February 1, 2020
Coming off of its second extremely successful year with the touring series the promoters of the Northeast Late Model Association are happy to announce the addition of an all new Weekly Championship Series. The Bernheisel Race Cars NLMA Weekly Championship Series Presented by VP Racing Fuels and Lazer Chassis will give registered drivers a chance to collect their best twelve finishes throughout the year in order to earn points towards a year end points fund.
“This is an exciting step forward for us in our goal to help Late Model racing thrive in the Northeast” states series promoter Mark Rinaldi. He goes on to say “Right from day one our goal as promoters were to build something that would work for both track promoters and the drivers, our series has been very successful for everyone involved and this is the next step.”
Event finishes that the drivers can collect points towards the Bernheisel Race Cars Weekly Championship Series presented by VP Racing Fuels and Lazer Chassis consist of weekly shows at any of the three weekly member tracks; Brighton Speedway, Fulton Speedway and Humberstone Speedway. Drivers can also use finishes at a few special events held at Brewerton Speedway and lastly, finishes from the Vanderlaan Building Products NLMA tour can be counted towards the weekly championship.
To qualify for the points fund, drivers will be required to register and then race as little or as much as they want in the events mentioned above. Points from the drivers best twelve finishes throughout the season will be counted towards their total, as soon as the driver hits race number thirteen than their lowest finish will automatically drop off. All events at each of the weekly tracks, the Brewerton events and the tour events will be draw and re-draw events so a driver can show up at any track or any event throughout the season and not need to worry about battling handicapping to get into the show.
Jim Bernheisel of Bernheisel Race Cars and Lazer Chassis was excited to be one of the first to get on board with the new Weekly Championship Series “we have always had a great showing up in the Northeast and at these particular tracks made it an easy decision to jump in.” Lazer Chassis had a ton of success in 2019 with driver Chad Homan who had a particularly good season at NLMA tracks, winning a total of ten features between Fulton and Humberstone Speedway and two NLMA tour wins as well. Fellow NLMA competitor and Lazer Chassis driver Dale Caswell picked up three feature wins and a dramatic runner-up at Brighton’s Great Crate Race in 2019.
VP Racing Fuels has been a longtime supporter of Brighton Speedway’s Late Models as well as the tracks marque Applefest Shootout Weekend. “We are excited to continue to work with the NLMA and its member tracks to continue to help grow Late Model Racing in the Northeast” say VP Regional Manager Tim Hogue. There will be no mandated series fuel however VP Fuels will be available for sale at all weekly tracks.
Rules are being finalized for the NLMA Weekly Championship and the Touring Series and will be posted shortly, there is not expected to be any major changes in the rules including tires from the last two seasons.
A new Northeast Late Models Association web site is being built and will be up shortly, this is where you can find all the latest news, results, rules and information on the Bernheisel Race Cars Weekly Championship Series presented by VP Racing Fuels and Lazer Chassis as well as the Vanderlaan Building Supplies NLMA Touring Series. The Facebook page will continue to be updated as well at https://www.facebook.com/northeastlatemodelalliance/
The promoters of the Northeast Late Model Alliance would like to thank all of the marketing partners; Bernheisel Race Cars, VP Racing Fuels, Lazer Chassis, Vanderlaan Building Products, Bellevue Fabricating, Dibbits Landscaping & Excavating, C. Smith Automotive, Deerhaven Farm and Garden, Insta-Panels Foam Board and Willow Publishing.
Photo: Chad Homan in the #91 Lazer Chassis Late Model finished fourth overall in NLMA standings and scored two feature finishes throughout the 2019 season.