Stafford, CT — Woody Pitkat might someday win the Daytona 500. He could end up being a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion someday. Maybe he’ll visit victory lane at New Hampshire International Speedway, or win at Martinsville Speedway. It’s very possible that he’ll be the National Champion of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series this season, as he is leading those national standings heading down the homestretch of the season.
Pitkat’s future is bright and he has plenty of career highlights ahead of him, but no matter what he accomplishes in racing, what the young Connecticut driver pulled off this past weekend will be hard to forget.
Here are the weekend stats – on Thursday he finished third in a Sunoco Modified at Thompson International Speedway (CT). On Friday, he won his fifth straight SK Modified feature at Stafford Motor Speedway (CT) and came from the rear of the field to finish fourth in the Late Model race. On Saturday, Pitkat finished a career-best (to date) third in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at Mansfield Motorsports Park (OH).
That kind of record is attracting plenty of attention. Stafford track announcer Matt Buckler even compared Pitkat’s year to Geoff Bodine’s 1979 season, when the Modified ace won 55 features. Just like many of the times when Bodine won, Pitkat made the victory at Stafford look easy.
“We started 13th, but the bottom line went quick,” said Pitkat. “I got the lead six or eight laps in and just went from there.”
In victory lane, Pitkat dedicated the victory to fallen racer John Blewett, III, who lost his life in a recent wreck at Thompson.
“Tonight I wanted to win for John Blewett,” said Pitkat. “I wanted to win last night at Thompson, but that didn’t happen. John’s death is a big loss. I would like to dedicate this race to John because he was the type of person that just would do his stuff on his own. He didn’t want to drive for anybody. He set up his own car and raced it. I had a lot of respect for him and its unbelievable that he is gone.”
On Saturday afternoon at Mansfield, Pitkat started 18th and worked his way up to a podium finish in the rain-shortened event.
“I got to third and they were really strung out ahead of me,” said Pitkat. “They told me that I was running the same lap times [as the leaders]. I would have liked to have run the whole race to see what I could have done with them, but it worked out.”
Now Pitkat has his sights set on another big racing weekend, where he’ll race at Thompson on Thursday, Stafford on Friday and then head to Martinsville, Virginia for a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race on Saturday.
“After next weekend, we’ll be racing mostly in New England again, so things are going to get back to normal.”
For more information on Woody Pitkat, contact Matt Kentfield at (704) 788-2134 and check out the official online home for the 2006 NASCAR Weekly Series Division IV Champion, www.woodypitkatracing.com.
Sources: Matt Kentfield/Woody Pitkat PR