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04/30/2012 |
MONADNOCK
SPEEDWAY
Whitcomb 200
presented by Mobix & Town Fair Tire
by
Polly Reid |
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Monadnock
Speedway hosted the third stop on the NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour with the Whitcomb 200 presented by
Mobix & Town Fair Tire. After setting a new track
record earlier in qualifying, Ryan Preece of Berlin,
CT survived several restarts and a tenacious Doug
Coby in the closing circuits to score his first win
in the Eric Sanderson owned, Diversified Metals/R.B.
Enterprises sponsored Ford.
The victory is the fourth NWMT career win for
Preece.
Preece led the 175 lap event wire to wire and
climbed the fence in a victory lane celebration.
“Sly Szaban, this whole Flamingo Motorsports team is
unbelievable. I’m just so lucky to be a part of it
and I’m very grateful for this opportunity. Doug
(Coby) said he had the perfect car last race, I feel
like that this week. Once we got going, I would just
take off, I think I could have gone another 100
laps, it was that good.”
Doug Coby of Milford, CT crossed for second with
Todd Szegedy of Ridgefield, CT third, Holtsville,
NY’s Justin Bonsignore fourth and Ron Silk of
Norwalk, CT fifth.
“I don’t think we were going to get by the 16 car
today- I gave it all I had,” said Coby who wheeled
the Wayne Darling owned modified to victory lane in
the last outing at Stafford Motor Speedway. “We
started second, finished second but it definitely
wasn’t that easy. It was a battle with the 36
(Christopher) and the 2 (Szegedy) and the 6 (Silk)
for a while and of course Ryan. I tried my hardest
on those restarts- wanted to really roll the outside
the best I could. It’s really tough at this track-
it’s my third time here- I’m learning every time I’m
here. I think coming to that MRS race a month ago
really helped us with our set up. We ran up front
and that’s all on a quarter mile track that you can
hope for.” Coby whose 52 modified carries
sponsorship from Reynolds Auto Wrecking/Furnace &
Duct continued, “I really want to thank Teddy Bear
Pools for putting up the extra money, that means a
lot and for Long Island Manic for getting Jerry
Marquis back in a car- that was pretty cool. And I
want to thank my guys for a really good car, it was
fun to drive.”
Szegedy scored his first podium finish of the season
in the Mike Smerigilo, III owned, Dunleavy
Repair/A&J Romano Construction Ford crossing the
stripe third. “The guys at the shop work real hard
to prepare these race cars. My car owner gives me
the best equipment out here. When you have bad luck,
racing isn’t fun, I’ll be the first one to tell you
but when you run well, compete for top five’s, it’s
a good time.” Szegedy is turning around a season
that has been heading uphill since the season opener
at Thompson. Szegedy brought up a suggestion that he
thought would make the race even more entertaining
for the fans. “I think for these short track races,
NASCAR needs to give us the option to pit and put a
right rear on. I was hardly touching the throttle
the whole race then when it was time to go, we had
no tires left. If they would give us a right rear we
could have a lot of cool looking racing. Preece
would not have pitted but some of us would have and
you would see a lot of outside racing- let’s lobby
for that right rear and make this race even better.”
Preece started his afternoon off by breaking the
track record at Monadnock with a 12.315 second lap
around the high banked oval besting the time of
12.390 set in May 1988. Preece then backed it up
leading all 175 laps but not before surviving ten
cautions that included two red flags. The reds, one
for fluid on the speedway on lap 99 and the second
for Jon McKennedy’s hard hit into the turn one tire
barrier about 20 circuits later did not shake
Preece’s momentum. “It made me calm down- it cooled
off my tires a little bit. I think the most intense
part of that race was when the 18 got that flat tire
(in the closing circuits). I almost got into him,”
admitted Preece. “The restarts, they were good, I
tried to switch it up at the end. Doug did what he
had to do, staying right beside me- that last
restart, I knew what I had to do to really get away
and run my race- the car was phenomenal. This team
is such a fun team- it’s an environment I like to be
around- I’m looking forward to the rest of this
year.” Preece also gave a shout out to Mike Herman,
Jr and Kenny Bouchard for their support.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” said winning
car owner Eric Sanderson. “The team, they’re the
best. Sly and the guys put a great car together.
It’s like a dream, it really is. Ryan, he’s always
smiling, all the time. In the car, no matter what’s
happening, he has a great attitude.”
“Coming here I didn’t think we had much because we
struggled the last couple of years,” said Flamingo
Motorsports crew chief Sly Szaban. “When we got
here, we decided to go with what we think was going
to work. We unloaded and the car was good right off
the trailer. We made some spring changes to give
Ryan some different feels, give him a few options
and let him make some decisions. After the pole and
the impound, the crew got together and we came up
with some ideas for the race- some changes we needed
to make and as a group we came up with what we
thought would be the right decisions. We went with
them and they worked.” Szaban credits spotter Joe
Scotnicki for keeping their driver in the right
frame of mind, “he gives Ryan the right things to
think about, what to watch for. Joe was a big part
of the win tonight.”
Donny Lia in the Mystic Missile, Mike Stefanik in
the Sheraton Harborside Portsmouth and Eric Beers in
the Horwith Freightliner/John Blewett Inc sponsored
modified all came back from a lap down to collect a
top ten finish- Lia crossing the stripe for sixth,
Stefanik seventh and Beers eighth. Ed Flemke, Jr
claimed his first top ten of the season in the Ron
Bouchard’s Autos/Raceworks ride finishing ninth and
rookie of the year contender Keith Rocco in the Cape
Cod Copper/Silver Dollar Construction Boehler
machine tenth.
Defending NWMT champion Ron Silk continues to lead
the way in the points, one over Coby with Preece
third, Stefanik fourth while Jimmy Blewett and
Justin Bonsignore are locked in a tie for fifth.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to Stafford
Motor Speedway for TSI Harley 125 on Friday May
25th. |
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Source: Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: April
30, 2012 |
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