Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (TSMP), formerly Thompson Speedway and Thompson International Speedway, is a motorsports park in
Thompson, Connecticut
Thompson is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The town was named after Sir Robert Thompson, an English landholder. The population was 9,189 at the 2020 census. Thompson is located in the northeastern corner of the state and i ...
, featuring a asphalt oval
racetrack
A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also u ...
and a
road racing
Road racing is a form of motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held either on a closed circuit or on a street circuit utilizing temporarily closed public roads. Originally, road races were held almost entirely on publ ...
course. Once known as the "
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
of the East", it was the first asphalt-paved racing oval track in the United States and is now under the American-Canadian Tour and Pro All Star Series banners after Thompson dropped their NASCAR sanction starting in 2020. Each year Thompson hosts one of the great fall variety events "The World Series of Speedway Racing" highlighted by the New England Supermodified Series and the
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
Whelen Modified Tour
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (NWMT) (previously the NASCAR Winston Modified Tour and NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series from 1985 until 2005) is a modified stock car racing series owned and operated by NASCAR in the Modified Division. The Mod ...
. This event frequently draws over 350 race cars in 17 separate divisions over three days. Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park is the track that has hosted the most ever races in the modern era of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour with 150 races from 1985 to 2022. In 2020, Thompson Speedway added a Tour-Type Modified division known as the Outlaw Open Modifieds to their divisional lineup, and starting in the year 2022, a new Supermodified Series was formed by the Pro All Star Series sanctioning body, known as the New England Supermodified Series. The Thompson Speedway oval is known for being the highest banked racetrack in the Northeast (and one of the highest banked tracks in the United States), with turns banked at 26 degrees.
The speedway also had hosted 3
NASCAR Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...
races, one in
1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
and two between
1969 and
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
. The facility also had hosted 5
NASCAR North Tour
The American Canadian Tour (ACT) is a late model stock car racing series based in the northeastern United States, and Quebec, Canada. The current American-Canadian Tour Late Model Tour was founded in 1992 as a cost-cutting, regional touring divisi ...
events from 1981 to 1985 and 29
NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
The ARCA Menards Series East (formerly Busch East Series, Busch North Series, Camping World East Series, and NASCAR K&N Pro Series East) is a regional stock car racing series owned and operated by the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) and ...
races, between 1988 and
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
.
History
![Corey LaJoie 07 Ford Thompson 2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Corey_LaJoie_07_Ford_Thompson_2009.jpg)
Following cleanup from the hurricane of 1938, John Hoenig built a combined paved oval and road racing course on his farmland in the northeast corner of Connecticut.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Thompson's Sunday night program was a who's who of modified greats such as
Carl "Bugs" Stevens,
Fred DeSarro
Frederick John DeSarro (July 3, 1937 - November 1, 1978) was an American racecar driver. He was the 1970 NASCAR National Modified Champion. In NASCAR's Modified All-Time Top 10 drivers, he was ranked eighth.
Biography
Career
Fred DeSarro was a s ...
,
Fred Schulz
Fred may refer to:
People
* Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
Mononym
* Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French
* Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico R ...
,
Ron Bouchard
Ronald R. Bouchard (November 23, 1948December 10, 2015) was an American NASCAR driver who was the 1981 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year. His brother Ken Bouchard was the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year. His father-in-law, Ed Flem ...
,
Ed Flemke
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* ''Ed'' (film), a 1996 film starring Matt LeBlanc
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* ''Ed'' (TV series), a TV series that ran fro ...
,
Leo Cleary
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* Law enforcement officer
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Arts a ...
,
Smoky Boutwell Smoky or Smokey may refer to:
People
* Smoky Babe (1927–1975), American acoustic blues guitarist and singer born Robert Brown
* Smoky Burgess (1927–1991), American Major League Baseball catcher
* Smoky Dawson (1913–2008), Australian country ...
, and
Geoff Bodine
Geoffrey Edwin Bodine (born April 18, 1949) is a retired American motorsport driver and bobsled builder. He is the oldest of the three Bodine brothers (with Brett Bodine and Todd Bodine), and sister Denise. Bodine lives in West Melbourne, Florid ...
