5/21/2012
Wayne Helliwell Jr
It's a Freak Thing...
Round four of the 2012 American Canadian Tour rolled into the famed Oxford Plaines Speedway in Oxford, Maine with Wayne Helliwell jr. and the Bruce Bernhardt team leading the series points standings and arguably the hottest thing on four wheels in New England Short track racing. The Bernhardt Motorsports team had yet to finish worse than 2nd place in all 6 events they have entered heading into OPS. The outcome would not be to their liking.
Starting the day minus one very important member of the team; car owner Bruce Bernhardt could not make the trip north as he became ill the morning of the event and had to stay back for further tests; missing his first ever event as a car owner of the bright orange 27NH Ekeys-4-Cars, Unique Ford, Ford Fusion. The teams day would ultimately not get better from there.**
Much to do major tire issues where the talk of the event and were factor in every late model race on track throughout the day. Playing the tire strategy game the team would end up with a set of tire they felt would make all 150 laps without issues. As much as 15 teams would change tires before the start of the 150 lap race.
"Today was real mess with this tire issue. There are all kinds of things I really disagreed with, said Wayne. "There is a batch of tires out there much softer than the rest and are two-three tenths faster on the [stop] watch, but they are junk after a handful of laps. We found issues with those tires at the Lee [Lee USA Speedway] race early this year and again at Canaan [Canaan Fair Speedway] over the last two weeks of racing. I knew what we needed today and we stayed away from those tires.
The issue is… teams had problems with those tires and were aloud bolt on new ones or as many as they needed over and over. I don't know what the fix would have been at the track… But i do know I disagree with allowing half the field to start in their original starting positions with just a short scuff session with new tires is not right. If you have a scheduled four tire event and change it halfway through the day it puts the teams on the other tire at a disadvantage. There should be no other tire. Now that the race is over i think they [the tires] would have equaled out between guys that had to pit and didn't however I really hope some things were learned today and those tires are taken out of rotation all together… it shouldn't have to be a game, everyone should be on the same stuff. I know Goodyear is capable of making a good tire that can go the whole race distance because we've never had a problem before."
Helliwell would pull 4 during his random draw for heat races putting him outside pole of the first heat race. Falling back to third during the early stages of the 15 lap qualifying event he would eventually work his way back to the second position to finished the race with a zero for the standard +/- system. The zero would start him him15th in the 33 car field for the Armed Forces 150.
Just riding during the early stages of the event Helliwell would climb to 10th position and stay there for first 50 plus laps in till crew members and officials would notice something leaking from the car. Just as the ACT officials were about to wave the black flag at the 27NH a giant plume of steam erupted from under the hood of Ford Fusion bringing Helliwell to a stop in turn three. The crew work feverishly to replenish water to the Ford S347JR power plant. Repeated attempts to keep water in the engine were unsuccessful and on lap 65 Helliwell would pit under green as the crew would find a freeze plug had fallen out of the engine.** A visibly unhappy and dejected Helliwell was in amazement as in his entire racing career he had never seen that happen to engine. "I've never seen that before… It's just a freak thing, said Helliwell. It's a shame we had a great car today and were just riding out there. I think our tire decision was spot on. We had top 5 car for sure today. Shit happens what can you say… We'll be back, we'll get it fixed and head to White Mountain [Motorsports Park]." Helliwell was credited with a 30th place finish on the day and still maintains the ACT points lead by two points over Hudson New Hampshire's Joey Polewarczyk, Jr..
The Bruce Bernhardt owned team will have plenty of time to fix there engine issues as the next series race is more than a month away when they head to White Mountain Motorsports Park on June 23rd.
Our 2012 Proud Partners - EKeys-4-Cars / Unique Ford / Bernhardt Automotive / A Handy Company / DTB Tax / C&M Distributing / Carbonneau Insulation Co / Hillside Country Store / IICCEEE / Ford Racing / Schoenfeld Headers / The Brake Man / Joes Racing Products
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(Eric Lefleche/VLF Photo) http://victorylaneforum.smugmug.com/2012ACTLateModels/ACT-at-Oxford-Plains-Speedway/23086749_R8Pxmg#!i=1858306954&k=WLx2KR3
**Correction for clarification after story was released:
After further investigation by team 27NH a faultily radiator cap lead to further engines issues. ** Bruce Bernhardt was unable to attend the race because a slipped disc in his lower back. He continues to recover at home. JL
Article Credit: Jason Lubin
Submitted By: Jason Lubin
