Rit Dulac Making Comeback in Stafford’s SK Modified® Division
Stafford Springs, CT — For Plantsville native Rit Dulac, the 2013 SK Modified® season will mark a return to racing, albeit in a brand new division. Dulac is a former veteran of the ProStock and Truck ranks at Riverside Park Speedway and he dabbled in the Busch North Series for a time, but 2013 will be his very first time strapped behind the wheel of an open wheeled NASCAR modified. Despite the new surroundings, Dulac is feeling confident ahead of his 2013 season debut that he can get right back into the swing of things.
“I got started racing Late Models at Thompson and I’ve raced ProStocks and Trucks at Riverside and Monadnock,” said Dulac. “We kind of passed over the modifieds when we decided to go Busch North racing, and 2005 was the last season I was on track. Last year, I was sitting in the stands watching the modifieds with some of my crew guys and we thought, ‘We could do this’. We started looking around for a car, something popped up and we grabbed it. We think we can have a nice year and although it’s been a while, I feel pretty good.”
Despite Dulac’s absence from the racing scene, he and his crew have been busy during the off-season preparing the #12 that Dulac will campaign for SPAFCO Rookie of the Year honors.
“We bought an old CD car that ran at Thompson and it’s a very nice car,” said Dulac. “We’ve had everything on it upgraded, we cleaned it out on the jig, and we’ve tried to put as many of the 2014 updates in the car as we could. Once we had everything put together, I had some of my crew guys check to see if there were no one around and I took the car for a drive around the block. I was able to spin the tires a little bit here and there but the car felt really good. There isn’t one piece on the car that we haven’t gone through and taken apart 6 times. Our main goal is to win Rookie of the Year this season. It’s a pretty cool program that Stafford has with SPAFCO and we’d love to be the next SPAFCO SK Modified® Rookie of the Year this season.”
After not having sat in a racecar for 8 years and never having sat in a modified, Dulac will need all the practice time that he can get leading up to the season opening CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler on April 26-28.
“We’re going to take the car to Thompson this weekend for a shakedown, and then we’ll have the open practice and the Friday practice at the Sizzler to get things ready,” said Dulac. “I don’t think I’ll be that rusty, everything all comes back to you pretty quickly. The practices before the Sizzler will definitely be a good starting point for me and the team. I have some of my old crew that came back to help me out, and I have several new crew members, including one of my Bristol Tech students. Zach Aszklar has also come by the shop to help us out a little bit and we’ll be helping him out this year. We have a lot of information, we just have to get to the track and put everything together. Hopefully the car will be to our liking.”
Another factor that Dulac will have to contend with on his learning curve is how to save tires with Stafford’s tire rule limiting teams to two new tires per week.
“One thing we’ll have to get on top of is how to save the tires,” said Dulac. “Back in the day, we could buy whatever we wanted for tires, and now we can only get two tires per week. On a scale of 1-10, everyone on the team is a 10 with excitement to get back to the track and we’re hoping that all of our hard work over the winter is going to pay off and show up on the time sheets when the season gets started.”
Dulac will have his first opportunity to set the time sheets ablaze at the 42nd Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler on April 26-28. Tickets for the “Greatest Race in the History of Spring” may be ordered by calling the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $38.50 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 is $42.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax.
For more information on the 42nd Annual CARQUEST TECH-NET Spring Sizzler®, 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