. During this period the track hosted memorable special events which drew legendary Southern drivers like
Ray Hendrick
Ray Hendrick (April 1, 1929 – September 28, 1990) was an American race car driver. He was known as "Mr. Modified" during his 36-year career in motorsports, mainly in the modified stock car racing class.
The Virginia native collected more tha ...
in the famous "Fireball" #11 to battle the locals. Other surprise stars included Long Island's
Fred Harbach and
Rene Charland
Rene Charland (November 13, 1928 – September 30, 2013), nicknamed "The Champ", was an American stock car racing driver. He was a four-time champion of the NASCAR National Sportsman Division, now known as the Xfinity Series.
Career
Charland w ...
from Massachusetts.
In the late 1970s, the track drew 55 winged Super Modifieds to their World Series race. By owner's choice, all 55 started. During the energy crisis of the 1970s, Thompson hosted a unique division called the "Open Competitive" division which merged the Super Modifieds with the Modifieds. Later, Thompson tried a lower-cost stock-cylinder-head modified division, which chased away some of the tracks regulars. Until the 1980s the track had a unique barrier outside turns 1–2 and 3–4 made of dirt fill.
Today
Hoenig's grandson D.R. and great-grandson Jonathan continue to operate the family-owned facility. As of June 1, 2013, the Hoenig family began work to reconstruct the 1.7-mile road course with and accompanying paddock and staging areas, and the website reflected the renaming of the facility to Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. The newly rebuilt road course celebrated its "soft opening" with the New England Region of
SCCA
The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional r ...
on the weekend of June 6–8, 2014. Thompson created a private club for individual use of the road course, the websit
notes that "The Club" will be limited to 200 members.
Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park continues to run ACT and P.A.S.S sanctioned races on the oval track, with 6 oval events scheduled for 2023. The two largest events, The Icebreaker and The Sunoco World Series of Speedway Racing, are traditionally New England’s season opener and season finale. Both multi-day events draw several hundred race cars from up to 18 divisions. The Road course hosts many more events such as SCCA major and regional races, vintage race festivals, high-performance driving events (HPDEs) and drifting.
The park has hosted seven events for the
24 Hours of LeMons series. The first was in August 2015, and the most recent was in August 2022.
In June 2017, the park hosted two rounds of the
2017 Global RallyCross Championship using a combination of the road course and a dirt track
Use in simulations / games
The 2010 version of the track appears in the online racing simulation ''
iRacing
''iRacing'' is a subscription-based online racing simulation video game developed and published by iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations in 2008. All in-game sessions are hosted on the publisher's servers. The game simulates real world cars, tr ...
'' where it is laser scanned for millimeter accuracy.
A recreation of the track as it appeared in 1970 is included in the retro-themed game
NASCAR Legends
''NASCAR Legends'' is a NASCAR racing simulator developed by Papyrus Design Group for Windows-based personal computers and released by Sierra On-Line in late 1999. It was based on the 1970 NASCAR Grand National Series (the precursor to the NAS ...
.
Notable race results
Atlantic Championship Series
Deaths
Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park has also endured some tragic moments which have claimed the lives of the following competitors: David Peterson (1977), Tony Willman, Fred DeSarro, Harry Kourafus Jr., Dick Dixon, Corky Cookman,
Tom Baldwin, Sr.,
John Blewett III, and most recently
Shane Hammond
Shane may refer to:
People
* Shane (actress) (born 1969), American pornographic actress
* Shane (New Zealand singer) (born 1946)
* iamnotshane (born 1995), formerly known as Shane, American singer
* Shane (name), a masculine given name and a sur ...
(April 6, 2008). DeSarro's death prompted a memorial fund-raiser which drew the largest crowd to date and the Northeast's best drivers in an open competition Modified race with no purse. Both Evans and Bodine mounted their cars with wings. Baldwin and Blewett died while competing in the same race on the tour, three years apart.
References
External links
Official siteThompson Speedway Motorsports Park archiveat Racing-Reference
*
' by Terry O'Neil. Published by Dalton Watson Fine Books. 2018.
{{American Canadian Tour late model racetracks
Motorsport venues in Connecticut
Thompson, Connecticut
Buildings and structures in Windham County, Connecticut
1940 establishments in Connecticut
Road courses in the United States