SCoNE prize to be on permanent display in New England Racing Museum
UNITY, Maine (September 23, 2024) – The McGee Automotive Family Sprint Cars of New England (SCoNE) Tour has a new prize to chase after: The Fred Frame Championship Trophy. SCoNE will unveil its new top prize at Unity Raceway’s NAPA Championship Weekend on Friday, September 27, and Saturday, September 28.
The creation of the award was made possible by an increased commitment from SCoNE’s title partners McGee Toyota of Epping, N.H., McGee Toyota of Claremont, N.H., and the new McGee Mazda Claremont dealership. The Fred Frame Championship Trophy was designed to honor the roots of Sprint Car racing in the New England region and elevate the champions of the modern era.
Fred Frame was a native of Exeter, New Hampshire, who was a national star in early Sprint Car racing; he once famously turned down an offer to drive at Indianapolis so he could continue winning Sprint Car races across the country and earn more prize money than he would have at Indy. Before he won the Indianapolis 500 in 1932, Frame was a frequent Sprint Car winner at fairgrounds tracks in New Hampshire, Vermont, and coast-to-coast during his career. Some 92 years after his triumph at “The Brickyard,” he remains the only New England driver to win in one of the world’s most prestigious automobile races.
The Fred Frame Championship Trophy was exclusively designed for SCoNE and custom-built by Jostens of Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the spring of 2024. It has a 16-inch wide, eight-sided, polished-black wooden base that carries the names of each Sprint Cars of New England Tour champion from 2004 through 2023. A one-of-a-kind, brushed-bronze mold of the 1932 Indianapolis 500-winning car sits atop the base, with driver Frame and riding mechanic Jerry Houck sitting in the open-cockpit Miller-Hartz machine, which is detailed with realistic characteristics of the car and emblazoned with Frame’s number 34.
The 2024 McGee SCoNE Tour champion will have their name added to the trophy, and they will receive a replica of the top half of the trophy including the bronze car statue. The Fred Frame Championship Trophy will be on permanent display at the New England Racing Museum on the grounds of the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. The SCoNE Awards Banquet will be held at the museum on Saturday, November 23, where the award will be officially presented.
Jostens is a global leader in creating custom awards for major sporting events. Among the many significant championship awards that Jostens creates are the Bill France Trophy for the NASCAR Cup Series champion and the Astor Cup championship trophy for the IndyCar Series, as well as awards for the winning teams in the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup, the NBA Finals, and several NCAA national championships. The Daytona 500’s Harley J. Earl Trophy is also in the Jostens portfolio.
“The Fred Frame Championship Trophy automatically elevates SCoNE’s status of in the national short track racing landscape,” SCoNE President Justin St. Louis said. “There is nothing in Sprint Car racing like the Fred Frame Championship Trophy, and it was an honor to have a company like Jostens spend several months designing and crafting it. To have your name added to that trophy is confirmation that you belong among an elite group of drivers. Even though it was almost a century ago, the significance of Fred Frame’s victory at Indy can be enough to keep ‘the dream’ alive for Sprint Car racers here in New England. Our drivers now have an extra motivating fire underneath them to be remembered permanently on this special award, just as Fred Frame will be remembered forever.”
Matt Hoyt enters NAPA Championship Weekend at Unity Raceway with a slim, 12-point lead on Kadyn Berry; winning the McGee SCoNE Tour championship would be a first for either driver. Former two-time champion Will Hull sits third, only 19 points behind Hoyt, with Floyd Billington and rookie Caiden Herbert within striking distance. Hoyt scored a dominant victory at the Unity 1/3-mile oval in July.
NAPA Championship Weekend at Maine’s Unity Raceway kicks off on Friday, September 27, at 7:00 p.m. with a full card of qualifying heats and a 25-lap, $1,000-to-win A-Main, plus local divisions. Saturday, September 28, will also see a full slate of action starting at 5:00 p.m., with the 2024 SCoNE champion decided during the night. Following Saturday’s point-counting finale, a special, non-points, winner-take-all “Favorite Driver Race” presented by Sabil & Sons and benefitting the Friends of Veterans organization in White River Junction, Vermont, will be held to conclude the season.
To learn more about the McGee Automotive Family Sprint Cars of New England, visit www.nesprintcars.com or find the “SCoNE – Sprint Cars of New England” page on Facebook.
(Photos courtesy Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum)