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09/26/2011 |
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09/24/11 -
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
by
Polly Reid |
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 It
may not be clear cut who the champion will be with
two races left to the 2011 season and only eight
points separating the top two contenders. But it was
crystal clear who had the car to beat today- in a
green, white, checker finish, Ron Silk of Norwalk,
CT in the T.S. Haulers/Calverton Tree Farm Chevrolet
continued to do what he had been doing all day -hold
off the field to capture the victory in the NASCAR
Whelen Modified Tour New Hampshire 100 at New
Hampshire Motor Speedway. Todd Szegedy followed for
second, Justin Bonsignore third, Ted Christopher and
Eric Beers the top five.
The win boosted Silk back into the points lead over
Szegedy, the margin a mere eight points between the
two title contenders, 2182-2174. Silk’ seventh NWMT
career win, his third this year, it is Silk’s second
win at the Magic Mile.
“The car was really great right from the beginning,”
said Silk. “We didn’t make any adjustments at the
pit stop, I was happy with the car- it was actually
even a little bit better the second half of the
race, I was able to get right back up to the lead.
The 93 was really good all day I think we probably
had the two best cars- I’m not sure what happened on
the restart but luckily we were able to edge him
out.”
The Coors Light Pole award winner, Silk may have led
the field to green but was immediately challenged by
Eric Beers and then Rowan Pennink. Pennink and Silk
became ‘the show’ as the pair continued to swap the
top spot.
It was all green flag racing until a rain shower
moved in slowing the action with the first yellow of
the day coming out on lap 38. As the rain continued,
the red flag was displayed, Pennink in the Monk
Mechanics Hand Cleaner Chevrolet led the field down
pit row- the cars were parked and covered as the
track drying process began.
Pit strategy was already playing out prior to the
red -when the yellow waved, Szegedy, Bonsignore,
Bobby Santos and a host of others came in for tires
and adjustments. When the red flag was lifted, it
was then that Pennink, Silk, Beers, Christopher and
the majority of the field came in for service. Silk,
Doug Coby and Pennink the top three first out, lined
up for green with Woody Pitkat who elected not to
pit your new leader.
Santos in the Mystic Missile trimmed to look like
the famed Richie Evans machine, dove low going into
turn 1 to nab lead from Pitkat only to have Pitkat
return the move in turn three and as the field came
around for the halfway mark, it was Pitkat, Santos,
Szegedy, Eric Goodale, Silk and Matt Hirschman the
top six. But two circuits later, Silk, wasting no
time, used the low lane to pass Santos for the lead,
the Ed Partridge machine back on his mark.
As Silk began to stretch his lead, the caution waved
for Pitkat who had slowed then stopped at the end of
pit row. Needing a push behind the wall, it was not
the way Pitkat wanted to end his season with car
owner Don King. It had been reported earlier that
this would be the last NWMT event for King. Pitkat
who scored a podium finish the last time out at NHMS
in July, would end his day 27th.
Silk leading the restart on lap 65 with Christopher,
Bonsignore, Pennink and Szegedy the top five, was
quickly reeled back in when an incident on the front
stretch, appearing to start with a car slow on the
restart, set off a chain reaction- Richie Pallai,
James Civali and Doug Coby getting the worse of it.
While Coby would pit and return to finish, the day
was over for Pallai and Civali.
A full restart, Silk began to pull away while
Christopher battled with Bonsignore for second with
Pennink back in the top three over Bonsignore, his
sights set on Christopher in second. It was back to
what it looked like in the opening circuits with
Silk and Pennink- Pennink once again vying and
taking over the lead with less than 20 to go.
Fifteen to go, Silk made his move in turns three and
four and as the Silk and Pennink broke from the pack
running nose to tail, the final caution on lap 95
waved for Ryan Preece who spun into the grass just
out of turn two.
It came down to a two lap shootout - Silk picking
the outside row, Pennink on the inside, Christopher
third, Szegedy fourth, Beers fifth and Bonsignore
sixth at the green, Silk commanded the lead with
Szegedy taking over second as the inside row lost
momentum. Suddenly, Pennink off the pace, continued
to fall further behind, clearly off the pace as the
field rounded the white flag lap for the checkers
with Silk cruising across for the checkers, Szegedy,
Bonsignore, Christopher and Beers the top five.
Erick Rudolph sixth, Zane Zeiner seventh, Mike
Stefanik recovered from a spin in the opening
circuits was eighth with Matt Hirschman and Eric
Goodale the top ten. Front contender all day,
Pennink was scored 22nd.
“It was probably the wrong move to make to be
honest,” said Silk about what turned into the
winning pass. “If the yellow didn’t come out with
there with a couple to go Rowan would have just
passed me on the last lap, I’m sure that’s what he
was waiting for. Sometimes you just can’t wait until
the last lap because then if the yellow comes out
you’re stuck on the bottom and that’s not where you
want to be. We got lucky with that, but sometimes
it’s better to be lucky than good.”
“Second is a phenomenal finish for us” said Szegedy
about his Wisk Detergent/A&J Romano Construction
Ford, “but we certainly didn’t have a second place
car - we have our homework to do. Ron was extremely
fast, he walked right away from me. Even though it’s
great, it’s fortunate we got that second place, I
basically struggled and got lucky on that last
restart in fourth. I had the momentum, I pushed
Ronnie and I thought if I pushed him to the lead and
if I had something for him I’ll make a move but I
had absolutely zero for him. This is how you win a
championship, you have to use your head, stay out of
trouble, it got real dicey, there were times when I
had guys body slam me, it was hard, I’m being nice
to a lot of guys out here because I want to win the
championship so a second place is definitely a
phenomenal finish.”
A season that continues to be on the upswing,
Bonsignore of Holtsville, NY in the M3 Technology
Chevrolet followed up his podium finish at Lime Rock
last weekend with another at Loudon. “Luckily that
last restart we had the preferred groove up on the
top and I guess something happened to the 93, me and
Teddy mixed it up on the last lap and we were able
to come away third which was pretty good, we’ll take
it.”
“Since we’ve won back at Riverhead we haven’t
finished worse than 11th,” continued Bonsignore.
“We’ve been right there going tit for tat with these
two, it’s just a shame that at the beginning of the
season we got so far behind with the motors. We’re
building now for next year, we still have an outside
chance for a top five in points which is still going
to be a huge accomplishment considering we were 27th
at the beginning of the season. We’ve been trying to
dance around with some crew guys, try and get some
permanent guys for next year- a lot of people tend
to forget we’re only a second year team, I’m only a
second year driver. I think people kind of overlook
that and think this team’s been around for a long
time. I’m really proud of what we’ve built. My car
owner just got into this sport last year, he didn’t
know this sport at all and to me, contending for
wins here at New Hampshire, Lime Rock, Bristol, all
these tracks, it’s really cool to do and I’m pretty
proud of that.”
The 2011 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour title will be
played out over the final two events - Stafford and
Thompson, tracks that both Silk and Szegedy have won
at.
“It would be awesome to win the championship,” said
Silk. “But it seems like me and Todd are neck and
neck, like I said, I thought I had gained some
points on him today and then I looked up and he was
second. Well, I thought, at least we gained some.
It’s going to go right down to the wire. It would be
awesome for my car owner Eddie Partridge and all the
guys that come and work on the car to win it and for
me also. We’re just going to keep going and try to
win.”
A modified tour car owner for ‘ten years or so’, Ed
Partridge maintains a realistic outlook. “We’ve been
up at the top of the points last year, this year. We
had a little bit of a mess over at the road course
and that put us behind but you know, we’re keeping a
look at it that it’s really the last two races,
Stafford and Thompson, that’s when you really have
to look at it and we’ll try and do the best we can
do. I mean if lady luck is with you- everything
needs to fall into place. You just don’t win these
things - I mean it took the 4 car forty years to win
the first one.”
It is clear that Partridge is proud of his team and
what they’ve accomplished. “Tommy Grasso, he does
everything. He keeps the cars in CT, he drives the
truck, he maintains everything, he does a fantastic
job. He’s very through, takes care of the motors, he
and his brother maintain everything then we have the
crew that comes in on the weekends, they do a great
job, there isn’t anymore you could ask for.
Everybody’s having a good time- we’ll see how it
plays out. The 2 car, with Phil (Moran) back, I mean
it’s going to be close. It could go either way.”
Nodding his head in the direction of the 2 car
owner, Mike Smeriglio, Partridge stated, “They’re
first class people, we’re tying to do the same.”
Calling the shots for Partridge for the last four or
five years is crew chief Tommy Grasso. “The last two
times here we made a lot of changes to the car,”
said Grasso. “We came back with our set up from
July, that we left with in July and it worked out
good. We tried a few things just to see if we could
make it a little better and we ended up pretty much
taking that all back out and coming with what we
brought. It was a real good car.”
“We didn’t want to worry too much about points but
it’s getting towards the end of the season- it’s
going to be a fight all the way. Todd’s got a good
car, he’s been running real well, we’ve had some
problems, crashed at Lime Rock, that set us back a
little bit - we have two more good tracks- Stafford
we’re good at, Thompson we’re good at, Ronnie’s won
at both places, so we just have to go out there and
win the race- try and get the pole, lead as many
laps as we can, get as many bonus points as we can
and see if we can’t win.
Eddie’s the best car owner I’ve ever had- I can’t
say enough good things about Eddie. He gives us the
parts, the pieces that we need, never gets upset
about the things that go on with the race car, the
ups and downs- I’m just glad we got a win for him
today.”
A crew chief carries the weight of the car and team
on their shoulders, add a tight points battle and
you have flat out stress- the key is to manage it.
“I called up a couple of crew chiefs who’ve been
through this before,” said Grasso. “They said it’s
rough- that it’s really bad. I said “Good”, I
thought I was the only one who felt that way - it’s
stressful, there’s no doubt, but you try to put that
in the back of your mind and just do your job. Do
what you’ve been doing to get here and if you do
that you’ll probably have a good outcome.”
Modified fans were treated to season high 17 lead
changes among five drivers at the Magic Mile this
weekend. The results setting up for a barn burner of
a showdown for the title. Stafford Motor Speedway
will write the next chapter of season when the Tour
heads there for the CARQUEST Fall Final next Sunday,
Oct 2nd. |
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Source: Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: September
26, 2011 |
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