|
8/2/2009
|
RIVERHEAD
RACEWAY:
WMT RIVERHEAD 175
by
Polly Reid |
What is the secret to succeeding at Riverhead Raceway? Ryan
Preece answered that question before the green flag even waved in the
Riverhead 175.
“Start out front, have a real good car and not get loose,” said
Preece who stayed cool on a hot summer night, survived several restarts,
edged out Ted Christopher on a couple of side by side runs, successfully
worked lap traffic not to mention kept at bay a host of Riverhead regulars
breathing down his neck to bring his Mizzy Construction, Reynold’s Auto
Wrecking Chevrolet home to victory lane.
Earlier in the day, Preece set fast time in
qualifying, earning his third career pole.
“The car was hooked up,” Preece said about his 12.001 second
qualifying lap. “The crew gave me a real good car, it is probably the best
car I’ve had in time trials all year.” The Berlin, CT driver continued,
“We’ve been coming along this past year, things have been going real well so
hopefully we’ll be there at the end for the championship.”
A second career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win for Preece, the
trip to victory lane culminated a near perfect day for the 18 year old
driver who now sits third in the point standings.
“It was a great day. It’s unbelievable especially here. I have a good record
here but you come here every year and you’re wondering is it going to be a
good day or a bad day?” Preece continued, “Things can turn around on you so
fast. Things just happened to fall my way tonight and I was very fortunate.
I know God was looking out for me on all of those restarts. This is just
great; it’s the best feeling in the world right now.”
Preece worked at making it look easy staying in the lead, but he
had a plan. “Once I felt I had a good padded lead about two car lengths,
they would just say two car lengths, I’d half throttle down the straight
away, lift, have good rolling speed through the corners so they couldn’t get
me, they’d only catch me on the straight away. You have to get out of the
corner in order to pass here, I figured just keep up that momentum, don’t
spin the tires, keep them for the end and that’s where I started to walk
away from them.”
“We happened to have everything fall into the right place tonight.”
Indeed they did.
If you are not familiar with this name on the Tour you might be soon.
Dave Brigati of Calverton, NY was the
top finishing Riverhead regular who worked his way forward after starting
9th finishing a convincing second. Brigati in his Integra Shocks sponsored
Chevrolet made his move passing Brode late in the going to finish in the
second spot, his first ever Tour race. “We conserved tires for a while; we
sat back for about the first 80 laps. Then we started going about lap 115
and everything fell into place,” said Brigati who ran the 77 lap race a few
weeks ago at Riverhead. “We finished in the top three that night, got fast
time and did the same thing, sat back, saved the right rear, and came
through at the end. That proved to work here tonight. That really set the
tone for this race for me. Keep it in one piece, keep all corners on it and
have a right rear left on it and wow, did it work.”
Brigati is currently leading the points in the tightly contested
Riverhead Modified division and while that is where his efforts are focused
for the 2009 season, he also has other plans in the making. A former late
model racer, Brigati started with modifieds about three years ago at
Riverhead. “Things could change now; we’re going to start doing some Tour
stuff.” Working to build a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour team, Brigati could
very well be showing up on a NWMT driver roster before the season ends.
Finishing a strong third, Howie Brode is
quick to say the key to succeeding at Riverhead is “get a good starting spot
and keep all the wheels pointing in the right direction.”
The East Islip, NY driver did just that qualifying third and while
running second for a time, Brode in his Freightliner Chevrolet took home a
top three finish, a great night for a driver who has run only a couple of
times this season at the quarter mile banked oval. Brode’s favorite thing
about Riverhead? Not a surprise Brode says, “I run pretty good here.”
Mission accomplished.
New points leader: The Wisk Snuggle Ford of Todd Szegedy could not
have had a more eventful day, a rather Six Flags rollercoaster kind of a
ride. Struggling in qualifying, Szegedy ended up in the 25-lap qualifying
race. Taking a provisional and starting 24th on the grid, the early long
green run found the Ridgefield driver at one point down a lap. Eventually
Szegedy would benefit from a free pass only to have to pit a short time
later. However, when the checkers finally waved, Szegedy got off the
rollercoaster posting his best ever Riverhead finish, 8th place, high enough
to put him at the top of the Tour points, 22 over defending champion Ted
Christopher.
An eleven time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour winner at Riverhead,
Mike Ewanitsko was on hand Saturday night to watch the Riverhead 175. You
could pretty much put your money on Ewanitsko to take it all when the Tour
came to Riverhead- Ewanitsko not only captured 11 Tour wins, he was also an
8 time Riverhead pole winner. Sixth on the all time Tour list with a career
28 victories, continuous health issues may have slowed the former Tour
standout but a stellar attitude abounds. Keep Mike in your prayers as he
continues his fight for restored health, Mike saying he “misses everybody.”
Judging by the warm and hearty greetings from drivers and crew members that
saw Mike, everyone has missed him too.
Thank you to all for your patience with the Live Updates. Denise
DuPont will be back at the helm this weekend at Stafford. So if you can’t be
there in person, tune into Denise’s Live Updates on The Chrome Horn for the
latest and greatest. If you are at Stafford, I’ll see you there. News and
notes can reach me at
reidp50@yahoo.com.
|
|
Source: Polly Reid
/ TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: August
2, 2009 |
|
|
