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Date: 7/12/2021
GRANBY – A local stock car racer is gearing up for a new season of racing.
Granby resident Nick Houle said he grew up watching his father and his uncle race. “My uncles have been doing it forever, I grew up watching my father. I fell into it,” he said.
He started racing motocross bikes as a teenager, which led him to inevitably become a stock car racer like his dad and uncles. “I started racing motocross, then switched to stock car [racing],” he said.
Houle said in addition to the hours he spends traveling to races in surrounding New England states, a lot of his free time is spent working on and modifying his car in preparation for upcoming races. “It’s a lot of long nights in the shop, I spend a lot of time in the shop making the care better, making improvements where we can,” he said.
He said at this time he was currently racing his car at two out-of-state tracks in New Hampshire, the Claremont Speedway in Claremont, NH, and Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH. Houle said while he lives in Granby, “we make the drive up there” each weekend. He said while he was having a good season, there was always room to grow and meet his goals.
“The season is going great so far, championship is the goal,” he said.
Houle said despite the COVID-19 pandemic, he did race last season in his rookie year. He said the rookie year was a great learning experience. “Last year was actually my rookie season. We learned a lot, the biggest thing is car setup, just getting to know the car and getting the car to turn better,” he said.
At press time, he said at Monadnock in the pure stock division, he is fifth overall in points while at Claremont Speedway he is fourth in overall points.
However, Houle said this season would be his last racing in the pure stock division. “We’ll be going mini or street stock,” he said. Houle explained “street stock is more or less VA cars instead of four cylinders.” He said in mini stock racing they had to make “a lot more adjustments to the car and you’re running on race tires.”
He said that those interested in breaking into stock car racing should start in “circle track racing.” He said, “If you like that move up and go from there, there’s plenty of cars for sale online and on [Facebook] Marketplace.”
Houle ended by thanking those who support him, including his sponsors Cedar Investment, New Age Designs, Houle Property Services, Miss M’s photography adventures, and B2 and Customers and Finish Line Towing.