TJ Boucher Honors Vic Santos in a Race #1 Victory!

By Christian and Tyler Fillipone: June 8th, 2025

The 2025 ASRA season began with a Saturday rainout, pushing the Vic Santos Memorial Race to Sunday. This anticipated race yielded 46 drivers, all competing for a winner’s purse of $7,250; the largest ASRA winning payout to date. With the announcement of this memorial race, sponsorship poured in from countless generous donors, eager to show their support for the legendary Vic Santos. A massive thank you to every sponsor and their contributions.

Following two rounds of qualification, Henry Specht landed as the #1 qualifier in his beautiful Camaro, with a .000 light in typical ASRA fashion. Starting with notable matchups in round one of eliminations, Todd Bednaz and Adam Strang found themselves preparing for a heads-up in D/S, where Bednaz prevailed victoriously. The second round of eliminations revealed yet another heads-up race between Tim Whitehead and Bill Johnson, where Tim claimed a win.

Jumping ahead to round four, 6 racers remained. Ethan Sutherland with an .026 reaction and 10.942 (10.93) bested Mirza’s .054, 10.648 (10.62). Tim Gray in the Merryfield-Gremlin faced off against Tim Stickles in his ’80 Malibu. Stickles, with the starting line advantage, was behind .043 at the stripe with Gray taking the win. TJ Boucher with his ‘87 Camaro and DJ Pires in the ’86 Firebird lined up for the third heads-up race of the day; this one in I/SA. TJ, with a .007 reaction to DJ’s .048, ran a 11.235 to advance over the 11.401 of Pires.

            The horsepower and reaction time advantage of TJ in round #4 resulted in a semifinal bye. This left Ethan Sutherland and Tim Gray to face off for a final round spot. Reaction time made the difference for Sutherland, where his .056, 10.934 (10.92) held off Gray’s .067, 13.479 (13.47) for a chance at over $7,000.

The final round competitors pulled into the water box with many ASRA racers standing by to watch who would come out on top of the Vic Santos Memorial Race final round, between TJ and Ethan. TJ wasn’t letting up on the starting line with his .017 reaction time, giving him the ability to take the stripe and win over Ethan Sutherland.

Congratulations to TJ and the whole Boucher Family, we all know Vic would be so proud. Races 2 & 3 will be held on June 28th and 29th at Lebanon Valley. See you all there!

Special Award Winners:

Boucher's Racing Engines Bounty Hunter: Gene Monahan

Seacoast Auto Repair #1 Qualifier: Henry Specht

D.I.P.G. Awareness Take Out the #1 Qualifier: Dean Ribeiro

Eric Merryfield's Best Losing Package Rd #1: Dennis Martins

Deanco Automotive Dead on the Dial: Raffe Karaguezian

Nexus Consulting Best Winning Package: Raffe Karaguezian

Deanco Automotive "Its Been Awhile": TJ Boucher