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SEASON
OPENING ICEBREAKER TO SOLOMITO
by Polly
Reid |
 Timmy
Solomito of Islip, NY in the Diversified Metals/R.B.
Enterprises sponsored Ford put car owner Eric
Sanderson back in victory lane with a convincing win
in the NWMT Icebreaker 150 at Thompson Speedway
Motorsports Park. The 42 Annual Icebreaker marks
Solomito’s first ever career NWMT win.
“I’ve been coming to Thompson for many years
watching, it’s always been of a dream of mine to
turn right onto that stretch there going to victory
lane. To do it in such a great car with the 16 team,
it really means a lot.” From his start on the Tour
with Wayne Anderson to his current ride in the
Flamingo Motorsports 16, Solomito is quick to thank
everyone who “believed in me and has been behind me
this whole time.”
Solomito took the initial green thirteenth and as
the long green run continued, the 24 year old driver
was up to sixth by the half way mark. The first
caution on lap 81 brought the field down pit row and
while Justin Bonsignore was the first out of the
pits, Solomito gained the positions he needed to put
him in contention for the top spot. From fourth on
the lap 92 restart to second one circuit later,
Solomito was 3 wide out of turn four with Justin
Bonsignore and Ryan Preece. At the line it was
Solomito the new leader on lap 94. A caution three
circuits later closed up the field and Solomito
nailed the restart. “Restarts haven’t been my strong
point,” confessed Solomito. “I actually called Mike
Stefanik this week and chatted on the phone for a
good thirty minutes about restarts, what could make
me better. He gave me the time out of his day to let
me know about what maybe I was doing wrong. I used a
couple of his tricks he taught me over the phone and
that really catapulted us to have a good restart and
take the lead.”
 Solomito
was challenged for the lead by Ryan Preece losing
the top spot on lap 111. Solomito answered back a
few circuits later with a strong run into turn three
emerging the final leader of the day on lap 117.
Solomito broke from the pack and today, was not to
be denied crossing the line with a solid 3.12 second
lead over Ryan Preece second, Justin Bonsignore
third, Doug Coby fourth and Ron Silk fifth.
“The guys on the 16 had an incredible stop; we
picked up a lot of track position. We had a car that
was very stable and we picked them off one by one.
We got into the top seven, then picked up the spots
that we needed on pit road- that’s what catapulted
us to the win.”
“I can’t thank Sly (Szaban) enough; he made a great
adjustment on the stop to get the car perfect. The
guys just made an excellent pit stop, that’s what
really got us in victory lane today.”
Ryan Preece from Berlin, CT in the Ed and Connie
Partridge owned, TS Haulers/Riverhead Raceway
sponsored Chevrolet took the lead at the green and
dominated the first 85 laps. “Racing for wins is
what I like to do and that’s why I like doing this.”
“We just missed it on the stop,” Preece explained.
“I thought we were going to have something for them,
we got the lead then all of a sudden it just started
over rotating a tick then I tried compensating for
it by going to the bottom and it looked like we were
starting to reel him in a little bit then I wore it
out down there.”
“Eddie and Connie they both give us the equipment we
need, we test when we need to test and we learn the
things we need to learn. I’m happy the test paid
off. The 2 has been really dominating here- I’d say
we were one of the best cars.”
Running a full schedule in the NASCAR XFINITY
Series, Preece will be back in the Partridge ride
when his schedule allows which at this point appears
to be nine NWMT races including the next one, the
Spring Sizzler.
He’s baaaaack. Justin Bonsignore of Holtsville, NY
in the Ken Massa owned M3 Technology Chevrolet
started tenth and had moved up to fifth by the time
the first yellow flew at lap 81. The M3 Technology
team burned up the pit stop getting Bonsignore out
of the pits first. Bonsignore led seven circuits
before Solomito powered past for the top spot with
Preece following shortly after to take over second
with 45 to go. The battle to watch was the final 25
plus circuits as Bonsignore masterfully held off the
powerhouse of Doug Coby to claim the podium finish.
“From inside the car, I knew they were making an
adjustment,” said Bonsignore about the pit stop. “We
dropped the jack and we were going up pit road and
nobody passed me. I was really proud of those guys.
They’re the best on pit road, I’d put them up
against anybody.”
“I was doing everything I could to hold him off,”
Bonsignore explained about the hard fought battle
with Coby. “He seemed to fall off at the end and I
was able to run my own race and not worry about him
in the mirror.”
“This is 180 degrees better than last year. Last
year was real tough. This is only one race but you
can’t have any mulligans in this Series and if you
do, you can only have one or two. If you can go to
tech every week you’ll be in a position at the end.
We would have liked to win the race but you have to
take what you can and third was the best we were
going to get today. I’m really proud of the effort,
we’ll go onto Stafford- it’ll be nice to get a
Sizzler win.”
Donny Lia crossed for sixth, Eric Goodale seventh,
Jimmy Blewett, Rowan Pennink and Woody Pitkat
completed the top ten.
Prior to the start of the Icebreaker 150- Thompson
honored two people that meant a lot to the racing
community who we lost over the winter. Ron
Bouchard’s #47 driven by Ken Bouchard along with Joe
Brady’s famous 00 modified, led the NWMT field onto
the 5/8 mile oval and paced the field for several
circuits in a proud and fitting tribute to those we
won’t forget.
And finally, we wish Russ Dowd, the voice of
Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park for nearly 40
years a wonderful and well deserved retirement. We
look forward to seeing Russ at the races enjoying
the view from the fans seat.
The next NWMT event is the NAPA Spring Sizzler at
Stafford Motor Speedway on April 24th.
This and That:
Highest finishing rookie at the Icebreaker was Matt
Swanson of Acton, MA. Swanson crossed the line 15th.
A host of driver changes and cars during the off
season, Ron Silk of Norwalk, CT was the highest
finishing ‘new combo’ with a fifth place finish in
the Danny Watts, Jr. owned, Horton Avenue Materials
sponsored Chevrolet.
Super pit crew ‘high five’ to the M3 Technology crew
that ripped off an amazing pit stop moving Justin
Bonsignore from in the pits fifth, to out of the
pits first.
Finally, the ‘memory maker’ of the day- Timmy
Solomito who qualified 13th, wins his first NWMT
event only to run out of fuel on the cool down lap
and had to be pushed into victory lane. Timmy said
it all, “someone was watching over us today.” You
can’t make this stuff up.
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Source:
Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted:
April 11, 2016 |
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