The mastery of NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour qualifying for Ryan Preece and his Flamingo Motorsports team continued Saturday at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H.
For the fourth time in four events since Preece joined the Flamingo Motorsports team, Preece, of Berlin, captured the pole in qualifying, and for the second consecutive time he set a track record in the process.
Preece, of Berlin, toured the quarter-mile Monadock Speedway in 12.315 seconds (72.082 mph) Saturday in qualifying for tonight’s Monadnock 200, eclipsing the previous track record of 12.390 set by seven-time series champion Mike Stefanik in 1988.
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STAFFORD – Getting through a restart clean with a broken transmission is a feat no racecar driver wants to think about dealing with.
That said, making a pass for the win on a restart with a broken transmission is the stuff of fantasy land dreaming.
Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway, Eric Berndt lived the fantasy in ultra-dramatic style.
Berndt, of Cromwell, passed Stafford’s all-time winningest driver – Ted Christopher - on a green-white-checker restart to win the 40-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature at the track.
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STAFFORD – JJ Hill may have inherited a lead, but nobody could say he was given anything Friday night at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Hill, of Stafford, held off challenger after challenger over five late restarts to win the 40-lap Late Model feature at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Mike Quintiliano of Shelton was second and Adam Gray of Belchertown, Mass. third.
It was the third career victory in the division for Hill, but first victory in the new car his family built during the offseason. It was the second event on the track for the car.
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STAFFORD – The learning curve in the Limited Late Model division for Josh Wood at Stafford Motor Speedway has actually had little curve at all. It’s been a straight line directly to victory lane.
On April 28 Wood won in his debut in the Limited Late Model division at Stafford. Friday the 17-year old from Palmer, Mass. kept stayed perfect in the division by driving away in the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature.
Duane Provost of Springfield was second and Cory Casagrande of Stafford third.
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Back in February, when we were changing over to a new layout for the auto racing blog at The Courant, I wrote a headline on the last entry of the previous layout style that read: “The Time Has Come To Move On To Something New.”
It was a trick, you know that old “Made ya look” kind of play on words that makes one wonder just what the story is really about it.
Today it’s no trick, no play on words. I’m not crying wolf.
By the time I was 15 years old I knew I wanted to be a sports reporter for a newspaper and for the last 18 years I got the chance to live out that dream at the Hartford Courant.
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For race fans wondering what the view is like on track from the seat of an SK Modified, Stafford Motor Speedway has the perfect package to make that wonder reality.
Stafford’s new two-seat SK Modified made its on track debut recently at the Tech-Net Spring Sizzler and now fans will have the opportunity to get their chance to ride along in the car with legendary Modified driver Bob Potter at the wheel.
Stafford Speedway is offering fans three different packages for taking a ride in the car.
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WATERFORD – By time the dust settled Saturday night at the Waterford Speedbowl, Keith Rocco’s SK Modified looked like somebody had rammed it with a wrecking ball.
Though Rocco proved that the car doesn’t have to be pretty to go to victory lane.
Rocco, of Wallingford, rallied in dramatic fashion from an early wreck and won the 35-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature Saturday at Waterford.
Tom Abele Jr. of Norwich was second and Nichole Morgillo of Yalesville third. It was the fourth victory in six SK Modified division starts at the Speedbowl this year for Rocco.
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WATERFORD – The all-time winningest driver of the Mini Stock division at the Waterford Speedbowl is making a business of putting on dramatic performances in 2012.
Last week, Ken Cassidy Jr. used a last lap pass to win the Mini Stock feature by half a second.
Saturday Cassidy kept his 2012 domination of the division going with another attention grabbing show.
Cassidy used some outside lane dramatics to pass Bill Leonard for the lead with five laps remaining and then held on to win the 25-lap Mini Stock feature.
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There’s been no slowing C.E. Falk out of the gate around Virginia’s short tracks this year and that smoking start to the season has landed the Norfolk Beach, Va. driver at the top of the May edition of the NASCAR Hunter Index power poll.
Falk has five victories in eight starts including seven top-five finishes thus far this season between three tracks.
After winning a 300-lap opener at South Boston (Va.) Speedway, the 24-year old Falk won twice at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va., and also swept twin features at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va.
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Weather forecast woes will force fans to wait another week to get their Friday fix of racing at Stafford Motor Speedway in 2012.
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Stafford Motor Speedway management decided Thursday that the Friday forecast calling for rain most of the day and evening was too much to go up against and decided to offer up an early cancellation to the opening Friday night show at the track.
STAFFORD – Doug Coby kept an extra souvenir to help him remember his second career Tech-Net Spring Sizzler 200 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory Sunday at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Doug Coby's grill blocked by a Subway wrapper after the race Sunday (Credit: Rich Keator)
Coby will keep a piece of paper with the winning trophy, a piece of paper that nearly ruined an almost perfect day for him. A wrapper from a Subway sandwich will sit with the trophy to help Coby remember just how close he came to not scoring a second Spring Sizzler victory.
Coby said the sandwich wrapper got lodged in his grill sometime after he pitted on lap 97 of the 200-lap race. Coby took the lead from Ryan Preece on lap 112 but also was noticing the water temperature gauge on his car was spiking.
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STAFFORD – It’s fair to say Keith Rocco is a polarizing figure in the Southern New England Modified racing circles. Rocco stands as one of those love him or hate him individuals. There’s usually no middle ground.
For many that stand on the hater side, the offseason news that Rocco had landed a fulltime NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour ride for the 2012 season with Boehler Racing Enterprises only served to intensify the vitriol.
He’s an over aggressive, overhyped SK Modified driver has been the common sentiment spewed by those lobbing criticism at the Rocco camp.
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STAFFORD – Talk to Ryan Preece for any amount of time and its clear within minutes that there’s no shortage of optimistic giddiness coming from the 21-year old driver from Berlin.
Despite having the best car for most of Sunday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Tech-Net Spring Sizzler 200 at Stafford Motor Speedway and having to settle for a second place finish, Preece showed that there’s no way he’ll let disappointment in any event carry on past that event.
After Sunday’s finish at Stafford, Preece wasn’t lamenting what might have been but rather explaining how what he and his team learned Sunday in finishing second will serve as the lesson they need to come in confident they’ll win when the series returns to Stafford next month.
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STAFFORD – Doug Coby may not have a stockpile of NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victories on his resume, but the Milford driver is showing he knows how to collect the big check in the historic events.
Doug Coby in victory lane following his Spring Sizzler victory Sunday at Stafford Speedway (NASCAR/David Silverman)
Coby made the most of a dominant car Sunday by running away with victory in the Whelen Modified Tour Tech-Net Spring Sizzler 200 at Stafford Motor Speedway.
The Spring Sizzler stands arguably as the most historic event left on the Modified Tour schedule. In 2006 Coby scored his first Whelen Modified Tour victory by winning the Sizzler.
“It’s amazing,” Coby said. “To be able to put my name on the Sizzler win list twice now is pretty damn cool.”
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STAFFORD – There was a time at Stafford Motor Speedway when the sight of Bob Potter coming in the rearview mirror would mean sure terror for SK Modified drivers at the track.
Bob Potter with ride along participant Cathy Lent Sunday at Stafford Speedway
This year Potter will be getting the chance to put some fear, and exhilaration, into the hearts of fans at the track.
Potter has been asked by Stafford Motor Speedway management to get behind the wheel of the track’s new two-seat SK Modified car, that will be used to give lucky fans rides around the track.
Potter spent Friday evening testing the new car at Stafford.
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