Ryan Preece Can Clinch Stafford SK Modified® Track Championship This Friday Night
Stafford Springs, CT — Heading into the Final Friday Night Shoot-Out program at Stafford Speedway, Ryan Preece leads Keith Rocco by 82 points in the track’s SK Modified® points standings. If Preece can finish in 16th place or higher tomorrow night, he will clinch the 2011 SK Modified® track championship. While Preece acknowledges that he is aware of the fact, he will not allow that fact to alter his approach to the race.
“For sure it’s in the back of my mind, but we’re going to try to win the race and do what we’ve been doing and hope things go our way,” said Preece. “When you try to change things, that’s usually when things go bad, so we’re going to try to win the race, and if we can’t win, then we’ll go for the best finish we can get.”
While Rocco was busy winning 7 of the first 11 races of the season, Preece won twice and was never more than a handful of points behind Rocco. With Rocco being the dominant car during the first half of the season, Preece and his #40 Sullivan and Sons team have become the dominant car in the second half of the season. Preece has recorded three wins, a second, and a fourth in the previous five races leading into tomorrow night’s Final Friday Night Shoot-Out. Preece says that his recent good fortunes can be traced back to a practice session that he wasn’t even a part of.
“I was in Loudon qualifying for the Modified Tour race and we had Donny Travaglin practicing our car that night,” said Preece. “Mike [Paquette] made a change to the car and Donny said it was a good change and to leave it on the car. I don’t want to give too much away, but the change that Mike made gave the car a better entry into the corner, it rolled through the center better, and it had a ton of forward bite getting off the corner. The car was already good and that change made it that much better, so I was pretty confident we were going to win some more races before the season was over. That change has made a really big difference and it’s been a total team effort this season. Between Bob Hitchcock, Kelly Iverson, Mike Paquette, and everyone on my team and the 89 team, we’ve really clicked and we all get along really well. Even though my car and the 89 car are out of separate shops, we operate like we’re all out of the same shop.”
While the team had expectations to be among the championship contenders prior to the start of the season, they now have to finish 16th or better on Friday night to clinch their first SK Modified® championship.
“Our expectations at the beginning of the season were to run for the championship, there’s a lot of tough competition at Stafford,” said Preece. “You are racing against guys like Keith Rocco, Ted Christopher, Woody Pitkat, and Frank Ruocco, and you can’t make a mistake if you want to win the championship at Stafford. If we can clinch the championship, it would mean a lot to me, Bob, Kelly, Mike, the Poulins, and all my sponsors. The team has done an awesome job and I’m sure that we’ll have a great car again like we have all season long.”
Tickets for the Final Friday Night Shoot-Out are priced at $15.00 for Adult General Admission, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 & under are free. Reserved seating is $18.00 for all ages. Tickets can be ordered by calling the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783, or they will be available at the admission gates.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR