Points Battle Heating Up Between Preece and Coby
The championship battle for the Whelen Modified Tour is starting to heat up with just five races left.
Ryan Preece has led the standings for much of the season with three wins to his credit. After his last win at Riverhead (NY) Raceway on June 29th, Preece had a 32-point lead over Rowan Pennink. Four races later that lead is now down to 16 points over defending champion Doug Coby.
Preece had the luck earlier this season scoring three victories in a row at Stafford Motor Speedway (CT), Waterford Speedbowl (CT), and at Riverhead. Before the Carquest 150 at Stafford two weeks ago, Preece’s lowest finish was fifth. But that is where his luck changed. He finished 16th at Stafford due to a last-lap spin when he had a right-rear tire go flat. Then this past race at Thompson International Speedway (CT) he spun once with 20 laps remaining, and then crashed on the last lap of the race.
Coby has had the opposite luck. He failed to start the Riverhead race after he crashed in qualifying when his throttle stuck going into turn one. He left Riverhead 53 points behind Preece in fifth place in the standings. Since Riverhead Coby has finished no lower than fourth including two wins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Stafford.
“Just chipping away,” said Coby after Thompson. “You can’t do it in one race. It was looking like at one point that he was going to gain one or two on me tonight. He had better lines on the restarts and then with that wreck with the 93 (Pennink) it kind of changed things a little bit.
“Of course then he wrecked in the corner,” said Coby. “But that can happen to us any race.”
Preece said he feels that his lead over Coby is still a strong lead, and that he’s not getting worried just yet.
“It’s still a good points lead I guess, ” said Preece. “We have good cars. With that pit stop the tire wouldn’t come off and we got in the back. Then we had a right-rear go down. Then we got back up to sixth and then something broke on Ronnie’s (Silk) car from that big wreck on the front stretch and I didn’t know.”
Coby said it’s still too early to worry about where Preece is running compared to him throughout the race.
“It’s one of those deals where we are just trying to race our race and not worry about where Ryan is yet,” said Coby. “It’s way too early. There’s still five races to go. He’s still the point leader.”
“This happened to me last year. He got it down to nine. Then we collected ourselves and won by 11. There’s nothing to say he’s not going to go out at Bristol and gain 10 more back.”
Coby said he feels that things would be different if he could have raced Riverhead back in June.
“It would have been cool to run Riverhead because if could have ran there I feel we’d be tied or leading, or at least close. It would be a really tight battle, but we didn’t race Riverhead so that’s how it goes.”
Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam