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07/15/2012 |
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NASCAR WHELEN
MODIFIED TOUR - TOWN FAIR TIRE 100
New Hampshire
Motor Speedway
by
Polly Reid |
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 Swapping
the lead for the final 25 laps, it came down to the
final circuit. The crowd on their feet, out of turn
four with the checkered flag in the air, Mike
Stefanik and Ron Silk were side by side, Rowan
Pennink went low making it three wide for the win.
In a split second, Pennink was forced to back out,
Silk and Stefanik continued, crossing the line at
nearly the same time. By 3 thousandths of a second,
Mike Stefanik of Coventry, RI in the Ed Marceau
owned, Canto & Sons Paving/Robert B Our Company
sponsored Ford scored the coveted win in the NASCAR
Whelen Modified Town Fair Tire 100 at New Hampshire
Motor Speedway.
Silk locked in second, Doug Coby third, Eric Beers
fourth and Todd Szegedy crossed fifth. Pennink held
on for sixth.
“When I came out of four, I knew it was going to be
tight,” said Stefanik recalling the last lap. “I
actually physically sat up in the seat as much as
much as I could and kind of like peered over the
front of my car and rolled my eyes to the right to
see what bumper was ahead. It’s actually funny, you
wouldn’t think about doing that but I just wanted to
win after such a long hard battle with Ronnie Silk.
You hate to give it away, they just don’t come
enough. This feeling I have today just never gets
old. I’m 54 years old and I still feel like I’m 21.”
The Town Fair Tire 100 marks Stefanik’s 72nd career
win, his eighth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his
last coming in August of 2011.
Silk commanded the lead from the green leading the
entire first half until the mandatory break that
fell at a lap 47 caution. While the likes of Keith
Rocco, Ryan Preece, Rowan Pennink, Eric Beers and
Ryan Newman swapped out second place, none were able
to make a complete pass on Silk and make it stick
for a full circuit. Stefanik who took the green
ninth, methodically moved forward repeatedly
optimizing the draft, move low and complete the
pass. By the time the mandatory pit stop was called,
Stefanik had secured second.
A right front flat on the Newman modified brought
out a yellow on lap 47 where NASCAR officials called
the mandatory pit stop. Drivers were able to change
tires, fuel and make adjustments under the 5 minute
red flag. When the green waved, Stefanik became the
dominate threat to Silk’s day. With the final thirty
two laps green, the pair would swap the top spot a
modified fan pleasing seventeen times.
It was the final circuit that brought the fans to
their feet.
“With three to go I made my decision. I didn’t want
to make it with one to go because I thought that
they would probably pass with one to go- they would
want to be leading. I asked my spotter Carol who did
a fantastic job, I said what lap is this and she
said five to go at the line. I counted two more
laps, made the pass on Ronnie and then I was like I
have to try and hold this guy off for three laps
because I did not want him going back by me for
those three laps. His car got tight and that is what
allowed me to come up with this plan. He was
struggling a little bit in the corner but he had a
lot of steam under the hood with that spec motor. I
made the move with three to go- luck, whatever; we
won it by a fraction.”
“Whenever you get in the lead draft here at New
Hampshire, crazy stuff is happening the whole time,”
said defending champion Silk in the Ed Partridge
owned, Reynolds Auto Wrecking/Schnitzer sponsored
Chevrolet. “I don’t know what it looked like from
the outside but it was a lot of fun in the car. Mike
did an awesome job on the last lap. I got a run on
him, I ran him up a little bit and he was able to
hang onto to it up in the marbles a little bit and
beat me back to the line, congratulations to him and
those guys. I was in the spot I wanted to be in on
the last lap. I wanted to be in second coming off of
turn two. I had the run down the backstretch but I
just couldn’t get him. I knew this morning in
practice, I was around him a little bit in practice
drafting and I knew his car was good.”
The victory for 7 time NWMT champion Stefanik was as
much as a win for him as it was for his new team,
car owner Ed Marceau and crew chief Brad Lafontaine.
