Hudson NH – With overflowing pits and a standing room only crowd Hudson Speedway swung open its gates for its 65th consecutive season of racing on Sunday May 2nd.

The first division to get pit steward John Hennessey’s call to take to the speedway for feature racing was Hudson’s youth division, the Thunder Lites. Hudson N.H.’s own Derek Griffith started second in the field and wasted no time taking the lead from pole-sitter Sammy Gilman. Griffith held the point from there on. Defending Thunder Lite champion Dylan Bilodeau started third and got past Gilman to come home second. Third through fifth were Dean Smith, Justin Beecher, and Chad Wendell. Gilman retired early with mechanical woes.

The next class to take to the Hudson high banks was the New England V-6 Modifieds .Pole-sitter Eric Vilandre led the first five circuits before 2009 V-6 Modified champion Keith Caruso took over. Caruso cruised to victory while Dick Dubois passed Vilandre to place second. Vilandre hung on for a third place finish with Chris Keubler fourth and William Wallace fifth.

Dan Shields Sr brought the Northeast Classic Lites to the green flag for the first feature race of 2010 for the 5/8ths scale race cars. Shields Sr struggled with handling issues and dropped back quickly while his son Danny Shields blasted from his tenth starting spot to fourth place by the end of lap one. Defending Classic Lite champion Billy Ryder was also on the move while Duane Skofield was taking care of business up front moving into first from his fifth starting slot. A lap five caution bunched the field up with Skofield still out front with Shields and Ryder in second and third. A few laps after the restart Shields got underneath Skofield off turn two and took over the top spot. Skofield got hung out in the outside groove and slide to fourth as Ryder and Eddie Gilman got by. Ryder was all over Shields bumper until they split a lapped car coming off turn two with Ryder taking the low side. Ryder won the drag race down the front stretch and held onto to win. Podium finishes went to Shields in second and Skofield in third. Fourth through tenth were Jon Provost, Dave Helliwell, George Helliwell, Gilman had suspension problems and fell to seventh, Dennis O’Brien, Shane Reinhold and Jimmy Ryder Jr .

Another defending champion, Dean Wendell in the Rookie Stocks, also started his season off with a win. Second through tenth were Eric Hatch, Corrie Merritt, Scotty Duval, Heath Tourtelotte, Jerry Lepage, “Slika’, Tyler Hatch, Billy Clement Jr and Alan Barbin. Andy Nichols looked like he had a lock on second place until trouble found him in the waning laps and he finished fifthteenth.

Former Thunder Lite competitor Jen Lord led the opening laps of the Roadrunner feature until Jason Carroll took over the top spot. Carroll held on until the midway point when Erik Miller powered by on the outside. Patrick D’Alba got past the top two after a restart and held on to win. Miller finished second followed by Carroll, Jef James, and Johnny Reefer in fifth. Lord finished a impressive sixth in the seventeen car field.

The Grand Enduro was won by Dave McCarthy. Corrie Merrit was second followed by a father/son combo with Mark Nevers in third and his son Erik Nevers in fourth.

Jim Gevelakos won the four cylinder enduro with Andrew Harnum second and Leon Keniston third.

Jesse Tellier won the Spectator Drags, Cody Mackinnon won the Flagpole Race and Billy Toutelotte won the Spectator Race.

After a week off for Mothers Day, racing resumes on Sunday May 16th with the return of the Outlaws and their full contact style of racing. Also on the card will be the Rookie Stocks, Roadrunners, Thunder Lites, Spectator Race, Drags and Flagpole Race. Gates open at 11am and racing begins at 1pm. For More info please visit www.hudsonspeedway.info