The Chrome Horn -- NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour News

The Chrome Horn - NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour

9/19/2009

NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY:
NEW HAMPSHIRE 100
by Polly Reid

   A win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway - it’s a big deal. Always has been, always will be. If you’ve won it, you want to win it again. If you haven’t won it, it’s something you want to accomplish in your racing career. Since stepping out of his full time modified ride mid-season, Ronnie Silk of Norwalk, CT returned to the series and in front of one of the largest crowds I recall, made a bold pass diving under Reggie Ruggiero on the final circuit to take the win in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour New Hampshire 100.
   “I can’t believe I won at Loudon”, said Silk who parked the Ed Partridge, TS Haulers, Hoosier Tire of Calverton Chevrolet in victory lane. “It’s our biggest race of the year. We had a great car all weekend from the time we unloaded. The first run we ended up a little free and fell back a little bit. After the pit stop, the car was a lot better, the guys made the right adjustment and we were able to get through traffic pretty good. We had that battle with Reggie at the end, that was a lot of fun racing him like that.”
   This is the fourth career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win for Silk who finished 3rd in the June event here at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

   Finishing in second, it was kind of a head scratcher, how did he do that? On the starting grid 34th, at one point, two laps down, involved in two incidents, Donnie Lia indeed crossed the line as the runner up. “It’s just one of those deals where you just don’t give up, you dig in, keep fighting and get that finish” said Lia. A most eventful weekend for the Mystic Missile Dodge driver, a second place finish was indeed something to write home about. Rewind to Thursday. “In practice, something caught fire, electrical fire and basically we almost lost the whole car they couldn’t get it out. All the guys worked until like 5 in the morning Thursday night rebuilding the car. You know, it was an unbelievable effort from my guys, they deserve to run up front. They really worked hard. We had a lot of luck, someone was looking out for us. So many situations could have cost us a good finish. A pretty unreal day for us.”
   “After the first wreck, you just don’t know how bad the car is going to be. We were able to continue on then we had that other problem, we were pretty bad after that. We broke the upper control arm, bent both spindles and a couple of wheels and ripped some bars off of it. The biggest problem was getting the right rear nerf bar back on. If we didn’t get that back on we were dead in the water. A lot of luck involved, I’ve got to hand it to my guys, they don’t ever give up. And I’ve really got to thank Ron Hutter.”
   Lia admitted he was driving hard as he worked his way through the field. “I was going really hard there in the beginning trying to get back through the field. I went three wide there, I didn’t wreck anybody going three wide, but I got out of shape and when I was trying to save it I got hit from behind. I can’t blame the guys behind me for getting into the back of me, you’re checking up, you’re just trying not to spin out and right about when I had it saved I got ran over, started that big wreck.”
   With the number of cautions during the event, it was not long before Lia was back on the lead lap and moving forward once again. Lining up 6th on the final single file restart with five to go, Lia let loose making his move on the white flag lap crossing the line for a hard earned second.

Ryan Preece of Berlin, CT set fast time on Thursday to earn his fourth career pole. After finishing 24th in his last outing at New Hampshire, finishing third was a good points day for the Mizzy Construction, Reynold’s Auto Wrecking Chevrolet. “The start of the race didn’t go the way we wanted we dropped back to 10th place,” said Preece, “but we came in and adjusted the car, it was a little free. Then every restart we lined up on the outside, it just went our way ending up on the outside, we were working our way through traffic and it turned out to be a real good day. I wish there were a couple of more laps and maybe duke it out with Ronnie. Congratulations to him.”
Three races remain on the schedule this year as Ted Christopher who pulled off a seventh place finish continues to lead the way with a 48 point cushion over Lia in second. Preece moves into third place in points while Todd Szegedy in the UNOH, Wisk Snuggle Ford dropped to fourth after finishing 29th. Heading into New Hampshire, Szegedy was the only driver this season to complete every lap finishing every race in the top ten. The Ridgefield, CT driver was working his way through the field after his pit stop when he got caught up in an unfortunate melee.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour heads to Martinsville Speedway next weekend.

Source: Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: September 19, 2009

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