Preece Wins NWMT Championship; Pennink Ends Drought on Day 3 of World Series

All Ryan Preece had to do to become the youngest champion in the history of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour was finish 22nd. Instead, Preece, 22, went out and fought for the win all race long and finished third to clinch his first series championship.

“I wasn’t going to ride around to do it,” said Preece. “I was racing hard. I’m not a sandbagger. I’m one that’s going to race hard to the end. When I go home and I see all those names on that trophy, and then I see mine, I’m sure it’s going to really sink in.”

Preece started the race from the fifth position and didn’t really go forward at the beginning of the race. He moved up just one spot by the lap 75 that came out for a crash by Bryon Chew in turn two. But on the restart he powered to the front. He quickly took third from Ted Christopher and then just one lap later he moved into second by Mike Stefanik in turn four.

The yellow flag waved on lap 85 for a hard crash by Eric Goodale in turn two. He made contact with Ron Silk and went straight into the outside wall. Goodale was unable to return. Preece restarted on the inside of Bobby Santos and took the lead for the first time on lap 93.

Preece led until lap 126 when Donny Lia finally decided to show his strength. Lia and Preece swapped the lead back and forth until the caution came out on lap 129 for a crash in turn four involving Stefanik, Woody Pitkat, Glen Reen and Ken Heagy.

Lia chose the outside on the restart with Preece to his inside and Rowan Pennink just behind Preece on the inside. Pennink was able to get by Preece and he set his sights on Lia for the lead. He quickly chased down Lia and took the lead in turn four on lap 133. Pennink led from there to end and beat Lia to the line by a margin of just under one second. The victory was just the second for Pennink on the Tour, whose first win was at Riverhead Raceway and it broke a 48-race drought.

“We’ve had so many good cars here and pit strategy and cautions never fell our way,” said Pennink. “And it finally fell right for us today. We were able to have a great pit stop, get out in front of a bunch of people and bring this thing into victory lane.”

Pennink, Lia, Preece, Santos, and Silk rounded out the top five.

The race was slowed for 10 caution periods for a total of 40 laps. The average speed of the event was 73.738mph for a total time of one hour and 16 minutes.

Kerry Malone Holds off Pitkat and Preece to win SK Feature

Kerry Malone won a caution-filled Sunoco SK Modified race at the Thompson International Speedway by leading every single lap. Malone started to the outside of Matt Gallo but took the lead from the outside position coming of turn two.

Malone held off multiple pass attempts from Ryan Preece to score the win. Preece was in second by the completion of the first lap. He tried once to make the move on Malone early but he started to lose ground after the first 10 laps were completed. Preece pit during the seventh caution of the race on lap 14 and dropped all the way back to 19th. By the time the caution came out on lap 19 he was back up to 9th. On the next restart Preece passed four cars to get into fifth before they even made it to turn four.

Preece dove underneath Woody Pitkat to take second place on lap 27 going into turn three. He pulled a slide job and that got under Pitkat’s skin. Pitkat slammed the back of Preece’s No. 31 on the exit of turn four but Preece had already set his sights on Malone.

The race came down to a single-file green-white-checkered restart and Preece just didn’t have anything for Malone at the end.

“It was a crazy race,” said Malone. “I was glad to see the single-file start, especially when we were out of gas. Those guys are all tough on restarts.”

Update: According to a RaceDayCT story, Thompson Speedway race director Jeff Zuidema said Monday evening that Kerry Malone and Ryan Preece were disaqualified, thus handing the win to third place finisher Woody Pitkat. Malone was disqualified for an illegal fuel additive. Preece was disqualified for an unapproved part.

“It’s kind of weird to finish third and win,” said Pitkat. “But as hard as it is to win you take it any way you can get it.”

Zych Wins NEMA Midget Race and Championship

Any time a driver trails in points coming into the final race, the best thing they can do is to take care of their own business by winning the race. John Zych came into the final race for the NEMA Midgets season and took care of business in the best way possible by winning the race and winning the championship.

Zych took the lead on lap 19 and held on for the win on a late restart. Zych was five points back of Randy Cabral entering the race. Cabral and Zych fought side-by-side for the lead late in the race before Cabral fell back to third with just a few laps to go.

In victory lane after the race Zych was unaware that he was the 2013 champion. He said in victory lane that he saw Cabral pit early, but then got nervous when he saw Cabral right next to him on a late restart.

Perley Dominates Super Modified Race But Loses on Final Lap

Chris Perley dominated the ISMA Super Modified season finale all race long before he started to run low on fuel with two laps remaining. With 10 laps remaining Perley had a lead of almost half the distance of the straightaway over Ben Seitz. But then his motor began to stumble and he caught lapped traffic.

Seitz took advantage of Perley’s fuel issue and the lapped traffic to take the lead going down the frontstretch as the white flag fell above them.

Seitz took down the victory. Perley finished second, and Alison Cumens finished third.

Gelinas Dominates GSPSS 50-Lap Feature

Larry Gelinas took the lead in the 50-lap feature for the Granite State Pro Stock Series on the third lap of the race and that was the last time any driver on the lead lap was even close to him.

Gelinas beat Mike O’Sullivan to the checkered flag by over the length of a straightaway in a race that saw the yellow flag fly just once for a big wreck in turn four of the first lap. O’Sullivan’s second place finish clinched him the championship.

Tommy O’Sullivan, Jim Banfield, and Louie Mechalides completed the top five finishers.

 

Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam