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SLICK TRACKS AND SUMMER NATS

By Tommy Goudge (July 1, 2010) – Tom Huppunen and the #12c Best Western Cairn Croft Hotel Sprint Car team raced hard last Friday night at Ohsweken Speedway, and were rewarded with another top ten finish. This week they’ll be back at Ohsweken in defense of their 2009 Northern Summer Nationals triumph.

Tom started tenth in the twenty lap feature, and was up as high as sixth on lap seven.

“It was going ok at the beginning - up top in (turns) 3-4 and low in 1-2, but the top did go away,” says Tom.

Tom eventually faded back to tenth and finished right where he started. The finish was good enough to move Tom up to eighth in the season standings as he looks to bounce back from a rough start.

“The 21x passed me (for sixth) after I hit the only bump on the track in turn one and bounced out to the middle,” says Tom. “Then I got experimenting with different lines as I felt like we weren't going forwards anymore.”

Mike Ling and Dain Naida were both impressive on Friday night and showed how tough the competition is every week at Ohsweken.

“The 7x was on a mission and his crew had the car tuned for the slick track,” says Tom. “He just drove right around me and almost everyone else. Dain had a great run from the pole to win - he had the best car and has much more experience driving on slick tracks.”

Tom and the #12c team are busy getting ready to defend their Summer Nationals title this Friday, and got some advice from Sprint Car standout “The Cobra” Chuck Hebing.

“Since Friday, we've already been planning on changing our set-up for this upcoming weekend,” says Tom. “(We’re) expecting the track to be about the same for the A main (as it was last week). The Cobra has given us some advice - he was the fastest at the Nationals last fall on the slick track - as well as our friends at Maxim. I'm hoping we can find a solution to the slick track problem as we struggled last year with it as well.”

Tom and the #12c team would like to thank all their sponsors, friends, and partners for their support during the 2010 season, including Best Western Cairn Croft Hotel, NGK Spark Plugs, Cobra Motorhomes & Trailers, Five Star Racing Products, Excalibur Crossfit, OMNI Media, Jawzy Graphics, Kim Arndt Photography, Niagara Custom Powder Coating, Gaerte Engines, Maxim Racing Chassis, Mom's Videography, Colleen, Meghan, Andrew and Jimmy's Crew Service, MW Graphics and Outlaw R/C Motorsports.

Do you want to be an insider and have "Fenwick Flyer" delivered straight to your inbox? Got a question for Tom? Just send an e-mail to tommygoudge@hotmail.com and we'll do the rest. Questions will be featured in future editions of "Fenwick Flyer", so be sure to include your name and hometown!

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For more information on Tom and the team, including schedules, news releases, photos, videos, merchandise, and contact information, please browse around the site.

WILD WIN!!!

By Tommy Goudge (June 24, 2010) – Tom Huppunen and the #12c Best Western Cairn Croft Hotel Sprint Car team visited victory lane at Ohsweken Speedway for the first time last Friday night. Tom toughed it out on a rough track surface and overcame a mid-race challenge from Keith Dempster to get the win on Best Western Cairn Croft night at the Speedway.

The night started with Tom running fast in hot laps. He drove the #12c to fourth in the first heat race, good enough to transfer directly to the feature and a spot in the redraw. Tom got the outside pole and took off at the start of the twenty lap feature, but was being a bit too cautious on the rough track and lost the lead to Dempster on lap seven. Tom got the lead back after a mid-race restart, and led the rest of the way to get his first win of the season.

“The car needed some TLC with the steering rod bent and loose, and the right rear shock losing its oil,” says Tom. “The oil scavenge lines got crushed on the motor from mud, and the rad mounts got loose and almost wrecked the rad. I took the whole driveline apart and checked all the torsion bars just to be sure there wasn't any damage that wasn't as obvious. Oh yeah, wore the brake pads to dust too.”

A week before the win, Tom got back on track with a solid sixth place finish after a rough start to the season. Earlier that night in hot laps Tom was extremely fast, running a lap time just one hundredth of a second off his own track record. The sixth place finish coupled with last week’s win has Tom back in the top ten in the championship standings at Ohsweken, as he and the #12c team try to defend their 2009 title.

This week is another weekly event at Ohsweken for Tom and the #12c team, and also serves as one last tune-up before the Northern Summer Nationals at Ohsweken scheduled for July 2.

WHAT’S HUPPUNEN?
Charlie from Brantford asks: "Can you tell in the car when you're running track record laps?"

Tom answers: “I know I am doing a good lap time when I don’t have to put much steering input going into the corners, and I can let the car drift out towards the wall near the middle of the straightaway. It feels much like karting back in the day - just a bit faster.”

If you're a Facebook or YouTube user, make sure to join the official Fenwick Flyer groups by searching "Tom Huppunen".

For more information on Tom and the team, including schedules, news releases, photos, videos, merchandise, and contact information, please browse around the site.

Tom Huppunen receives 20 votes for 360 driver of year!

1/13/2010
Voted by the North American 360 Sprint Car Poll voting panel of media members, promoters, sanctioning officials and manufacturers.

Final 2009 North American 360 Sprint Car Poll
rank, driver (first place votes), hometown, state/province, points

1., Shane Stewart (15), Bixby, OK, 1570
2., Jason Johnson (1), Eunice, LA, 720
3., Gary Wright, Hooks, TX, 428
4., Tim Crawley, Little Rock, AR, 419
5., Roger Crockett, Rio Linda, CA, 235
tie, Travis Rilat, Forney, TX, 235

7., Jesse Hockett (1), Warsaw, MO, 211
8., J.J. Grasso (1), Pedricktown, NJ, 190
9., Tony Bruce, Jr., Liberal, KS, 188
10., Terry Gray (1), Bartlett, TN, 175

11., Sean Becker (2), Antelope, CA, 169
12., Justin Barger, Montrose, NY, 90
13., Paul McMahan, Oroville, CA, 85
14., Trevor Lewis, Upper Black Eddy, PA, 75
15., Jack Dover, Springfield, NE, 69

16., Wayne Johnson, Mustang, OK, 60
17., Bryan Howland, Auburn, NY, 45
18., Clint Garner, Sioux Falls, SD, 37
19., Dustin Daggett, Portland, MI, 26
20., J.R. Stewart, Bellefontaine, OH, 25

21., Danny Wood, Norman, OK, 23
22., Josh Fisher, Smithton, MO, 20
tie, Tom Huppunen, Fenwick, ONT, CAN, 20
tie, Danny Martin, Jr., Sarasota, FL, 20
25., Andy Forsberg, Auburn, CA, 18

WELCOME TO THE HOME OF THE FENWICK FLYER

By Tommy Goudge (October 22, 2009) – “The Fenwick Flyer” Tom Huppunen and Fred Cade combined their efforts for the 2009 racing season, and enjoyed more success than even they predicted.

With Tom at the controls of the Cade-owned Best Western Cairn Croft Hotel Gaerte-powered Maxim chassis #12c, the team collected six feature wins and nine top five finishes on their way to the Corr/Pak Merchandising Sprint Car division season championship at Ohsweken Speedway. The season started off on the right foot when Tom found victory lane on opening night at Ohsweken.

“Winning the first event really took some pressure off me and set the tone for the rest of the season,” says Tom, “We have had a great year, no doubt, but we’ve had lady luck with us from the first race.”

In 360 Sprint Car competition at Ohsweken, the #12c quickly became the car to beat, and ended up finishing all but one feature in the top seven. Driving brother Jim’s car, Tom also qualified for one of the World of Outlaws features at Ohsweken in July, despite being at a disadvantage compared to the larger 410 engines of the WoO tour. The team also traveled to the first annual Quebec Sprint Car Nationals at Autodrome Drummond, where they claimed a top ten, while Tom finished seventh in ESS competition at Merrittville Speedway driving his own car.

In all, Tom qualified for sixteen A-Mains and won six, along with nine “Top 5’s” and fourteen “Top 10’s”. The team’s biggest win of the season came on July 3 at Ohsweken when they claimed the three thousand dollar winner’s cheque in the second annual Northern Summer Nationals. Tom’s only finish outside the top ten in 360 action came in the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals in September, but he feels good about that event as well, in light of the tricky track conditions, and especially since it was his first successful qualifying attempt for the big race after four previous tries.

“I think that we did great to make it into the A-main at the CSCN,” says Tom. “We turned a decent lap in the time trials and made it into the main through the heat race. Of course, seventeenth wasn’t a great finish, but we learned something about running on such a slicked-off track "we should have put on the winter tires!”

After many years with a family-owned team or paying the bills himself, the 2009 season marked the thirty-three year old’s first as a “hired gun”.

“Compared to racing my own car, I believe the biggest advantage racing for Fred was the well organized, non-stress environment working with him on the car during the week, and knowing the car was second to none,” says Tom. “This left more time for me to concentrate on driving other than wondering if the car will stay together for one more weekend, or how to get the car to the track!”

Like many local racers, Tom and the team enjoyed the second year of weekly Sprint Car racing at Ohsweken Speedway, and they’re already looking forward to next year.

“I’d like to thank the Styres family and their staff for such a great facility, Ken, Cheryl and Dawn Pelkie for keeping all of us crazy drivers in line at the track, and all of the fans and sponsors of Ohsweken Speedway for their support in 2009,” says Tom. “Special thanks to John Brush of Corr/Pak Merchandising for supporting our series. Let’s make 2010 even better!”

TOM’S TRIVIA
Tom took a break from racing and lived in his father George’s homeland of Finland for __ years, where he learned to speak Finnish!

WHAT’S HUPPUNEN
Q: What are your plans for next year?

A: “We have already purchased a new Maxim chassis along with a new Winters V8 rear-end, so I’ll be in the #12c again in 2010 for Friday Night Thunder at Ohsweken Speedway. I am currently looking for support to build a second car to race at other tracks next year. I have a chassis and engine, and have recently purchased an R.V. for towing.”

Tom and the #12c team would like to thank all their sponsors and partners for their support during the 2009 season, including Best Western Cairn Croft Hotel, Cobra Motorhomes & Trailers, Niagara Custom Powder Coating, Engine Pro, Wiseco Piston, Praxair, Gaerte Engines, Maxim Racing Chassis, Mom’s Videography, Dad’s Chassis Repair, Andrew and Jimmy’s Crew Service, Jim’s Sprint Car Rental, NGK Spark Plugs, and MW Graphics.

Do you want to be an insider and have “Fenwick Flyer” delivered straight to your inbox? Got a question for Tom? Just send an e-mail to tommygoudge@hotmail.com and we’ll do the rest. Questions will be featured in future editions of “Fenwick Flyer”, so be sure to include your name and hometown! If you’re a Facebook or YouTube user, make sure to join the official Fenwick Flyer groups by searching “Tom Huppunen”.

Tom and the #12c team would like to send well wishes to fellow Canadian sprint car racer Travis Rutz and his family. Travis suffered severe injuries in a crash at the Terre Haute Action Track on September 27, and remains in an Indianapolis hospital at the time of this writing. For updates and information on how you can donate to the Rutz family to help with medical costs, please visit www.TravisRutz.com.

For more information on Tom and the team, including schedules, news releases, photos, videos, merchandise, and contact information, please browse around FenwickFlyer.com.