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IT KEEPS ON CLICKING
PITKAT COLLECTS FIRST VMRS VICTORY |
Woody
Pitkat in the Pete Kulessa owned modified marked
another milestone in his racing career, the hometown
driver held off a tenacious Keith Rocco in the
closing circuits to collect his first win in the
Valenti Modified Racing Series 80 at Stafford Motor
Speedway.
“I just keep clicking,” said Pitkat. “It’s showing
I’m in top notch equipment, I’ve got great people
backing me, great supporting cast, just great fans
that have been through the ups and downs of my Tour
career. Obviously it’s huge, especially to win here.
I really felt like we were going to have a good car
and have a good opportunity – we were so strong at
Monadnock.”
Rocco, a threat for the win from the start, crossed
for second with Todd Szegedy on the podium in the
Stuart’s Automobile third. Ted Christopher rallied
from an incident hitting the turn three wall to
cross for fourth while Todd Patnode, his first race
at Stafford brought the Dan Stebbins modified across
for fifth.
Starting on the pole, Rocco brought the twenty-five
car field to the green flag for the VMRS 80 lap event
with Rowan Pennink on the outside, Ryan Preece
third, Pitkat fourth and Dylan Kopec fifth. Preece
took over second before the first circuit was
complete and tucking in just behind Rocco, the fans
were treated to a show as Rocco and Preece swapped
first place at least six times before twenty laps
were ticked off the board.
The green flag stayed out as the field appeared to
settle into a run that by lap 25 had Preece on the
point, Rocco, Pitkat, Kopec and Pennink the top
five.
Rocco continued to answer back to Preece taking the
lead again by lap 32, only to have Preece pass again
seven circuits later.
At the half way mark, the top ten, still under
green, was Preece, Rocco, Pitkat, Steve Masse,
Richard Savary, Todd Szegedy, Kopec, Christopher,
Todd Patnode and Kirk Alexander.
Five circuits later, Preece, Rocco and Pitkat had
broken from the pack the trio seeming to set a
torrid pace as the long green run continued.
Pitkat made his first move closer to the front by
passing Rocco for second on lap 47 then quickly
sizing up Preece, made his move for the lead to
become the new leader on lap 49.
One lap later, the first yellow of the night waved
as Pennink went around in turn two. Pennink, fresh
off of his SK modified win earlier in the night, was
able to continue. Pitkat at the point, brought the
field back to green with Preece on the outside,
Rocco in third, Masse and Savary the top five.
The restart got dicey on the front stretch, Masse,
Savary and Donnie Lashua tangled bringing out
another yellow.
The next restart fared little better - while one lap
would register, a cluster of cars around in turn two
involving Kopec, Charlie Pasteryak, David Schneider,
George Sherman, Dennis Perry, Donnie Lashua and
Chris Bolton taking evasive action, closed the field
up again for another shot at
the green.
Pitkat, Rocco, Preece, Szegedy and Alexander the top
five came around to the green on lap 51.
Rocco on the outside powered by Pitkat to become the
new leader one lap later. Rocco and Pitkat broke
from the pack as Szegedy, Preece,Patnode, Pennink,
Ted Christopher and Alexander made up the second
pack of cars as the board showed less than twenty to
go.
Lap 68 Pitkat made his move. Approaching a lap car,
Pitkat went low into turn three, under Rocco, then
high around a lap car, Pitkat crossed the line to
become the final leader of the night with 11 to go.
Rocco stayed with Pitkat, as the action was pulled
in one more time. Norm Wrenn took a hard hit on the
frontstretch wall right under the starter stand
bringing out the final yellow flag on lap 74.
Pitkat, Rocco, Szegedy, Christopher and Preece the
top five, the VMRS 80 came down to a six lap dash to
the checkers.
Pitkat persevered, holding off Rocco to earn his
first VMRS victory with Rocco crossing second,
Szegedy third, Christopher fourth and Patnode the
top five. Preece, a top contender to the end, faded
on the last restart crossing the line 13th.
“It’s pretty cool,” said Pitkat in victory lane.
Pitkat was quick to point out what was unique about
his wins at Stafford in the SK, the NWMT and now the
VMRS. “I accomplished that in all different cars-
Chassis Dynamics, a Troyer and now a Spafco. The
Spafco Chassis was really stout today. I knew we
were going to have a good car this year. We put a
notebook together last year with these guys and I
just kept working on it, kept working on it – Greg
(Felton) and Bob (Norris), those guys at the shop,
they just work their tails off – Greg gave me a
great car. I thank Pete Kulessa for giving me the
opportunity to run this car. I wasn’t sure how Keith
was going to be, I could see Ryan was getting a
little free, but Keith, I wasn’t sure what he was
going to do- we just tried to get a good restart
there at the end and check out. This is cool, I
can’t believe it- win my first Tour here, now a MRS
race here.”
For almost all of the lead changes, one common
denominator was Keith Rocco who flexed his
experience at a track where he has earned a lot of
success. There at the beginning, there at the end,
Rocco was a threat for the win from the green.
“We had a lot of good cars up front there in the
beginning,” said Rocco. “Some of them faded but
still, Woody was strong, he snookered me on the lap
car there and got by me. I’ve got to thank my whole
team.”
“We had that restart with thirty to go and kind of
at that point, we made a decision it was time to
go,” said Rocco.“I thought we could have kept Pitkat
behind us but the lap car kind of opened the door
for him, I lost the lead and I wasn’t able to get it
back.”
“The race went by fast, there were a lot of green
flag laps. I was glad to be able to stay up front
because when you battle that hard at the beginning
you usually fall off, but we were able to stay up
front.We have a lot of fun running with the MRS
Series.”
“I definitely need to thank Kenny and Kevin Stuart
for putting me in this race car,” said Todd Szegedy
who followed up his season opening win at Monadnock
Speedway with a solid podium finish tonight at
Stafford. “They prepare a great race car for me. I
had to start back in 12th because we won a couple of
weeks ago so I knew I had to save my tires but at
the same time I had to get to the front or at least
up to the lead pack guys without doing too much
damage to the tires, the car was pretty darn well
balanced. A little tight there in the center, there
wasn’t much I could do except protect my line then
try not to make a mistake.I used up some stuff
having to come from where I did. I didn’t want to
stay back there too long, but at the same time I
didn’t want to beat the car up – I just went as hard
as I felt was right. It probably took a little bit
of speed away from the car at the end but we came
home third.”
“This series is growing,” added Szegedy who says the
team will pick and choose their VMRS events this
season. “There is a lot of great talent here in the
northeast with modified racing and late models-
you’re going to see a lot of good racing in the
future.”
Greg Felton, the winning crew chief had sent a
message to Woody earlier in the week. “I texted
Woody on Wednesday, I just said ‘Friday W’.”
And ‘W’ they did.
“It’s definitely a team effort,” said Felton. “Since
we brought Woody on board with about five races to
go last year, just the morale of everybody was
lifted. Pete, the car owner, didn’t even know who
Woody was. I went to him and told him I think I know
who I want. But I said I want you, Bob (Norris) and
me to agree on it. Pete said if you and Bob are
happy with that decision- Bob just shook his head,
yeah, and that was it.”
Getting what you want and making it work are too
different things. Felton however, knew early on they
were headed in the right direction. “I could feel
the chemistry starting a couple races in. It took a
little longer to get that ‘W’ than maybe I thought
it would but you just couldn’t keep getting those
top three finishes and not get it.”
Car owner Pete Kulessa is no stranger to racing
having had tremendous success at tracks like
Monadnock Speedway. After finishing second at the
VMRS season opener at Monadnock, a win at Stafford
certainly builds on the team momentum. “Awesome
wasn’t it? Wasn’t he awesome out there? I’ve been
working with Kirk Alexander for years winning all
those races. It’s good to win one with my own car.”
The top four- Pitkat, Rocco, Szegedy and Christopher
each have years, combined have decades of experience
running at Stafford Motor Speedway. That equation
makes what Todd Patnode accomplished Friday night
rather eye opening. The NH driver had never really
raced at Stafford and the team, largely made up of
family members of car owner Dan Stebbins, who
collectively have a lot of racing experience, still,
they had never set up a car for Stafford. Finishing
fifth behind the solid experience in front of them
is well worth noting. “Basically, I watched some
lines and we hit the right set up out of the box,”
said Patnode. “We were a whisker too free, we
probably should have tightened it up a little bit
for the feature but when we went out there, we said
a top ten and one piece would be awesome. So a fifth
place and one piece, we’re even happier.”
Following Pitkat, Rocco, Szegedy, Christopher and
Patnode across the line was Kirk Alexander in sixth,
seventh to Rowan Pennink, Dan Meservey Jr, Dylan
Kopec and Mike Willis Jr. the top ten.
Next up on the VMRS schedule will be Seekonk
Speedway June 6th.
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Source:
Polly Reid /
TheChromeHorn.com
Posted:
May 23, 2015 |
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