DONNY LIA
WOWS THEM WITH DOMINATING WATERFORD WIN
Racecar drivers
always dream of the perfect day and Donny Lia has finally lived it. Lia
started from the pole, led every single lap and went to victory lane on
Saturday at Waterford Speedbowl (CT) in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
event with his #18 Lia Motorsports car. It doesn’t get much better than
that.
“We hit it right
tonight,” said Lia after the race. “We hit it at the North vs. South
Shootout and we hit it right a few nights at New Smyrna. You don’t hit
it like that often, so this is just awesome.”
Actually, there
was only one small thing that Lia didn’t do on Saturday night. He
qualified third and did not win the pole position. However, he pulled
the number one during the redraw to set the field. Lia won the Bud Pole
Award for 2004 and has two poles so far this season. Usually, he
qualifies on the pole and starts further back in the top 10 after the
redraw. This time, luck was riding with him before the race.
“We always pick
seventh or eighth, so to pick the pole was awesome. I would have been
happy with third. To pick the pole, that puts more pressure on the
driver. You know that you have a good racecar and it’s right in your
hands. You just have to close the deal. We got lucky drawing the pole,
but we had such an awesome racecar that I don’t think it would have
mattered. That car was just so dead-on perfect. It turned and went
through the center great. It was just awesome.”
Lia led every lap,
but he never got much of a chance to take it easy during the race.
“You never think
that you have anything in the bag, especially me with my luck. Down in
Florida, we had two races in the bag when bad luck bit us. That’s just
the way it goes sometimes.”
It took more than
a fast racecar to win at Waterford.
“My crew did
awesome. They all outdid themselves tonight. The team makes these cars
awesome and reliable at the shop, my Dad and the sponsors all step up
and make it work and the guys just outdo themselves every time we go to
the track. It’s a total team effort.”
Next up for Lia is
this Sunday’s make-up race at Stafford Motor Speedway (CT). Lia won the
pole position for that event last month before rain washed out the
feature. Of course, given his typical luck, he’s not starting there
after the redraw.
“We’re starting
seventh because that’s where we redrew,” said Lia. “We weren’t as lucky
there.”
Lia is really
hungry to win at Stafford.
“I like that
racetrack, and one of my major goals is to win a Tour race at Stafford
or Thompson. I think that will happen this year; we’re on to some good
things here. We’ve been creeping up on it.”
This season, Lia
has been running the #47 Wisk/Snuggle SK Modified weekly at Stafford.
He finished seventh there last Friday night. There is not much of a
direct connection between the SK and Tour Modifieds, but Lia still
believes driving the SK helps him to improve as a driver.
“Those two cars
are so different, but I think that it will help,” said Lia. “The more
laps that you run anywhere in anything will help you as a driver. I’m
learning a lot in the SK, but not a whole lot can be applied to the Tour
Modified. Whatever I can apply, I will apply to it.”
For more
information on Donny and the team, please contact Matthew Dillner at
(704) 231-7613 and be sure to visit DonnyLia.com.
Source: Matt Dillner/Donny Lia PR
Posted: July 3, 2005
