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NWMT STAFFORD
MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Preece Dominates Call Before You Dig 150
by
Polly Reid |
 Ryan
Preece of Berlin, CT in the Ed Partridge owned, TS
Haulers/East West Marine sponsored Chevrolet,
capitalized on a restart just past the half way mark
to take the lead from Ted Christopher on lap 82 and
extended his lead on the long green run for a
dominating 1.5 second margin of victory in the NWMT
Call Before You Dig 150 at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Doug Coby crossed for second, Woody Pitkat third,
Ted Christopher and Justin Bonsignore rounded out
the top five.
“We had a great race car,” said Preece in victory
lane. “My car started off a little free but Tommy
(Grasso) my crew chief made some adjustments on that
stop to give me the car that I needed on that
restart, it was just a rocket ship.”
For Preece it is his 3rd win this season, his second
at Stafford this year and his 14th NWMT career win
overall.
 Bringing the 26 car field to green, Coors Light Pole
Award winner Patrick Emerling led the first four
circuits before being passed by Bobby Santos on lap
five. From there, the top spot was taken over by
Coby from Milford, CT in the Dunleavy’s Repair, A&J
Romano Construction Chevrolet on lap seven, only to
have Santos come back as the new leader eleven
circuits in. Santos appeared to be the car to beat,
strong on restarts and Preece, who started mid pack
in 15th place was bogged down outside the top five
in sixth and as far back as eighth as the laps
ticked off.
A caution on lap 70 was the start of the game
changer for Preece.
When pit road opened on lap 72, the field came down
for tires and adjustments. Justin Bonsignore in the
M3 Technology modified was the first out and lined
up behind Brendon Bock and Ted Christopher. Bock
elected to stay out and Christopher had short pitted
on lap 46.
The lap 80 restart shaped up like this- Bock,
Christopher, Bonsignore, Coby, Santos, Preece, Jeff
Goodale, Rowan Pennink, Patrick Emerling and Timmy
Solomito were the top ten.
Christopher took the lead after the green and
Preece, in one circuit, clearly in the ‘go row’ was
suddenly a threat for the lead. After a brief side
by side battle with Christopher, Preece prevailed
going low into turn three under Christopher and
emerged the new leader out of turn four on lap 82.
Unfortunately for Brendon Bock, who had just led his
first career NWMT laps, the Franklin Square, NY
driver was the next and final caution of the night
on lap 83. Hitting the turn one outside wall hard,
his night was done.
 The field gathered up for the restart on lap 89-
Preece, Christopher, Bonsignore, Coby and Pennink
the top five- Woody Pitkat was out of the picture at
this point restarting 13th.
Preece cleared Christopher for the lead- the duo
made a break from the pack and at lap 100 it was
Preece and Christopher leading the way- ten car
lengths back it was Timmy Solomito, Pennink and Coby
the top five. Pitkat had cracked the top ten and was
now running 9th.
A half a dozen circuits later, Coby passed Solomito
for third, meanwhile by lap 110- Preece had put some
comfortable real estate between himself and
Christopher.
Preece in command, Coby set his sights on
Christopher making his move for second on lap 123- a
low into turn three pass, Coby now credited with
running second on lap 124, was hammer down trying to
catch Preece. Meanwhile, Pitkat in fifth, passed
Solomito then Christopher taking over third place by
lap 134.
The long green run continued and while Coby would
slightly close the gap, Preece simply dominated and
at the checkers, Preece crossed the line for the win
with a 1.5 second margin of victory. Coby, Pitkat,
Christopher and Bonsignore the top five, Emerling
claimed sixth, Timmy Solomito, Eric Goodale, Bobby
Santos and Chase Dowling completed the top ten.
“I like coming from the back, it’s a lot of fun, but
I like winning more,” said Preece. “We did a little
bit of both today. We got our track position when we
needed to, then made all the right calls, we drove
forward when we needed to, got the lead, kind of
rode there with Teddy, tried to ride as long as we
could, then started to stretch it out on him- the
car was staying pretty consistent. This is probably
one of the most dominate years I’ve had at Stafford;
we’ve won two out of three. It’s been a lot of fun
racing with these guys.”
The
win puts Preece back on top in the NWMT points with
Pitkat and Coby the top three. “This is probably the
most intense battles we’ve been a part of,” said
Preece. “The past three years, me and Doug, we
either have our bad race or a good race, the other
will capitalize on the other one. But I won today
and I see Doug and Woody right there- it’s not easy.
You have to run consistently the top three. That’s
what it’s going to come down to- whoever wins these
races – gets all these bonus points- that was huge
when I got under Teddy and led that lap. I’m not
sure if we led the most laps but if we did, that
would be huge. On top of the win, leading a lap and
leading the most laps, those are very valuable
points.”
 The first car to go out for qualifying, Preece was
not overly concerned about starting 15th. “It was a
hornet’s nest out there for quite a little while.
But it all cleared out, we made the lanes we needed
to make, we picked up positions slowly but surely
and got us into a position where when we came in for
the pit stop, those guys had a good, clean stop, got
me out there, got me in the lane I needed to be in
and we drove to the top- everything kind of went our
way.” Preece continued, “A flawless car, a great
team- Tommy, he works countless hours on these cars-
he lives, eats and breathes all this stuff. He’s a
great guy, very compassionate and driven- a really
good guy.”
Coby in the Mike Smeriglio III owned modified was
the only car in the field that had a shot at taking
the top spot from Preece on that green flag run but
it wasn’t meant to be.
“We had a really good car tonight and we were
starting to gain a little bit on Ryan but he had
such a good car on that restart and got out front,”
said Coby. “Ryan, Woody and myself on the podium, I
think there is a reason for that- we all have great
crew chiefs and teams setting up our cars, we try to
make the right moves in traffic and it seems like we
run up front all the time. Congratulations to the 6
team, they were strong, the 88, they were strong too
because they came from nowhere to finish third- we
had a good night over all, I’m a little disappointed
because I thought we had a winning car.”
Six more races are on the 2015 schedule, Coby, the
defending NWMT Champion, had this to add. “I studied
a whole lot of championship seasons before I ended
up competing for a championship. You have to learn
how to compete for one before you can win one. Ryan
and I have obviously won one and now Woody, he has
learned how to compete for one and I wouldn’t be
surprised if he ended up winning one. It’s a lesson
to be learned for everyone, myself included.”
The NWMT goes to Thompson in five days- a track that
has been extra good to Coby who has won both events
there this year. “Thompson- I think we’ll have a
great car there. We’ve had a great car there this
year so if we could go to Thompson and leave there
on a high note – go from Monadnock, to Stafford to
Thompson and get to Bristol on a roll, that’d be
great. There’s still a long way to go and the points
are going to get tight.”
“I tried to drive the wheels off this thing,” said
Pitkat about finishing third. “We got bounced around
all night, we couldn’t get in the right line, and
the front end is knocked in pretty good. You know,
these two guys we’re trying to beat, they’re not
falling off. We just need a little more luck on our
side and we just have to keep working hard.”
 “I tried to go easy and lost a couple of spots
there, let the race play out,” said Pitkat. “We got
a couple of cautions, after the pit stop we got
stuck back in 8th or 9th, then we just couldn’t get
in the right lane or anything- we got bounced
around- the left front A frame got pretty tore up-
after that, the field got strung out a little bit
and I drove the wheels off of it to get up to the
front as quick as I could.”
A break out season for Pitkat of Stafford, CT in the
Buzz Chew Chevrolet, a run that coincidently started
with his first career NWMT win one year ago here at
his home track, Pitkat was reflective about his
podium finish. “Ryan has been a champion- Doug has
been a champion- they’ve been in this positon
before. I don’t really know, this is the first time
I’ve ever ran like this- we try not to think about
it, we try to do the same thing every week, prepare
the car really good, try and give them the best
feedback we can and go out there and give them the
best we can. We’ll keep using that never give up
attitude.”
Winning car owner Ed Partridge will be the first to
tell you he’s having fun this year and getting a
third win of the season, especially doing the way it
was done tonight- his team and driver all stepping
up to the plate, is very satisfying.
“Ryan is a great driver, he makes miracles happen,”
said Partridge. “It was pretty amazing how he made it
from sixth to the lead on the straight away- I knew
it when he came on the radio and said the car is
ready to go.”
“Tommy, he works hard all week, everyone works hard
on these cars. We have a good team- they’ve been
together for a long time. Ryan, he’s good with the
media, he’s good with the fans, its fun- he has a
lot of good energy. We came with a whole different
car this time. We were a little unfamiliar what we
were going to do with it tonight but Tommy made the
right calls and it worked out.”
This has to be a memorable night for winning crew
chief, Tommy Grasso who was able to share it with
his uncle and his family that traveled from NY to see
the race tonight- that was ‘pretty special.’
Grasso talked about the day they had. “At Stafford,
unfortunately when you get an early draw, and we
were first, it’s usually not good. The car was good,
we just didn’t get that position we could because of
the draw. We were confident with the car- it felt
good in practice, we made our normal adjustments to
the car and let Ryan do his job. He races here
weekly, he comes from the back all the time and he
did it again tonight. He got us up to 7th or so
there at the pit stop, the car was a little free so
we made a couple of adjustments to it – he liked it
and went right to the front.”
“These guys have been with us for a while, they’re
all good guys, they know what they need to do,” said
Grasso about the team. “We got ready for the pit
stop, everybody did their job and it went very
smoothly. There have been two or three races where
we’ve gained spots in the pits- we don’t pit often
so two or three is a lot. They always come through
for me- hats off to them. We made quite a few
adjustments to the car and they did it in the time
it takes to change tires- they did a good job.”
Glancing over at the top three cars in tech, their 6
car, the 2 and the 88- Grasso thoughtfully added,
“The three cars here, especially the 88, he seems
like he’s in tech at every race, those guys are very
consistent and it’s going to take a good, consistent
car and probably take one or two more wins out of
one of these three cars to win the championship. I
can see it’s going to be close from here to the
end.”
A five day turn around for the NWMT teams, Preece
becomes the point leader by 4 over Pitkat with Coby
a serious threat just 17 points back as they head to
Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park this Wednesday
August 12th for the Budweiser King of Beers 150.
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Source:
Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted:
August 7, 2015 |
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