Terry Eames

Terry Eames first appeared on the Speedbowl scene as the PR Director for the K Corporation during the 1994 season. After the Korteweg family left, the private ownership group tabbed Eames to run the place as their new General Manager.

Eames proved to be savvy on the promotional side and made several long-lasting changes. He created a new logo, which emphasized the word “Speedbowl” and worked with local TV station WTWS on a weekly recap show to help expose the area to the Speedbowl’s events. He was the first Speedbowl promoter to hold pit parties on the frontstretch for fans to interact with drivers. Eames also held 2-day shows for both the opening weekend and closing weekend of the season.

Mark Geer, Tony Leckey and then Bill Roberts were the Race Directors during this era. Joe Golas did not return as track announcer, yet Bob Freeman stayed through 2000 with various announcing partners. Soon after Riverside Park Speedway closed in 1999, announcers Gary Danko and Matt Buckler were calling races at the Speedbowl. Sportswriter and longtime auto racing journalist Pete Zanardi joined Eames as Public Relations Director in 1997.

Eames and Zanardi successfully lobbied to get NASCAR back in 2000. In addition to the weekly racing sanction, this also resulted in the return of both NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the first visits for the NASCAR Busch North Series (2000-2006). He also brought the American-Canadian Tour to the Speedbowl for the first time in 2003. This coincided with the Speedbowl now allowing ACT cars to compete in the weekly Late Model division. By 2007, almost the entire division was ACT cars.

Eames returned the headlining division back to official SK Modified rules of Stafford Speedway and moved the Mini Stocks to Saturday night to make them a weekly division. The Sunday Stocker events were still sporadically held featuring Pure Stocks in 1995 but were then discontinued the following year. After trying a second, semi-regular night of racing with Trucks & Legend Cars on Thursday nights, and then on Sundays again in the late 1990’s, Eames finally found the recipe for success with Wild N’ Wacky Wednesday series in 2001. It featured the Legend Cars as the headliner plus Super X-Cars & X-cars, which like the Pure & Mini Stocks a decade earlier, were developed from the Enduro divisions.

The Legend Cars were so popular at the time that Eames included them on a less-frequent basis on Saturday nights for a separate championship to Wednesday. In 2004, he introduced the X-Modifieds. They were the first entry-level modified division in southern New England.

Eames discontinued the Blast Off event after 22 seasons when he created the Pennzoil Modified Nationals to open the 1997 season. The event would be a 200 lap race for the SK Modifieds, feature time-trial qualifying and pay $5,000 to win. The Late Model would race for 50 laps and the two stock divisions would have 30 lap races. Budweiser became the title sponsor for that event in 1998.

The entire schedule under Eames was streamlined, and by 1998 the Speedbowl had 3 extra-distance events for all 4 Saturday divisions: The Budweiser Modified Nationals to open the season, then the Pepsi 300 in the middle of the year that featured 100 lap races for the SK Modifieds & Late Models (50 laps for Street & Mini Stocks), all worth double points, and time trials for all divisions. The Finale Weekend had a similar format to the Pepsi 300, yet not worth double points.

Eames actually bought the Speedbowl from Waterford Sports Center Inc in 2000. With the initial success of Wild N’ Wacky Wednesday and the NASCAR sanction coming at the height of it’s mainstream popularity, things were promising early. They was even the Funkmaster Flex Invitational in 2004 that was held at the Speedbowl and made into a reality TV show. But by 2005, Eames was looking for additional investors or even buyers of the property. He brought in Bill Roth as the new GM to handle the day-to-day operations and by mid-2006, Eames announced he had sold a portion of the parking lot to Harvey Industries to help pay off some of his debt to the bank. Soon after, he stepped away from public view.

OPERATIONAL TENURE AT A GLANCE

OWNERSHIP TENURE	2000-2014
OPERATIONAL TENURE	1995-2006
SANCTIONING BODY	1995-1999 unsanctioned
	2000-2006 NASCAR Dodge Weekly Racing Series (Saturday divisions)
	2001-2006 INEX (Legend Cars)
DIVISIONS INTRODUCED	2001 Legend Cars (as a weekly point division)
	2001 Super X-Cars
	2001 X-Cars
	2003 ACT-style Late Models
	2004 X-Modifieds (now the current SK Light division)
DIVISIONS DISSOLVED	1995 Pure Stocks
REGIONAL SERIES INTRODUCED	1995 New England Legend Car Tour
	1997 All-Star Race Trucks
	2000 NASCAR Busch North Series
	2003 American Canadian Tour
	2003 Allison Legacy North Series
	2005 International Super Modified Association
	2006 USAC Ford Focus Midgets
	2006 True Value Modified Series (now the Modified Racing Series)
EVENTS INTRODUCED	Finale Weekend (1995-present)
	Nostalgia Weekend, now Nostalgia Night (2000-present)
	Budweiser Modified Nationals (1997-2010)
	Pepsi 300 – later the speedbowl.com 300 and then just The 300 (1998-2014)
	Back to School Bash (2001-2018, 2023)
	Smacktoberfest (2003-present)
	Memorial Day Madness (2006-2015)
	Funkmaster Flex Late Model Invitational (2004)
OTHER NOTABLE CONTRIBUTIONS	created new track office on Speedbowl property
	held the Speedbowl’s first pit party
	lifted the admission ban on people under 16 into the pit area