7/17/2012
Wayne Helliwell Jr
Consistency Continues
This past Saturday Wayne Helliwell jr. and the Bruce Bernhardt Motorsports team headed to Canaan Fair Speedway in Canaan, NH for round #11 of NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action. Helliwell was trying to build on his new streak of one win after winning 10 consecutive races including the none sanctioned SUBWAY Fresh Fit 150 on opening day at the New Hampshire oval.
For the second straight week a single 50 lap A main was on tap. A full 21 car field was ready for action for the first time in 2012 which meant the winner of the event would receive the maximum 45 points towards the NASCAR Whelen All-American series standings. The national points structure offers points based on car counts with 20 cars being a full field.
Helliwell would roll from the 7th starting spot in his 10 lap heat race. Wasting no time he would rocket to the front and grab the second finishing spot as the laps would run out. With a single feature event program on tap the dash was once again in action; the top 4 finishing cars from each heat race would compete for extra points towards the overall track title. Helliwell would start shotgun on the field in the 8th position; battling his way to the front he would come home in the 3rd to pad his pocket in the overall standings.
Starting on the outside of the 6th row for the 50 lap A main, it would be a dog fight to the front. With the field strung out through the first half of the race Helliwell would work his way to the 5th position just past halfway. With a caution for a spinning Allen Fellows on lap 32, it would finally bring the field together.
A congested restart would see the front row bobble, not able to make ground up on the outside lane Helliwell would fall in line in the 4th spot. He would pass Dallas Trombley for 3rd with 10 to go. Running out of laps the Ekeys-4-Cars, Unique Ford Fusion would follow Bucky Demers and Chris Bergeron across the finish line in the 3rd position.
Helliwell's positive outlook on the night even though a 3rd place finish is quote, unquote a bad night for the team had him pleased with the outcome. "i said this a couple of weeks ago… if 3rd is a off night for us i'll take it. That was good race, we battled hard there. I think we just wore out the left front tire, it started to pick up a pretty good push. I'm happy with the outcome… you always want more, but we'll take it.
As the team starts to look at the big picture at the end of the year, Helliwell is now more than a full race ahead in the weekly track championship standings with a 58 point lead on Scott MacMicheal. Already expecting to miss at least one, possible two events when they make the trip to Canada in the coming weeks for the American Canadian Tour event they continue build their lead in preparation.
The even bigger picture is the Whelen All-American Series National championship; Helliwell continues to hover around the top 10 in the national standings. For the second week in a row he is 11th overall in the country. With the combined effort of the Small Block Supermodifed at Lee USA Speedway he now has his base 18 events completed and can start replacing any bad finishes each race from here on out. "I'd like say we aren't watching it, but we are… it was goal at the beginning of the year and we looking at each week. Tonight with this great field of cars here we actual made one more point finishing 3rd than if we had won the race with only 18 cars, so it's still a positive outcome, said Helliwell. "We are focused on being consistent and will continue to do what we have been, race hard every week… The rest will take care of itself."
Canaan Fair Speedway is shutdown next weekend as they allow for a summer break and let teams head to the state of Maine for annual running of the TD Bank North Oxford 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway. The Bernhardt Motorsports team will try tackle the richest single day asphalt short track race in america this sunday with as much as $50,000 on the line. More info can be found at: http://oxfordplains.com/
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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Photo by: Eric LaFleche/VLF Photo's
Article Credit: Jason Lubin
Submitted By: Jason Lubin
