Chris Pasteryak Wins Valenti Modified Racing Series Season Opener At Monadnock Speedway
Chris Pasteryak out of Jewett City, CT took down the win in the Bond Auto Parts Spring Dash 100 Valenti Modified Racing Series season opener this past Saturday night at the Monadnock Speedway. Richard Savary would lead the 22 car field to the green and lead the first 24 laps.
Defending Series Champion Woody Pitkat would take the lead and lead until lap 49 when Chris Pasteryak would take the lead and lead the rest of the 100 lap event. He would face challenges from Kirk Alexander, Todd Patnode, and Russ Hersey. Pasteryak would hold off the veteran drivers to win the event.
“ There’s been 3 or 4 times here I’ve been leading with under 15 to go normally for the summer race. Normally the driver screws up and loses it. I almost spun out coming out of turn two. Todd Szegedy won. Dwight Jarvis beat me on a restart. Last year the Tri-Track race, I was up front with 5 to go. To finally seal the deal feels really good.” Pasteryak Said
After struggling the last couple years, Kirk Alexander was happy to come with a second place finish. He really wanted to get a win for his car owner John Corliss. “ Coming up one short. Looking at what we have been through. Car was really competitive. We had a really awesome car tonight. It was a lot of fun to race.”
Alexander is on a toss up if he will run a full season on the Valenti Modified Racing Series. Alexander and his team will sit down and talk about it. The Winchester 200 Modified Touring Series event will be happening on Saturday night May 21st where the winner will be coming up with $15,000 dollars as he is preparing to race in that event.
Russ Hersey finished third on Saturday night. “ Those two ( Pasteryak And Alexander) are great guys to run with. Todd Patnode was right there. He was good. Donnie Lashua, They all ran me awesome. They ran me great.”
Hersey got a new suspension in the car and trying to learn new things. He felt he was a little too free to give them a run for the win. Hersey will run a limited schedule on the Valenti Modified Racing Series in 2016.
Jon McKennedy would finish in the top 5 after rebounding from a spin. He was battling with Chris Pasteryak for the lead until he spun. “ You know we had a good car. We started 17th and with 20 to go I was going for the lead. I had a good run going into three. There wasn’t much room between me and Chris (Pasteryak). He started coming out a little bit. I started to wheel hop. Around I went. It’s apart of racing.” McKennedy Said
McKennedy is planning to pick and choose his modified races this season. McKennedy also maybe running some ISMA Super races. He is waiting to hear back on what the plans would be but as of right now it looks like he will be racing in a limited Modified schedule.
Defending Series Champion Woody Pitkat would lead a total of 24 laps in the event. After falling back to 4th, Pitkat came into the pits and made adjustments. He would return to finish in 8th. “ I feel like we run good here the last couple years. Feel like I struggle here the first couple times I came here. The last couple years feel like I’ve been pretty good. Kind of feel like this place owes me a little bit but you know it’s a new team, new car, new motor package, new everything. We just gotta figure out what this car wants and what it likes.” Pitkat Said
The Valenti Modified Racing Series will return on Friday night May 20th at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Story And Photo By: Matthew Wiernasz/Yankeeracer.com