Harman Wins Claremont Motorsports Park's Fifth Annual St. Valentine's Day Enduro

Rochester's Andrew Harmon turned a chaotic, snow-covered afternoon at Claremont Motorsports Park into a victory, taking the checkered flag in the fifth annual St. Valentine's Day Massacre enduro on Saturday, February 28 at New England's fastest third-mile oval.

Chief starter Chris Horton sent the field off for 79 laps with snow still blanketing the racing surface, and the early going was treacherous. Two drivers who looked poised to run away from the field were each swallowed up by the snow at the bottom of turn two, erasing what had looked like promising leads. Harmon, a standout in the summertime New England Dwarf Car series, was ready when the opportunity opened. He seized the top spot mid-race and steadily stretched his lead over the field on what had by then become mostly wet asphalt.

With two laps remaining, a thick cluster of lapped cars compressed the running order and allowed fellow Dwarf series ace Justin Harris to close to Harmon's bumper. The moment looked like it might cost Harmon the win he had spent most of the afternoon building. Instead, the lapped traffic cleared at precisely the right instant, and Harmon pulled away to finish roughly a dozen lengths ahead of Harris. Adam Gray, described in regional racing coverage as a Bay State asphalt Late Model strongman, completed the podium in third when Horton waved the checkers to end the 79-lap tussle.

Earlier in the day, Julian Badger claimed victory in a side-by-side event run on the snow before the main enduro. The event card included 4-cylinder, 6-cylinder, and 8-cylinder enduro classes, an AWD enduro, and the Side X Sides competition.

The day marked the opening of CMP's 79th season, though competition on the track's regular asphalt oval program remains weeks away. The park has three Test and Tune sessions scheduled before the gates open in earnest: April 4, April 11, and April 17. Those sessions lead directly into the Spring Fling on April 18 and 19, a two-day, dozen-division event that serves as the true launch of CMP's full NASCAR Local Racing Series presented by O'Reilly Auto Parts schedule.

The summer calendar carries significant weight as well. The Granite State Pro Stock Series will make three appearances at Claremont, and on July 10 the NASCAR Whelen Modified Series comes to the historic third-mile oval alongside the GSPSS Pro Stocks and the SMAC 350 Super Modifieds. The SMAC Super Modifieds and the Modified Racing Series are also slated to return to Claremont before the season closes.