NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour Preview: General Mills/Ukrop’s Fall 150
Gardiner, ME — With the NASCAR Regional Touring Series being as competitive as they are, it isn’t often that a championship is decided before the final race of the season. In the case of the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour as it enters its final 1997 event, the General Mills/Ukrop’s Fall 150 at Richmond International Raceway on November 1, Mike Stefanik of Coventry, R.I. will start the race as the newly crowned 1997 NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour Champion.
Even more significant, is the reason why Stefanik missed that race. He was at a NASCAR Busch North Series, Grand National Division race, in pursuit of that title – which he won in the final event at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut on October 18.
Stefanik has picked up nine victories in the 1997 NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour season, snapping Richie Evans’ record of five-straight wins along the way with six-straight wins in six starts this year.
Also significant, is the fact that Stefanik was the winner the last time the NASCAR Featherlite Modifieds roared around the three-quarter mile, high-banked track at the Richmond Fairgrounds, and he can certainly be considered one of the favorites this time around.
While the pressure will be off Stefanik as far as the championship hunt goes, he is sure to be receiving a lot of pressure from his fellow competitors – all of whom would like to end the season with a win.
Leading that group will be Tim Connolly of Endicott, N.Y. who joined with veteran car owner Bob Garbarino of Mystic, Conn. in 1996 to create a very competitive team. When Connolly moved over to driving for the Garbarino team last year, he had a total of two career NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour wins. In the 1997 season alone, he added four more victories to his career record, and gave car owner Garbarino his first win since 1992.
Stefanik does not have to worry about points, but Connolly is locked in a close battle with Rick Fuller of Auburn, Mass. for the runner-up slot in the final points standings. Fuller, with two wins this year, trails Connolly be a mere 40 points coming into the General Mills/Ukrop’s Fall 150. It is likely that both teams will be planning a race strategy which will unfold and become apparent as the race goes on.
A dual champion, the defending race winner, and a points battle that hasn’t been settled yet all add up to a great day of ground-pounding, NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour action.
Sources: NASCAR PR