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WOODY PITKAT
LOOKING TO FIRST VMRS WIN
OF 2016 AT STAFFORD |
What
a difference one year can make. At this time last
season, Woody Pitkat had two VMRS wins at Stafford
and was on his way to winning the championship. Fast
forward to now and Pitkat heads into the September 2
VMRS 80 at Stafford still in search of his first win
of the season.
While Pitkat hasn’t won a race yet this season, Todd
Szegedy did pilot the #52 machine to a win earlier
this season at Claremont Speedway, so the team and
the car are capable of winning. And what better
track for Pitkat to get his first win of the season
at than Stafford? Back in 2015, Pitkat won 2
Stafford races and finished second in the third
race. This season he finished second in VMRS race in
May at Stafford and he was fighting for the lead at
the June VMRS event when he had to retire only 13
laps from the end of the race with mechanical
issues.
“Being with a new team this year, we have a couple
key guys who came over from last year’s team but the
biggest thing has been trying to find what the car
wants versus last year’s car,” said Pitkat. “They’re
both SPAFCO Chassis and we have the same motor as
last year in the car but for some reason they don’t
react the same. I think a lot of that may have to do
with the MRS tire being a little different than last
year. The last couple of races we’ve really started
to hit on what the car likes for the tires. The
night that Todd [Szegedy] won at Claremont was a big
help and I think that has kind of turned the page on
us running a little better. We finished third at
Waterford and we’ve had a few issues that have kept
us from winning some races. I’m looking forward to
the September 2 race at Stafford. We had a
mechanical issue in the last race at Stafford but we
finished second in the first Stafford race. All the
guys on the team are working real hard on making the
car better and we’re real close to getting things to
fire on all 8 cylinders.”
One area that may give Pitkat an advantage is his
weekly experience running in Stafford’s SK Modified®
division. Pitkat’s SK Modified® car is the car that
he drove to his Stafford wins and the VMRS
championship last season and he has already notched
two wins this season. But despite his weekly
experience at Stafford, Pitkat says that the VMRS 80
is going to be a tough race to win.
“I think we’ll have a pretty good piece to challenge
for the win,” said Pitkat. “Running the SK weekly is
a big advantage but there’s 4 or 5 guys who run the
MRS races who are fast and then there’s the guys
like Keith Rocco and Rowan Pennink that come to the
Stafford races, so it’s a tough race to win. We’ve
been good at Stafford and hopefully we can have good
runs at Monadnock and Oxford to bring some good
momentum to Stafford and try to challenge for the
win.”
The September 2nd VMRS 80 will be the third and
final Valenti Modified Racing Series event to be
held at Stafford during the 2016 season. Tickets are
available and on sale now and are priced at $27.50
for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for
children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under
are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an
adult. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission
Tax. Reserved seating is $30.00 for all ages.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor
Speedway track office at 860-684-2783
or visit us on the web at
www.staffordspeedway.com.
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Source:
Scott Running / Stafford Motor Speedway
Posted:
August 18, 2016 |
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