Hopkins on a roll at ’95’ Driver has 10 wins in 13 races

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Mike Hopkins figured he was going to have a pretty good season this year in the Sport-Four division at Hermon’s Speedway 95.

He barely missed out on winning the points championship a year ago, finishing second by four points to Reggie Bickford. He won eight races.

And he worked hard on his 1980 Ford Mustang over the winter in preparing it for the season.

The result has been a whopping 10 wins in just 13 races.

“The car has been awesome every week,” said the 22-year-old Hopkins, a 2004 graduate of Hermon High School. “It’s probably been the best car I’ve ever driven and I’ve driven everything under the sun except for a Pro Stock car.”

He isn’t running for points this season. He has missed several races.

He said he has enjoyed racing for points in the past “but it gets to you.

“This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I never expected to win this many races,” said Hopkins.

Hopkins began racing “five or six years ago” and this is his third full season of racing.

His mother, Kassie, had a lot to do with his immersion in the sport.

“She always took me to Speedway 95,” said Hopkins, who eventually bought his own race car.

“I stripped it and built it the way I wanted,” said Hopkins, who also had a lot of friends involved in the sport.

One of his closest friends is one of his chief rivals, Hampden’s David Green.

They are also rivals, of sorts, away from the track as both have their own landscaping businesses.

“We’ve been friends for quite a few years now,” said Hopkins, noting that they started racing around the same time.

Business-wise, Hopkins said Green helped him start his business.

“He would give me lawns to mow,” said Hopkins. “He helped me out a lot. And our relationship has grown from there.

“We help fix each other’s cars and we pass information back and forth,” added Hopkins who noted that if he doesn’t win a race, he hopes Green does.

That doesn’t mean they take it easy on each other.

“We race hard. What happens, happens. If we wreck each other, there’s no hard feelings,” said Hopkins.

Green is also having a good year as he is currently running third in points, 100 points behind leader Lewis Batchelder of Dixmont and 49 behind Spencer Garvin of Belfast.

Hopkins plans to race twice more at Speedway 95 and he also intends to run at Wiscasset Raceway.

“I hope I can win my last two races at Speedway 95. Twelve wins in 15 races is pretty good,” said Hopkins, who has bought only one new tire all season and works on his car regularly.

Hopkins and wife Nicole are expecting their first child “within a month” which has prompted his decision to limit his racing in September.

NHIS having June Cup race in ’08

For those already looking ahead to Loudon for the two 2008 Nextel Cup races at New Hampshire International Speedway, the dates will be June 29 and Sept. 14.

The Nextel Cup returns to Loudon for the Sylvania 300 this season on Sunday, Sept. 16 and that will be the first race in the 10-race Chase for the Championship.

The June 29 date in 2008 will represent the earliest a Cup race has been held at NHIS.

The July Cup races at NHIS had traditionally been in the middle of the month but NASCAR held this past July’s race on July 1.

Fred Neergaard, the director of public relations at NHIS, said NASCAR “made an excellent move” in switching the July race to an earlier date and setting next year’s date even earlier.

“After what we witnessed this past July with the weather and everything surrounding the event, we couldn’t have been happier,” said Neergaard.

“It turned out great for our fans. They seemed to respond very, very well to it,” said Neergaard. “We had perfect weather conditions for racing that weekend.”

He noted that by having the race two weeks earlier, there is less likelihood of uncomfortable humid weather.

“The fans I talked to agreed that was the [best] weekend to do it on,” said Neergaard.