Donny Lia Rides Mystic Missle to Victory Lane at Thompson
HUNTINGTON, NY (JUNE 24,
2007) –
More often the not this season on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, when the
race has ended, Donny Lia and Bob Garbarino’s Mystic Missile team have had
to spend time posing for photos with trophies before loading up their #4
racecar.
On
Thursday night, that trend continued at Thompson International Speedway
(CT). For the third time in five Tour races this season, Lia won the race.
Lia’s association with the Mystic Missile team is also only five races old,
so the victory is just more proof that the driver and team combination seems
to be made for each other.
It
was also Lia’s first career Modified Tour victory at Thompson. He won a RoC
Modified feature at the track in 2004, but always had bad luck keep him from
winning there when the Tour would come to town. Now Lia has won races at
all three of the tracks in Connecticut where he has entered a Tour race.
“I
wanted to win a race in Connecticut and that was it, not we’ve won a few,”
said Lia. “Waterford, Stafford and now Thompson.
“I’m pretty much numb at this point. When we won Stafford, it was
incredible. Then we won Stafford again. Then we came here and won. All of
that hasn’t really sunk in. I’m not sure if it will sink in.”
The
magical start to the season with the Mystic Missile team has been something
that Lia has really appreciated. The combination of a young and
enthusiastic driver with a highly experience team is working great.
“When I went racing with my own team, if you added up all of the years of
experience with everyone on the team, you might have come up with, I don’t
know…100 something years total experience,” said Lia. “Well, this team has
probably at least 500 years of experience between them.
“That experience helps with so many little things. Things that you would
never think of make this car go so well and that is from years and years of
racing and learning lessons. They’ll learn something and not only will they
not make that same mistake again, they’ll incorporate what they learned into
the cars to make them better. My cars never felt like this. They just
didn’t.”
Lia
is the latest driver in a long line of racers who have wheeled the #4 to
wins throughout the Eastern United States. While that doesn’t register when
he is driving the car, it is a fact that he can appreciate out of the
cockpit.
“I
don’t think about that too much behind the wheel,” said Lia. “But when I’m
out of the car and do think about it, that is pretty impressive. There is a
lot of history with this car and a lot of great drivers have driven it.”
And
while Garbarino has seen just about everything in racing through his tenure
as a team owner, he is especially proud of what his team is accomplishing
this season.
“Absolutely,” said Garbarino. “I didn’t know any of these guys before we
started and they all worked very hard to get three out of five [victories].”
Racing is always enjoyable for the owner of the Mystic Missile, but this
season has been just a little bit more so.
“It’s always been fun, but it is even more fun when you win,” said Garbarino
with a smile.
And
Lia can think of something that might make racing even more fun for the
team.
“There’s just one thing that this team is missing...they’ve never won a
championship…yet,” said Lia with an even bigger smile.
With his latest victory, Lia moves from fourth in the standings to the
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour point lead, so that goal is definitely
attainable this season.
Lia
and the Mystic Missile team will return to action on the NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour on June 30th at New Hampshire International
Speedway
For more information on Donny
Lia, please contact
Mike Twist at 207-590-1786
and be sure to visit
DonnyLia.com.
Source: Mike
Twist/Donny Lia PR
Posted:
June 25, 2007
