Friday, January 8, 2010

Team Question Marks, Additions to the Driver Chart

Todd Stone, Pat O'Brien, Scott Duell, Jimmy Davis, and Joe Williams are now up on the driver chart (link to the right) with their plans for 2010. They'll keep coming!

As we enter 2010, there are still quite a few teams with question marks around them. Here's who I see ending up with each team.

MAD Motorsports, who finished last season with Tom Mayberry, has been very quite thus far. It seems unlikely that the former Grandview Speedway champion will return to the seat of the 11D. Billy Pauch Jr, with whom the team had the most success with of any of other driver when they partnered up a few years ago, is my prediction to end up in the seat for Friday night Big Diamond action. Pauch Jr. will drive the Eastern Rigging Motorsports #11 small block at Grandview weekly in 2010.

Norm Hansell Motorsports started off the year with Doug Hoffman before eventually replacing him and having a great end of the season with Rick Laubach and Tom Umbenhauer. Neither driver will be back next year with the team, Laubach will run for Johnny Rea at Big Diamond, himself at New Egypt, and on the Super Dirt Series with the Herman Motorsports #7; Umbenhauer will run his own #19 at Grandview. I predict that Ryan Godown ends up in the 357, although the team is talking to multiple drivers yet, Godown has the best credentials for the ride, and would run 2-nights for the team, which reportedly Hansell wants. Also, Godown is interested in driving for a team where his role working on the car would be diminished, after taking on the work load of maintaining his own team and Johnny Rea's team the past 2 seasons.

The Commercial Roofing Racing team has split with Bobby Varin. The team wanted to run weekly at Brewerton with Varin, but the Varin is already committed to returning to the seat of Erik Nelson's #85v modified for weekly racing at Glen Ridge. Glen Ridge is also much closer to Varin's home than Brewerton. I believe that Gary Tomkins will end up with the team. Doug Dulen has sold out after fielding a car for Tomkins for many years, which leaves Tomkins as one of the best Central New York drivers without a ride, and owner Eric Kingsley and Tomkins are good friends.

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