryan Green picked up his first series win last August and is ready to go with a rebuilt car after last fall’s highlight-reel wreck. Wiscasset Speedway veteran Josh St. Clair has a GSPSS win of his own and has expanded his touring schedule the last few years. Nick Cusack, a Beech Ridge Motor Speedway alumnus like Beaulieu, will look to translate his Pro Stock success at Lee into a touring win or two. Danny Wear made his series debut a year ago and looks to build on that experience at Lee. Fellow rookie Cole Robie continues to learn after a strong performance last summer at Riverside Speedway.
Lee has plenty of its own home-state favorites in play, racers like Bobby Baillargeon and Frankie Eldredge with plenty of laps around the coastal New Hampshire oval. Connor McDougal, a winning racer with a knack for eye-catching car design, will sample the Pro Stock waters this weekend in a new ride with Golden R Motorsports. Bobby Frappier is back in the saddle at Lee, and Dan Winter already has an off-season victory in 2025, welcoming a newborn daughter to his growing family.
From Connecticut comes Cory Casagrande, who counts Lee among his favorite tracks and still seeks a first career GSPSS trophy. Rhode Island’s Mike Mitchell turned in a strong run in last fall’s Oktoberfest feature and will look to do one better this weekend. Second-generation racer Alex Quarterley, still building his base of experience on four wheels, will swap his crew chief’s cap for a helmet this weekend in representation of Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley.
The path to victory at Lee, though, goes through a gauntlet headed by Doiron, the 2019 and 2022 GSPSS champ and the defending winner of the Granite State Gamble. Fellow Mainers Brandon Barker and Corey Bubar have multiple wins at Lee, with Barker winning his own $10,000 prize at the track last summer. Polewarczyk, the 2020 GSPSS titleist, and local standout Wayne Helliwell, Jr., are also difficult to dethrone at Lee.
Only one driver can walk away Sunday with the trophy and the $4,000 winner’s purse. But plenty of storylines are in play, and few will be resolved after only 125 laps. The drivers who finish second, third and on back might make good on their experience in a few weeks, a few months, or in October’s championship finale.
Gates open at noon Sunday for the Road to the Gamble 125 at Lee USA Speedway, the first round of the Granite State Pro Stock Series championship chase. The GSPSS touring stars headline an opening afternoon that also features Super Streets, Ridge Runners, Six Shooters and Crown Vics. Adult tickets are $20, with senior and military admission only $15. Full streaming coverage is available online at RaceDayTV.
For more information on the Granite State Pro Stock Series, visit www.gspss.net or find us on Facebook and Instagram.
