LIA
TURNS MOMENTUM AROUND WITH TWO STRONG FINISHES
There is nothing
like going and playing on your home field when you are in a slump. And
after a broken hub at Thompson and a crash at Stafford to start out his
2005 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, Donny Lia was in a little bit
of a slump.
So returning to
his hometrack of Riverhead Raceway, a place where he had won two NASCAR
Modified Tour events in the past two seasons, was a welcome thing for
Lia and his #18 Huntington Honda team team. Their expectations for the
race were met when Lia finished third in the 150-lap race.
“I think this gets
us going a little bit,” said Lia. “It puts us on track for a streak of
good finishes. Hopefully we can start something from this. I’ve been
having terrible luck and maybe not making the right decisions. You
aren’t going to turn that around and just go out and win. It’s
possible, but I think that a third place finish is more realistic and
it’s a good start.”
The Riverhead
finish wasn’t the only good news of the weekend for Lia. On Friday
night, he drove the #47 Wisk/Snuggle SK Modified to a fourth place
finish at Stafford Motor Speedway (CT). Lia’s SK Mod season has been an
exercise of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, with a trail of
wrecks so far in 2005.
“Finally they can
bring the car home and make it better and not just fix it.”
Even though this
weekend’s results were different than the previous few weeks, Lia did
not change anything in his approach to the races.
“I didn’t do
anything differently really. It’s just a matter of having normal luck
for a chance. I tried to be patient and make it to the end of both
races cleanly. My spotter Brian [Crowley] did a good job of keeping me
in line in both races. It worked out. We took what we could get in
both races.”
Despite being
Lia’s hometrack, Riverhead is a tough place to turn around a streak of
bad luck.
“Not only is the
place tight, but it’s easy to get to get into trouble there. We had a
good car and we could have gone to the front, but you’ve got to be
smart. We used the car up a little bit coming from 11th and
I did what I could. We finished as good as we could and this week that
was a third-place finish. It was what we needed.”
It’s also
something to build on.
“With two good
races, it’s a little more momentum than you would think. It’s what both
teams and myself needed. I’m happy for both the #18 team and the SK
guys because they have been working their butts off. I think that both
teams are capable of winning as long as things go our way. If we have a
little bit of luck and we get our set-ups right, we can win. Whether it
happens or not, depends on if it’s our turn this weekend or not.”
Next weekend is
going to be a busy one with two chances at victory lane for Lia. On
Friday, he’ll run the #47 SK at Stafford and on Sunday, he’ll head over
to Thompson Speedway for a chance at a Modified Tour victory there.
“I want to win a
Modified race in Connecticut so bad whether it is a SK race or a Tour
race,” said Lia. “It would be awesome to do that this weekend. We need
to finish well and start winning some races again.”
For more information on Donny and the team, please contact Matthew
Dillner at (704) 231-7613 and be sure to visit DonnyLia.com.
Source: Matthew
Dillner/Donny Lia PR
Posted: June
7, 2005