“I always admired Brad Lafontaine’s ability to give
his drivers fantastic cars. I’m still a student of
this game, I study everybody’s car, you just know
who is driving a good car, who is struggling. It
seems like more often than not, he’s given his
drivers what they need to win the race. He’s been
around the game a long time, he works hard at it and
he’s smart at it. He’s an icon crew chief in this
series.”
Point leader Doug Coby of Milford, CT in the
Reynolds Auto Wrecking Chevrolet overcame what
turned out to be a challenging day for the Wayne
Darling crew headed up by crew chief John McKenna.
Starting third on the grid, Coby was not able to
hold onto the position when the green flew. It would
have been easy to think this team would be more than
a long shot for the podium when Coby pitted on lap
8.
Then lap 13. Then again on lap 27. After the
mandatory pit on lap 47, Coby lined up seventeenth.
Making the adjustments early, the strategy paid off.
Coby became a contender and was in the thick of
things in the final circuit.
“My race was a little different than Ron’s,”
explained Coby. “As I’m sure you guys saw me pit
like four times. We were just struggling on that
Nationwide Series and Cup rubber really bad,
sometimes it comes around, sometimes it doesn’t. And
I think those guys from 5th or 7th on back, the
track really never came into their cars. We just
made the right adjustments at the break. I don’t
know how it happened but we found ourselves in the
top five with ten to go. We tried to make some smart
moves and right there at the end when Ron, Mike and
Rowan were dicing it up I tried to get a couple of
spots and we ended up third. It was a great day for
our team.”
Andy Seuss of Hampstead, NH started 15th and crossed
the line 7th. Denise DuPont was able to catch up
with Andy at the conclusion of the Town Fair Tire
100, her report is below. Donny Lia finished 8th,
Zane Zeiner 9th and Woody Pitkat a solid 10th.
Riverhead Raceway is the next stop for the NASCAR
Whelen Modified Tour on July 28th.
The contribution below is by Denise DuPont who
caught up with Eric Beers and Andy Seuss in the pits
after the race. Thank you Denise.
Eric Beers
Eric Beers has had a strong race car in 2012 and it
is only a matter of when the Horwith
Freightliner/John Blewett Inc. Ford will have a 2012
win. Beers started the race in eleventh spot and
made his way through the field to actually lead the
race for a short while. He ran with the leaders the
whole race making some daring moves on the outside,
some which cost him race spots. “We had a good car
right out of the box,” said Beers about the #45. “We
drove from twelfth right up to second. We got by
Ronnie (Silk) once for the lead and then he got
right by us. We were twelfth for the first segment
and we were short and got fourth for the second
segment. Our second set of tires we not near as good
as the first set of tires. We were very loose. The
car would drive into the corner and I would turn
right through the whole corner. We dropped all the
way back to twelfth or thirteenth with twenty laps
to go. Then it end up tightening up a little bit. I
found a lane where the car would actually work and I
started driving the car in a different spot and I
drove all the way up to fourth. If we had a little
bit more help there I thought we had a real good
shot at it. One time we drove up underneath Stefanik
for second coming through the corner but the draft
killed us and we were back to fifth place.”
“Congratulations to Michael and his team. They had a
good run. It was a nice clean race. Hopefully we
come back here next year and we do not have to wait
for the car to come in until twenty laps to go.”
Andy Seuss
The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour has been
the primary concentration for New Hampshire native
Andy Seuss. On off weekends Seuss has raced where he
can with the family owned #70 car. Seuss started the
Rockingham Boat/MUA/Summit Signs Chevrolet fifteenth
and maneuvered his way to the front.
Seuss finished the race seventh. “I am real happy
with my race finish. The car was real loose at the
green flag and the guys did some awesome
adjustments. We almost thought that it was going to
be too much but it did get loose the last few laps.
During the last few laps I had a great battle with
Szegedy at the end.”
“Just a run with those teams today , guys like -
Lia, Szegedy, Pennink, Silk and the money that they
spend while we are just doing it as a family
operation it is amazing. I have to thank my parents,
Lyle and Kathy Patterson, Lee and Pam Vinyl from
Vinyl Excavating, and everybody that put into this
car or work on the car for this race to make it
better. It is great just to be friends with
everybody that we race with. And to have a good
finish at a track like this.". |
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Source: Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: July
15, 2012 |
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