Goodie Motorsports Hires Pitkat
Woody Pitkat will return to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour full-time in 2017 driving for Goodie Motorsports. The team runs a Robert Yates spec engine and SPAFCO Chassis.
“Jeffrey (Goodale) called me asked what my plans for next year,” Pitkat said. “(He) said he couldn’t commit 100 percent next year so was wondering if I was interested in driving the car full season for him.”
The Stafford Springs, CT native ran a partial schedule fo Kevin Stuart this year with 1 top five and 7 top 10s in 13 starts.
“(It) means a lot, tough to find full-time tour team these days so to get a great opportunity like this to give a great team an opportunity to win races and hopefully contend for a championship one year. It’s just an honor and I’m so grateful to Jeff and the Goodies team picked me to drive for them.”
Pitkat faces a tall order to match his productivity during his last full-time stint.
In his last three full-time seasons, Pitkat had 3 wins, 18 top fives, 30 top tens, and 4 poles driving for Roger Hill and Buzz Chew. Pitkat enjoyed his best season in 2015 with a third place points finish. The Spring Sizzler winner finished every race on the lead lap and had a 4.7 average finish.
Pitkat has 3 track championships at Stafford (CT) Motor Speedway and Thompson (CT) Speedway Motorsports Park. He won the 2015 Valenti Modified Racing Series championship.
Pitkat has matched a Hall of Famer at two local tracks. NASCAR Modified champion Bugs Stevens and Pitkat share second at Stafford with 77 wins. His World Series victory tied Stevens with 41 Thompson wins.
“That’s awesome. Very blessed to have great teams and great people surrounding me to accomplish that.”
Pitkat has 129 victories at 8 tracks including Caraway, Concord, New Hampshire, New London-Waterford, New Smyrna, and Seekonk.
Pitkat’s most recent win was last weekend at Concord (NC) Speedway in the SK Modifieds. He plans on returning to Stan Mertz’s car next year.
“I feel like I’ve accomplished everything I wanted in every division I raced but the tour. I always wanted to prove on the tour I could be consistent and run in the top 5 every week and contend for wins and championships and that’s what I want to get back to doing.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com
Photos by:
Paul Fohlin
Crystal Snape
Matthew Wiernasz