Ryan Preece Looks to Continue 2012 Hot Streak in TSI Harley-Davidson 125 at Stafford Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — For Ryan Preece and the #16 Diversified Metals NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour team, the 2012 season couldn’t have gotten off to a much better start than it has. In the first three races of the 2012 season, Preece and his team have won the pole position for all three events, giving them four consecutive pole positions dating back to the final race of 2011, and they have led 361 of the 534 laps that have been completed thus far. With Preece securing his first victory since joining the #16 team for the last race of the 2011 season last week at Monadnock, he is looking to continue his hot streak when the Whelen Modified Tour returns to Stafford next Friday night for the 22nd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125.
“We’ve run pretty good, it’s a good season right now, but there’s plenty of races left,” said Preece. “I honestly couldn’t say why we’re running so well. Sly [Szaban] knows what he’s doing, and whatever he is doing is working for me and it’s definitely going the way we dreamed so far. You don’t really get this very often, so we’re kind of riding the wave right now and see how long it lasts. 4 poles in a row is an accomplishment in itself, I just read where Mario Fiore was saying that only two other people have done that, Mike Stefanik and Mike McLaughlin, so that’s pretty cool.”
Preece enters the TSI Harley-Davidson 125 sitting third in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour points standings, only 4 points behind defending champion Ronnie Silk and three points behind CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler winner Doug Coby. With how well the team has run in the first three races of the 2012 season, combined with Preece’s experience and track knowledge at Stafford, confidence is running high for next Friday night’s TSI Harley-Davidson 125.
“I feel that every track we go to, we go to do as well as we can,” said Preece. “Did we expect to go to Stafford and Monadnock and win the pole, no, but right after practice we knew we had a car capable of doing it. I know the team is more capable of winning poles and races, I think that’s already been showed, all we have to do is be in the right places and keep doing what we’ve been doing and we should be pretty good for the rest of the season. Everyone gets along really well on the team, and when you go to the races, you want to have fun. That’s what we’re doing, we’re having a good time and things seem to be going our way right now. Obviously at some point we have to come down from cloud nine, but right now we’re trying to stay up there.”
In each of the last two years on the Whelen Modified Tour, the winner of the TSI Harley-Davison 125 has gone on to win the championship that year. In addition to Ronnie Silk last year and Bobby Santos, III in 2010, Donny Lia in 2007 and Tony Hirschman in 2004 have also won the TSI Harley-Davidson 125 and the championship in the same year. While Preece would like to join that list of drivers, he cautions it is still too early in the season to begin thinking about points.
“It’s way too early, I won’t even start looking at points until October,” said Preece. “To be where we are this early in the season after what happened to us at Thompson, it feels pretty good, but there’s still a lot of racing between now and the end of the year and a lot of things can happen. We’ll see how it goes and hopefully things will go our way.”
Tickets for the 22nd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125 are available and on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $33.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at $35.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.
For more information on the 22nd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125, or to order tickets, 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