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WOODY PITKAT
TO ENTER NASCAR WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR
STAFFORD 150 |
After
parting ways with the #46 Russell Goodale owned team
following the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s most
recent race in New Hampshire, Woody Pitkat has a new
ride for the August 4 Stafford 150 at Stafford Motor
Speedway. Pitkat will collaborate with his former SK
Modified® owner Steve Greer and his current Modified
Racing Series car owner Dan Stebbins to form
Gunsmoke Stebbins Racing. Pitkat’s car will carry
his familiar #52.
“We put together a team with Steve Greer, who I have
a good relationship with from winning the SK
championship at Stafford back in 2013, and he’s been
a sponsor of mine ever since,” said Pitkat. “He owns
one of the cars in the Danny Stebbins stable that I
run on the MRS and MTS and he had been looking for a
Troyer chassis car to run on the MTS. An opportunity
came up where we could get a turn key car from Jerry
Solomito that was ready to go and has only been
raced two or three times. We bought the car for the
MTS, but with my situation losing the 46 ride on the
Tour, I wanted to try to stay up in the points if I
can and with Stafford being my home track, what
better place to try the new car and team combination
out? I’m still looking for a Tour ride because this
is a car that we’re going to focus on the MTS with.
Danny Stebbins is going to help us out so I’ll have
some of my MTS/MRS crew along with some of Steve’s
guys and we’re looking for sponsors for tires, fuel,
and travel costs. I think it’ll be a lot of fun to
come to Stafford with some guys that I’ve worked
with in the past couple of years and I’m really
appreciative of Steve Greer’s continued support and
Danny Stebbins helping us out. Instead of Gunsmoke
Stables, which is Steve’s deal, we’re going to call
it Gunsmoke Stebbins. We might run the two Stafford
races and maybe Thompson if we come out of Stafford
good and I’m still looking to see what else is out
there for the remainder of the season.”
On paper, Stafford Motor Speedway would look to be
the ideal spot for Pitkat to make his first
appearance with a new team. Of Pitkat’s three career
NWMT wins, two of them came at Stafford with his
first career win coming in the 2014 Stafford 150 and
then he won the 2015 NAPA Spring Sizzler® while
driving for Buzz Chew. In addition to his 2 NWMT
wins, Pitkat has scored 30 SK Modified® wins, 40
Late Model wins, 3 DARE Stock wins, and 2 Modified
Racing Series wins at Stafford for a grand total of
77 wins to go along with his two Late Model track
championships and his SK Modified® championship.
Based on his past success at Stafford, Pitkat is
looking for a solid top-10 effort in the NWMT
Stafford 150.
“I’m excited about it but we’re not going to come
out and win our first race,” said Pitkat. “I think
if we can get a good qualifying lap in the top-10
and then finish in the top-10, that would be like a
win for us. We’re looking to have some fun in 2 or 3
races this season and for myself to get a little
confidence because I haven’t really had a great
showing on the Tour this year. I won’t be running an
SK so I can focus completely on the Tour car and
hopefully I can show everyone that with the right
situation I can still run up front. We should have a
pretty good notebook to work off of to be fast right
out of the box and we can tweak here and there on
the setup to be fast. I’ve been struggling a little
with the group qualifying this year and only
changing one tire per pit stop should help us out
with only having a couple of guys to go over the
wall instead of a full team. Hopefully we won’t have
any issues with the car and my goal is to finish the
race in tech inspection. If you can be in tech and
have the car taken apart and looked at, that’s a
good thing and we can move on to the next race.”
Tickets for the August 4 Stafford 150 are available
and on sale now at the Stafford Speedway Box Office.
Tickets are priced at $35.00 for adult general
admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and
children ages 5 and under are admitted free of
charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seat
tickets are $37.00 for all ages. All ticket prices
include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Motor
Speedway offers plenty of free parking along with
overnight parking available for self contained
Recreational Vehicles. Stafford’s five NASCAR Whelen
All-American Series divisions will join the NASCAR
Whelen Modified Tour cars in feature action.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor
Speedway track office at 860-684-2783
or visit us on the web at
www.staffordspeedway.com. |
Source:
Scott Running /
Stafford Motor Speedway
Posted:
July 25, 2017 |
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