Hoyt Opens SCoNE Season with Spectacular Bear Ridge Score

COLUMN BY: Justin St. Louis /SPRINT CARS OF NEW ENGLAND – BRADFORD, VT – Matt Hoyt made a statement on Saturday, May 30 at Bear Ridge Speedway that the 2026 Sprint Cars of New England championship will have to go through him. Then again, several other drivers declared themselves to be part of the battle as well.

Hoyt, the 2024 champion for the SCoNE Tour’s winged 360-cubic-inch class, was methodical on a technical track surface and scored the season-opening victory with a late pass, a late restart, and a sigh of relief; the Bear Ridge quarter-mile had been his Achilles Heel, and the victory was his first there since his very first SCoNE win in 2018.

Hoyt was not the only star of the show, however. Veteran racer Tunk Berry was stronger than he had been for several years and nearly scored an upset win, while his great-nephew, Kadyn Berry, matched the best finish of his promising young career in a championship-counting event. The father-son pair of Floyd and Travis Billington had a roller coaster experience with each driver’s night ending on the “up” side, and rising star Caiden Herbert also had a strong performance.

Tunk Berry put his brand-new racecar to good use early, winning his qualifying heat. After drawing the third starting position for the 30-lap A-Main Feature race, he was part of a thrilling, three-way fight for the lead with front-row starters Scott Holcomb and Floyd Billington. Holcomb’s car broke a left-front shock mount while leading on the third lap, and though he stayed in control after a scary moment getting the car briefly airborne, Berry waltzed around both Holcomb and Billington with a breathtaking pass on the outside lane to grab the lead at lap 6.

After receiving two inches of rain on Friday night, the track surface proved to be a challenge; promoter C.V. Elms III and his prep crew did a masterful rework during intermission and got the track in a fast, raceable condition, though it was not without its bumps by the end of the race. Berry identified the trouble spots early and created a unique, diamond-shaped racing line for himself, stretching out to a big lead in a long, caution-free run.

Hoyt, meanwhile, was entrenched in a five-car battle for second place, and he had to gingerly make his way through the scramble with Billington, Holcomb, Herbert, Kadyn Berry, and lapped traffic that leader Tunk Berry had displaced. Hoyt was able to break out around the 10^th lap, and he then went to work tracking Berry down.

When Hoyt reached the leader in heavy lapped traffic, it became a cat-and-mouse game as the pair weaved in and out of slower cars, sometimes racing side-by-side or even three-wide. It took until lap 26 for Hoyt to find an opening on the inside lane and snatch the lead away, and just a lap later, Berry sent his car just a bit over the edge in Turn 3, spinning and bringing out the race’s lone yellow flag.

While the dogfight for the lead was happening, Floyd Billington, Kadyn Berry, and Caiden Herbert continued to put on a show for third place, with a late-arriving Travis Billington joining the card.

After the restart with four laps remaining, Hoyt was able to scoot away with an unchallenged lead, and Kadyn Berry swung wide around everyone else for second place. At the finish, it was Hoyt, Kadyn Berry, Floyd Billington, Herbert, and Travis Billington making up the top five in order; Tunk Berry was the last driver on the lead lap in sixth. Mark Reynolds finished seventh, the first driver one lap down, followed by rookie Blake Shepard, early leader Holcomb, and rookie Shawn Cassidy.

OFFICIAL RESULTS – Sprint Cars of New England Tour

Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, VT

Saturday, May 30, 2026

A-Main Feature (30 laps)

Pos.-(Start)-Driver-Hometown

# – denotes rookie