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05/26/2012 |
STAFFORD
MOTOR SPEEDWAY - TSI HARLEY-DAVIDSON 125
Coby Makes a
Comeback for Stafford Victory
by
Polly Reid |
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Forced
to pit with a right front flat, Doug Coby of
Milford, CT in the Wayne Darling owned, Reynolds
Auto Wrecking/Furnace & Duct sponsored Chevrolet
made an unexpected pit stop early on then
methodically caught and passed his way through the
field eventually getting by leader Bobby Santos III
with less than ten to go to score the win at
Stafford Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour TSI Harley-Davidson 125.
“This is a different car and motor than we won the
Sizzler with,” said Coby who claimed the Spring
Sizzler win last month. “We call this the show car,
I told them I never want to race it, want to keep it
nice and shiny. The show car put on the show
tonight, it was freaking awesome.”
Restarting deep in the field after being forced to
pit on lap 27, Coby used the outside groove to make
his way through the field. Coby turned his long
night around taking the lead from Santos who had
until then, dominated the entire night. Coby was
credited with leading the final seven circuits.
“I know I got into the 88 when he didn’t go on the
first couple of laps. I kind of bobbled into his
nerf bar, I don’t know if that’s what cut it down
but the car was tight and that’s what a tire going
down makes you feel, but then the car was fine. I
don’t know if it was then and when it cooled down
under the caution it rolled off the bead or
something like that, but I was shocked when it went
down. We weren’t planning to pit, it’s just one of
those things, we ended up pitting before everyone
else. We didn’t make any changes to the car only put
on two right side tires.”
Santos crossed for second with Ron Silk third, Todd
Szegedy fourth and Rowan Pennink fifth.
Earlier in the evening, Bobby Santos III set fast
time winning the Coors Light Pole award, led the
most laps and held off the challenges of Eric
Berndt, Ryan Preece, Ted Christopher and Silk along
the way. But it was a showdown between Santos and
Coby that changed the night. The pass started out of
turn two where Coby was strong and ended at turn
four, Coby emerging the second and winning leader of
the night.
“Doug was good, he was good at the end and he beat
us. Overall I’m very happy but you can’t- there is
just nothing worse than leading the race and getting
beat. But, Doug did it clean, did it the right way,
he did a good job.”
His second Tour start of the season, Santos never
skipped a beat with his new team headed up by car
owner Sully Tinio. “I’ve got to thank this whole
team, Billy The Kid, awesome motor, Steve Lemay,
Sully Tinio, it’s a lot of fun to drive for him. The
44 is a good team, they have the potential to win a
lot of races on this Tour.”
Santos was repeating what Silk did a year ago in
this event, leading every lap, the checkered flag
getting closer with every circuit ticked off the
board. “I was taking care of my car the whole race,
not pushing it as hard as I had to until I got a
couple of challenges there. We were a little free
getting into the turns there the whole race but it
wasn’t a big deal. I’m disappointed to loose a race
at the end- could not be prouder of what the guys
did- at the end, wish I could have held on a little
better, I don’t know what to say.”
Defending winner of this race Ronnie Silk turned his
challenging night into a podium finish. Silk started
ninth and just after he cracked the top five, the
call was made to pit. “We kind of had a rough night
with a good ending. We were too loose to start. We
pitted on lap 30, took our tires then, got some good
lanes on the restarts- then with like 25 to go,
thought I had a good shot at winning it. Got a
couple of good runs on Bobby, but just didn’t have
enough forward drive to really pass him. The two
times I did try and pass him it really screwed both
of us up and Doug was able to make some ground up on
us. Doug- that 52 team, they’ve been really strong
all year and we’re going to have to get a little
better to beat them.”
“We won this last year and never even thought about
pitting. You come to try and win all these races and
we weren’t going to win the way were so we needed to
make an adjustment on the car- it definitely
improved where we finished.”
A different car was brought to Stafford than the one
that Coby won with at the Sizzler. “They said they
wanted to bring this car because it runs better at
night,” explained car owner Wayne Darling about crew
chief John McKenna’s call to switch up the car. “The
right front flat actually helped us, we put on two
right side tires. We were thinking it was early
enough, pick a few off, get a couple of good
restarts, we’d be in good shape.”
Considering the day they were having, Darling
smiled, he wasn’t completely convinced they had the
car to win until they took the lead. “Up until then
I wasn’t sure. Getting by Teddy, getting by Ronnie,
they were tough, tougher than Bobby was going to be.
Teddy and I, he’s a good friend of mine, we have a
rivalry; Doug and Ronnie are real close friends,
they have a rivalry, so I figured they would be the
toughest to get by and they were.”
Balloons decorated the 52 pit cart signs of a
celebration for crew chief John McKenna who marked a
big one at Stafford. Maybe turning 50 isn’t a bad
thing when you can celebrate in victory lane. But
the day, well, wasn’t quite so smooth. “My day
started out pretty crappy this morning. Like 6:30
this morning, taking a shower, the water stopped.”
McKenna’s first repair of the day was the water tank
for his well.
Next, it gets better. “We’ve been having trouble
with the hauler, it’s been acting up.” Out for
repairs twice since the MRS race at Monadnock, they
were told they were good to go. “When we left today,
about 20 mins from the shop it started going into
de-rate mode, it looses all it’s horsepower so it
only goes like 35 mph. We kept pulling over,
shutting it off, run it for 20 mins at best, then
the light would come back on. Climbing the hills on
the Mass. Pike it was going like 15 mph. That’s how
my day started.”
After the unscheduled stop for the right front flat,
McKenna would have been pleased with a top ten
finish. “Usually there is not a lot of passing. Here
it’s track position. Then Doug set sail- running the
outside. I couldn’t believe how good he was running
the outside.” Rating his birthday overall? “This is
the best one yet- excellent.”
Keith Rocco closed his night at Stafford crossing
sixth, Ted Christopher seventh, Woody Pitkat, Jimmy
Blewett and Justin Bonsignore the top ten.
Coby leaves Stafford and heads to Waterford
Speedbowl in three weeks the new NWMT point leader,
172 points to Silk’s 167. Ryan Preece moves into
third in points with Jimmy Blewett fourth and Justin
Bonsignore fifth. Motor problems for seven time NWMT
champion Mike Stefanik at the start hurt the
Coventry, RI in points who now sits ninth. However,
there are only five points that separate Rocco in
fifth to Szegedy in tenth.. |
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Source: Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: May
26, 2012 |
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