The NASCAR Modified’s Only Non-Oval Race of the Year is at Lime Rock Park Saturday!
The NASCAR Whelen Modified “66/99” Presented by Town Fair Tire race is this Saturday, September 17 at Lime Rock Park in Northwest Connecticut.
The Whelen Mods, very popular in Connecticut (running at Stafford Motor Speedway and Thompson International Speedway multiple times per season), came to Lime Rock Park for the first time in 2010. Their stop at Lime Rock Park this year for the “66/99” (66 laps of the track’s 1.5-mile road course is 99 miles) is the series’ only road course race.
Last year’s Lime Rock race was won by Dale Quarterley in the #52 Chevrolet, wresting the lead from polesitter Todd Szegedy (Ridgefield, Conn.) in the #2 Ford with just four laps to go.
Szegedy sits second in the points standings coming into the weekend, only 60 points behind Ron Silk of Norwalk, Conn. Quarterley, from Westfield, Mass., is not scheduled to race, though a “late add” is not out of the question.
This year, the #52 is being driven by Middletown, Connecticut’s Doug Coby, coming off his two impressive wins last week at Thompson in the Whelen Modifieds “North-South” Showdown.
For the fans, there are two special attractions: Rising country-western star AJ Jansen, originally from Torrington, Conn., will be performing with her band Friday night and all day Saturday at Lime Rock, while more than a dozen “old school” modifieds (the mods are NASCAR’s oldest division, debuting in 1947) will be doing parade laps on the during the lunch break on Saturday, thanks to N.E.A.R., New England Antique Racers.
In addition to the Whelen Mod feature event, there are four SCCA Pro Racing open-wheel races: The Formula F Championship (Ford and Honda powered formula cars) and the FF2000 Championship each run two races, with fields of 30+ cars in all four races.
Practice and qualifying for all three series is Friday, Sept. 16.
Children 12 and under are free, parking is free and access to the pits for all fans is free. Tickets for the NASCAR Whelen Modified “66/99” Presented by Town Fair Tire are available at the gate Saturday, Sept. 17 for $45.
NASCAR’s Statistical Advance is available by clicking here.
Don’t miss the monster Mods racing at Lime Rock Park this Saturday!
Think fast!
Rick Roso, Lime Rock Park