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RYAN PREECE MAKES HISTORY WITH $15,000 MTS
WINCHESTER 200 WIN
by Polly Reid |
Quoting
the words announcer Joe Coss used when Ryan Preece
pulled into victory lane at Monadnock Speedway,
history was made when the Berlin, CT native that now
calls Mooresville, NC home took the checkers in the
biggest payday of his modified racing career. Using
pit strategy that literally paid off, Preece came
from the back of the pack twice and once Preece
passed Jon McKennedy on lap 170, he never looked
back holding off the field for a convincing Modified
Touring Series Winchester 200 win collecting the
historic $15,000 payday.
Eric Goodale, Riverhead, NY in the GAF Roofing,
Supreme Skylights modified crossed the line for
second with Matt Hirschman, Northampton, PA in the
L.I. Mod Maniac sponsored ride for third, Jon
McKennedy, Chelmsford, MA fourth and Chris
Pasteryak, Lisbon, CT fifth.
“There were a lot of really good cars,” said Preece.
“Eric was strong, Matt was strong, Chris, Les, a lot
of guys were really good. We changed our strategy,
we were only going to pit once then I asked if we
had that second set and we didn’t, so we asked
Anthony Sesely since he was out if we could buy a
set off of him and it turned into a three set race
which made it fun.”
Preece,
behind the wheel of the T.S. Haulers, Ed Partridge
owned modified won his heat race, pulled the pole
position after the redraw and was the early front
runner of the 200 green flag lap event. Hirschman
made his move on lap 26 to become the second leader
passing Preece low through turns one and two. Preece
answered back challenging Hirschman and regained the
lead on lap 41. The first yellow closed up the field
on lap 47 and while four cars pitted, the leaders
stayed out. Hirschman swapped it out again gaining
the lead on lap 49. Two more cautions kept the field
close- Hirschman at the point, Preece, Goodale,
McKennedy, Pasteryak and Rowan Pennink the top five
on lap 70.
A spin on lap 72 lit up pit road with Preece in
second, peeling off the line to head to the pits to
get four new American Racers.
Hirschman continued to be the car to beat with
McKennedy, Goodale, Pennink, Pasteryak and Kirk
Alexander the front pack.
Just before the half, the yellow waved- at least ten
cars came in for tires including Goodale, McKennedy,
Pasteryak and Alexander. Hirschman stayed out
remaining on the point while Preece moved up to p2
for the restart with Pennink, Mike Holdridge and
Todd Patnode the top five.
A yellow quickly followed for Joe Doucette after it
appeared a track bar bracket gave way ending his
night. Lined up to do it again, Hirschman and Preece
brought down the field for a solid restart but fresh
tires prevailed and Preece made his move to become
the leader once again at the half way mark.
At the half, Preece led Hirschman, Pennink, Patnode,
Holdridge, Scott MacMichael, Pasteryak, McKennedy,
Andy Jankowiank and Goodale the top ten.
Hirschman
and Pennink pitted on lap 123 along with a few other
cars including Patnode and Josh King. Preece leading
the restart, Pasteryak on the outside with
McKennedy, Goodale and Les Hinckley the top five it
was green flag until lap 158. A surprise move,
Preece, Goodale, Alexander, Patnode and Jankowiank
all pitted. McKennedy inherited the lead with
Pasteryak, Hinckley, Hirschman and Pennink the top
five. A caution on the restart, Hinckley
unexpectedly spun collecting up Pennink, the
incident ending Pennink’s night while Preece moved
up to sixth. A side by side battle with Goodale
moved Preece up again. Thirty-five to go, Preece in
third had Hirschman and McKennedy in his sights.
Side by side with Hirschman, Preece on the outside
on lap 168 nabbed second then two circuits later,
Preece moved under McKennedy to become the final
leader of the night on lap 170.
Goodale passed for second with twenty-one to go,
Hirschman takes over third from McKennedy in the
final eight circuits.
The
final forty-two laps, fast and green, Preece was not
to be denied the historic payday. Goodale,
Hirschman, McKennedy, Pasteryak the top five, Mike
Holdridge, Andy Jankowiak, Todd Patnode, Scott
MacMichael and Eric LeClair crossed for the top ten.
“We bought four sets originally,” explained Preece
who will be at Charlotte Motor Speedway next weekend
to compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. “One for
practice, one for the heat and to start the feature
then we had two. They were wearing so well, we
returned a set. Then in the race, I was telling
Matt, it felt like they glazed over and I was
thinking, this is going to turn into a two tire
stop- I’ve been down this road. We came in on lap 50
or 60 and put four on, burn them up and let everyone
chase us then come back in with hopefully 40 or 50
to go and it just really worked out that way. Tires-
when you have strategy races like this, it just
opens up the game and it makes it fun. I like coming
through the field, Matt can tell you I’ve lost a lot
of races to him doing it – he’s really good at
riding and I’m really good at just going as fast as
I possibly can.”
“I think four instead of two,” Goodale said was
maybe the missing piece that in the end that could
have made the 58 an even bigger threat for the win.
“We took four earlier in the race – I would have
liked to have had four at the end. I just didn’t
have the drive off I needed there at the end to
catch Ryan. His car was incredibly fast, I thought
my car was really good which it was but he was just
that much better. I knew once we cleared traffic I
wasn’t going to be able to catch him. I knew once we
got into second with twenty to go that we were in
trouble. Happy for my team, they worked really hard
to get me here, you know, I’ll take the payday,
($7,500 for second) the car is in one piece, we’ll
roll it into the trailer and we’ll enjoy an off week
for once.”
“I
think my car was a little better in the first half
of the race than it was in the second,” said
Hirschman. “But I think their strategy with the late
tires helped them and then that tangle down here in
three and four really moved them right up into
contention. When I came out after I pitted, I was in
the tenth to twelfth range and ran the car pretty
hard to get to fourth/fifth where I was- where they
got tires even later and were almost instantly fifth
and sixth, that really helped them but I can’t
complain I had fun, I enjoy racing here, it’s a fun
little short track, we’ll take third and see what we
can do better next time.”
The twenty-four cars that assembled for the
inaugural Modified Touring Series Winchester 200
were a diverse group hailing from eight different
states and four series. The tireless efforts over
the last six months by Modified Touring Series
Director Gary Knight and his experienced team made
for a night of unforgettable racing at the fast,
high banked quarter mile oval. It was a head
scratcher why more teams did not make the trip.
Rumors about other series telling ‘their’ drivers
not to show were totally unfounded as several
drivers positively confirmed that was just not true.
“I posted on Facebook, I’ve got to applaud Gary,”
said Preece, “because there are some people that
weren’t ever going to support this event that will
just say things on social media and it’s a little
disappointing. We all came here, we want to race
these races and I don’t understand why we didn’t
have fifty modifieds here. Why should Gary go out
and try to do this again, or anybody for that matter
– you know, everybody speaks they want to race for
money, well you know what, we just had a money show
and we had twenty-four cars. I applaud him, I
applaud everyone here because the show moved on, I
don’t know what time it is right now, (Preece checks
his phone) it’s 8:30- he kept everything going, kept
the event going – this is one of the best run races
that I’ve been to in a long time.”
“I’ve seen this happen before where the first year
of these events aren’t supported,” said Hirschman.
“People think we’re not going to get paid, or it’s
going to be a circus, but like Ryan just said, the
event was run off with no issues, I’m confident
we’re going to get paid and I do believe if he has
this next year which I hope he does, I think he will
see larger numbers because people are going to hear
all the good things we’re saying.”
“We’ve got a kid at home and another one on the
way,” said Goodale. “I told my wife I was going to
take all the travel out of my schedule. This race
came up and the minute I saw it was going to be a
reality, I called up my crew chief, I called up my
father and I said we’re going to go to Monadnock and
chase after $15,000. It was a tough sell on my wife
to do it but I think she’d be pretty happy after the
race here so I have to applaud Gary and his team,
they did a great job. I’d have to say, leading up to
it, when you read social media, everybody is going
to write something bad and there was a lot of
questionable things out there but you know what, at
the end of the day, we knew it was going to be a 200
lap, green flag race, we’d figure out the
particulars when we got there. The race went off
without a hitch, it was organized a lot better than
I thought it was going to be and like I said, I
applaud Gary and his team- I’d be the second or
third one up here to say (nodding to Preece and
Hirschman) next year, as long as I have an open
date, I’d be here to come and support it.”
“This was an event that Gary put together and it
ended up being a great show,” Goodale continued. “I
ended up driving my butt off trying to catch Ryan
there at the end and put a show on – congratulations
to Ryan. Matt, I had to work to get past him as well
– I’m happy to see all the cars that did show up and
I hope if there is a next one, we get a much higher
car count.”
It was well documented that Hirschman missed a
makeup ROC race to run at Monadnock. Hirschman
confessed it was not an easy decision to make but
the team voted on Friday to go for the prize and
with Hirschman’s talent for being there at the end
for the payoff, the Northampton, PA driver and team
arrived with confidence. Falling short of the big
one, Hirschman’s third place finish paid $5,500. But
wait, there is more. A special $500 bonus went to
the leader of lap 88 in memory of Jim Boniface. Gary
and Angel Jackson from Gary Jackson Heating Services
in Keene, NH who were “really, really close to Jim,”
wanted to do something special and with the approval
of Series Director Gary Knight, came up with the
special lap 88 honor. The special bonus brought
Hirschman’s hefty earnings to $6,000 for third
place.
Knight’s focused passion for putting together the
MTS Winchester 200 is driven from a couple of
different angles such as a desire to have a tour
that is based on old school racing. The other-
Knight expressed an urgency to capture the interest
of the younger fan to grow the sport.
“It’s a sport and if we don’t put the money back
into it, it’s not a sport, we take the competition
right out of it,” said Knight. “Tonight, we saw
great competition. Was it for the money? I think it
was partially for the money but we put the old
school back in it. Today, we had Whelen, RoC, VMRS
Champions, hometrack heroes, I think these races
work. I think we can put a Tour together, if they’ll
allow us- I just want my chair in the room. That’s
what I told my wife, nobody will give me a chair.
They don’t believe in the product. They don’t
believe we can do a better job. Maybe tonight they
believe we can do a better job.”
“If we can get 18 year old kids here, they’ll watch
modified,” Knight continued. “We have to figure a
way to help this product out. I’m starting to look
at it as not a driver anymore – I’m starting to look
at the fans, the age market and I’m witnessing what
the statistics tell me which I never believed, it’s
an older generation. We’re the last generation
following as fans. They should let us try new ideas-
maybe together we can figure out how to bring in
that younger generation here. I think if you dropped
off a school bus of kids here tonight, they would
have been excited watching that race. But how do you
get the school bus here first? I say, old school
racing is new again.”
Knight was openly candid about his post-race
thoughts. “I was a little disappointed in the
beginning of the day I guess but at the end I wasn’t
disappointed. I couldn’t believe what we were
witnessing. The passing started in the beginning of
the event, nobody was half throttle, they guys were
just challenging each other to see who was going to
lead this race.”
Taking into account several different series
including the independents, Knight was able to come
up a rules package that worked to keep the field
competitive. “The tire is what won Ryan the race,
not the spec motor. That motor works but so does the
old 18 degree, the steel head- that was old school
racing - I don’t think people have seen it in a long
time. The guys were just racing, I couldn’t believe
how hard they raced, nobody one was pedaling.”
Matt Hirschman summed it up, “My hats off to MTS,
Gary Knight and American Racer for putting up the
money to have the race and lure me in here, I
enjoyed it. I’d like to win of course, we all would
but we had a good race, we raced hard, we had fun.”
Fun it was. When asked, Knight said with conviction,
“There will be another.”
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Source:
Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted:
May 22, 2016 |
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