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7/3/2010 |
LIME ROCK
PARK - RACE DAY
by
Polly Reid |
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Todd
Szegedy dominated the Lime Rock 100 and it certainly appeared the
Ridgefied, CT driver was unstoppable. Then along came the road
course ‘ringer’ with fresh tires. Dale Quarterly of Westfield, MA
who had wheeled his way through the pack, timed a clean and swift
winning pass with three to go to earn a place in the record books as
the winner of the inaugural NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Lime
Rock Park.
Szegedy crossed second with Ron Silk, Ryan Preece and Ted
Christopher the top five.
“Today was excellent,” said Quarterly. “John McKenna the crew chief
and Wayne Darling the car owner took some time and we tested here a
couple of weeks ago and we really sorted the car out. When we came
back this week, all’s we really had to do was make sure we had the
right brakes on it and all the details were taken care of. I don’t
think we made an adjustment all weekend. We had what we had and we
made it work.”
With about 20 laps left on the board, Quarterly brought his Furnace
and Duct Supply Chevrolet in the pits under caution for fresh tires.
“There was no way I was going to beat Szegedy and Teddy Christopher
with what I had left,“ admitted Quarterly. “I had used up way too
much tire. It was a no brainer, the second the caution came out we
were pitting and we knew it.”
McKenna who used to work full time for Quarterly when he raced
motorcycles, was the conduit to Quarterly finding himself making his
third career modified Tour start. “I haven’t really raced in two
years, one race here, one race there, I’m just starting to get going
again, so this is the perfect way to start, show that I still have
the ability to get up front.” Quarterly’s visit to the media center
was brief as he had to get back out to the K&N Pro Series East race
that was about to begin- as the crew chief of the Jeff Anton ride.
You could say he is back into racing.
The
final caution of the race, with seven to go, was the unlucky break
for Szegedy. The field closed up for the restart and it was then
that Quarterly made serious headway setting his sights on Szegedy
and his Wisk/Snuggle Ford. “I wanted to make sure I got good clean
restarts and set my own pace,” said Szegedy. “But when you’re up
against new tires with seven to go you’re not going to beat ‘em, I
don’t care who you are. Dale is a heck of a driver, the good thing
is, I beat all the regular drivers, nobody wore me out, we just got
beat by tires. The car handled awesome, the crew did a heck of a job
setting the car up, the balance was perfect, everything was perfect,
but you just can’t keep up with fresh tires like that. All in all I
think it was a good race and I think the whole race went well. It
was a good day and I hope to see us at more road races.”
When asked about a ’regular’ not winning? “It doesn’t burn me that a
Tour regular didn’t win,” said Szegedy. “I mean we got beat last
week by a Cup driver. Dale’s been around a long time. You know
what’s awesome about Dale? How old is Dale? Forty something? I don’t
know, I’m 34, I like seeing those older guys whip the crap out of us
kids, us young guys. He can still drive and he proved it today.”
A smile as wide as the Nile, Ron Silk of Norwalk, CT in the Ed
Partridge owned T.S. Haulers/ Calverton Tree Farm Chevrolet earned a
podium finish, maybe a little surprised at how his day turned out
considering the Lime Rock 100 was his first road racing experience.
“It was a pretty interesting race,” said Silk. “In the beginning I
fell back to like 10th, 11th, 12th immediately, I lost brakes, I
thought it was going to be a really long day. During that mandatory
pit stop for fuel, the brakes cooled off, I took it easy for a few
laps and actually started passing some cars then at the end I think
Stefanik, his car kind of went away on him and Teddy was having a
problem with his transmission, I just had a car good enough to get
up there and race with them and I was lucky we were able to beat
them. For a guy like me with no experience on anything like this,
I’m so happy, I feel like I won the race. I want to thank Lime Rock
and NASCAR, I had a lot of fun today.”
Ted Christopher in the Al-Lee Installations Chevrolet at one point a
contender for the lead, found himself somewhat struggling, for good
reason, as the race went on crossing the line fifth. “The shift was
ready to break, it wasn’t going to last another lap or 2. To finish
where I did I was pretty happy.”
Flirting with a podium finish, Mike Stefanik in the Diversified
Metals/R.B. Enterprises Pontiac had a strong run going, holding onto
to second place for a significant amount of time swapping the spot
with Christopher until fading to 6th on the final circuits. “After a
restart, we’d drive around two, three or four laps, I don’t know why
that was, if we didn’t have enough heat in the tires or what, it
took like three or four laps for the car to come in and sometimes we
would loose a position. I made a driver error coming down off the
hill and went from second to fourth, just asking a little too much,
driving hard and got a little too wide. Everyone’s running really
hard and you’re just trying to get what you can get. Never did lead
a lap, thought we were going to be able to, at times I think we were
close to Todd then they’d have a caution then I wouldn’t do so hot
on the restarts, fall back, claw my way back up. Kind of a back and
forth day then at the end the tires just went away. Obviously the 52
and the 3 came in for tires, they looked pretty good going by me.”
Point leader Bobby Santos suffered a couple of setbacks finishing
17th. Contact going into the esses sent the Mystic Missile into a
spin and while Santos straightened out and continued, it set the
Franklin, MA driver deep into the field. Challenges would continue
for Santos when with only a handful of laps to go, a plume of white
smoke spewed out, putting an end to his day.
A couple of other tough breaks included Rowan Pennink who started
his day fifth and ended 22nd. Erik Rudolph who had the speed,
topping the chart the day before, qualifying 3rd, broke a gear early
and never had the opportunity to seriously contend, salvaged a hard
earned 16th.
Wade Cole of Riverton, CT made an adjustment under yellow during the
mandatory pit stop to loosen his Performance Engines/Kendall
Oil/Ryan’s Oil Chevrolet up a bit. The adjustment helped Cole close
out his Lime Rock weekend 10th, his second top ten of 2010
(Martinsville). Cole’s road racing experience dates back to Watkin’s
Glen and a modified test at Lime Rock in 1993 as well as being part
of the test last Tuesday. “It’s a blast running on a road course.”
And I had to completely agree with Cole when he said, “It’s a
beautiful place, the people are great.”
Several drivers agreed on one thing. If you’re going to have a road
course event, two on the schedule are needed to make it worth the
expense for the car owners. Ted Christopher summed it up best, “When
you know you’re going to do it, people will start to get better at
it. The cars will be prepared better, as a group, all of us will
become better road racers so the show will be better. But you have
to have two races. That’s my thought.”
One thing is for sure the historic 1.5 mile road course tucked away
in the glorious northwest hills of CT answered a question people had
asked for years. Can modifieds race at Lime Rock? The answer is yes. |
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Source: Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: July
3, 2010 |
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