Airborne, Unity to hold first point-counting events
BRIDPORT, Vermont (December 9, 2023) – The McGee Automotive Family Sprint Cars of New England (SCoNE) tour has announced an exciting 12-race schedule for its 2024 season. The “winged, wild, and wicked fast” warriors will visit two of SCoNE’s anchor tracks for multiple events, a newer track building on its recent history, and two of the region’s oldest tracks, which will each host their first official point-counting races.
The schedule is both action-packed and manageable for working-class racing families. While the season covers 12 races from early May to late September, there are nine off-weeks sprinkled throughout the summer to allow teams to compete in other events or enjoy time away from the track.
SCoNE’s 21st season opens at its two Vermont anchor tracks, Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven and Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford. Devil’s Bowl’s fast half-mile lifts the lid on Mother’s Day Weekend, on Saturday, May 11. The Bear Ridge quarter-mile – which has hosted more SCoNE races than any other facility in history – will host its first of five races in 2024 on Memorial Day Weekend, on Saturday, May 25.
The McGee Sprint Cars return to Maine’s Unity Raceway on Friday, June 14, for the track’s first official championship-counting event. SCoNE ventured to the 1/3-mile track in September 2023 for the first time for an exhibition event, and was met with a big grandstand crowd, a racy track surface, and a fun atmosphere. Unity celebrates its 76th season in 2024.
The following week, The Flat Track at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H., hosts its annual “Dirt Duels” event as part of the NASCAR Cup Series weekend. With a shift in the NASCAR schedule for 2024, the event has a new date of Friday, June 21 – about a month earlier than in previous years. The tight, quarter-mile oval has played to a Dirt Duels crowd of 5,000 or more fans in a party setting in its first two years of hosting SCoNE, and those fans were given a show in 2023 as visiting NASCAR star Chase Briscoe won in his first SCoNE start.
Bear Ridge hosts the next two events, the first of which wraps up a busy June stretch on Saturday, June 29, along with an Independence Holiday fireworks display. After a two-week break, the “Home of the Coupes” brings the Sprint Cars back on Saturday, July 20, to reach the season’s halfway point. Devil’s Bowl returns for its second show of the year on Saturday, July 27 to mark the beginning of the second half of the summer schedule.
Anticipation runs high for the SCoNE tour to cross Lake Champlain on Saturday, August 10, for its first-ever point-counting event in New York State at Plattsburgh’s Airborne Park Speedway. The fast, 4/10-mile, D-shaped oval hosted SCoNE in a combined race with the Empire Super Sprints (ESS) in 2018; SCoNE’s return marks the first Sprint Car race of any kind at Airborne since before the pandemic.
Bear Ridge again hosts back-to-back races as the season begins to wind down, with an event the week after Airborne’s race on Saturday, August 17, and then four weeks later on Saturday, September 14.
The tour makes the long haul up the coast to wrap the season with the inaugural SCoNE Championship Weekend at Unity Raceway on September 20-21. The Friday-Saturday doubleheader is already creating a lot of buzz in Downeast Maine, with a full slate of qualifying and A-Main features on both nights to determine the 2023 SCoNE champion.
“This is certainly the most diverse schedule SCoNE has ever seen, in terms of the numbers of venues, variations in track sizes, and travel,” said SCoNE president Justin St. Louis. “We now have a 300-mile footprint covering four states, with five very different track layouts. Our teams will have to be up on their game, but there are also plenty of breaks for them to relax with family or to try other events like the Québec swing with ESS. This season looks like it will be a great one, and I believe it could lead to even bigger years down the road.”
The Sprint Cars of New England awards banquet will be held on Saturday, January 27 at Hart’s Turkey Farm in Meredith, N.H., to officially crown Chris Donnelly with his record eighth SCoNE championship; ticket ordering forms and other information will be available soon.
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.
2024 SCHEDULE (subject to change)
McGee Automotive Family Sprint Cars of New England
- Saturday, May 11 – Devil’s Bowl Speedway – West Haven, Vt.
- Saturday, May 25 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
- Friday, June 14 – Unity Raceway – Unity, Maine
- Friday, June 21 – The Flat Track at New Hampshire Motor Speedway – Loudon, N.H.
- Saturday, June 29 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
- Saturday, July 20 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
- Saturday, July 27 – Devil’s Bowl Speedway – West Haven, Vt.
- Saturday, August 10 – Airborne Park Speedway – Plattsburgh, N.Y.
- Saturday, August 17 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
- Saturday, September 14 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vt.
- Friday, September 20 – Unity Raceway – Unity, Maine
- Saturday, September 21 – Unity Raceway – Unity, Maine
(Buzz Fisher/CreativeOutbursts.com photo)