Santos Takes Sizzler Win
Stafford Springs, CT) When the 2011 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour started, Bobby Santos at Thompson International Speedway was fastest in practice. He took the Coors Light Pole Award in qualifying. On race day the Mystic Missile team had engine trouble forcing Santos to retire from the race early. Santos came to Stafford looking for victory and the Mystic Missile was back in victory lane.
Doug Coby took fast time in qualifying. The top four cars in qualifying had times of 17.9. For front row on Sunday it was Doug Coby and Todd Szegedy. When the green flag dropped, Santos wasted no time taking the lead. By lap 20, Santos was enjoying a comfortable lead. On Lap 23, Dave Etheridge would pull in behind the wall with an axle problem. On lap 31, Chuck Hossfeld was off the pace as he headed on to pit road. The crew looked over the car as he had engine trouble his day would come to an end. On Lap 42, Santos was getting into some heavy traffic.
On lap 63, Mike Stefanik doing everything he can not to go a lap down to the leader Santos. He did at one point and got his lap back with the Lucky Dog. He would end up finishing 5th.
On Lap 75, it was Santos, Beers, Coby and Pennink rounding out the top 4. There was still no caution. On lap 83, the first caution of the event came out as Doug Coby hit the wall. Coby was running in third at the time of the caution. That brought everybody on to pit road for their pit stops. The cars that stayed out were Christopher, Szegedy, and Blewett. On the restart it would be Christopher, Szegedy, Blewett, Berndt, and Santos rounding out the top 5.
On lap 100, it was TC, Szegedy, Santos, Pennink would make his move on the high side for fourth and Jimmy Blewett rounded out the top five. On lap 111, the second caution of the afternoon would come out as Richie Pallai, Jr. spun. That would bring in Silk, Blewett, Beers, and Berndt in for their pit stops. On the restart, it would be Christopher, Szegedy, Santos, Pennink, and Rudolph rounding the top 5. When the green flag waved Santos moved into second. Matt Hirschman would make his way to the top 5.
The third caution would come out for debris on lap 132. Ted Christopher and Todd Szegedy would make their pit stop. Bobby Santos would resume the lead. On the restart, it would be Santos, Hirschman, Pennink, Civali, and Rudolph. Another caution would come out on lap 139 as Wade Cole spun in turn one. A quick red flag was brought out for some fluid out on the track. On the restart, the top five would remain the same. On lap 151, the sixth caution would come out for debris on the track. The restart on lap 154 would be Santos, Pennink, Civali, and Hirschman. Another caution would come out on lap 161 as Kevin Goodale hit the wall. The top 4 in the restart would stay the same.
With 26 laps to go, Civali’s top 5 run would come to an end as he hit the wall hard. Also involved was Szegedy, Flemke, and Tyler. On lap 179 restart, Silk moved up to second. Four laps later, the final caution of the day would come out as Jimmy Blewett and Eric Berndt. The final restart would come to a 13 lap shootout. It was Santos, Silk, Pennink, Stefanik, and Beers. With ten laps to go, Santos was still leading. Rowan Pennink moved up to second and Eric Beers took over fourth.
With 5 laps to go, Santos still holding the lead and Pennink knocking on the door lap after lap. As the white flag came out, Pennink looking to do everything he could to take the win away from Santos. When the checkered flag came out, Santos would come away with the win. Rowan Pennink finished second. Ron Silk was third. Eric Beers was fourth and rounding out the top five was Mike Stefanik.
For Santos, he has won the Fall Final, Icebreaker, World Series of Racing and now a Spring Sizzler. “ It’s great ! The guys gave me a great car. A lot of fun. It makes up for last year at this race and it makes up from Thompson from a week ago. It’s an honor to be in victory lane here at Stafford.”
Ron Silk and the TS Haulers team came home with a great top 5 run. The team struggled in practice. The team changed a bunch of things before time trials. Silk qualified 7th in time trials. Silk’s car was good during the first half of the race. The car was a little free. On their pit stop, the TS Haulers team over adjusted a little bit making the car a bit more tight. “ All in all a pretty good day.”
Eric Beers has had a great start to the 2011 season. Last season, Beers split his full time 2010 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule with Delange Racing and John Blewett Motorsports. Beers finished 6th at the Icebreaker at Thompson. This weekend at Stafford he brought home the Delange Racing #45 in the fourth spot. “ It started off great. We got off from 4th right to 2nd. We were running with Bobby (Santos) there. About 25 laps in I started jumping out of gear. I had to hold it in gear until we got to the caution so they could put a bungee cord.”
The first caution did not come out till lap 83. “It was a long time driving with one hand. I was praying we get a caution soon. We got a pit stop there. The guys made some adjustments and put the bungee cord on. We went out and came back and put our tires later on. The race worked out well. We had a couple times your in the wrong lane and you go back and the other times your in the right lane you move forward. It’s the nature of racing here.”
The next event for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is Friday May 27th at Stafford.
Sources: Matt Wiernasz