Goodale to Make NWMT Debut at Icebreaker
Jeff Goodale of Riverhead, NY will make his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debut at the Icebreaker April 10-12 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. A 21-year-old first cousin of Eric and Kevin Goodale, he plans to enter both Riverhead races and the World Series at Thompson. He is open to adding races, but “it depends on how we do during those races.”
A full-time Riverhead Raceway effort will be his focus once again. The team fields a two car effort with Kyle Ellwood of Riverhead. Ellwood will also race the same NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and Riverhead weekly events in the No. 17x. He believes his experience at Riverhead will help him find success at “a tough track, an aggressive track.”
“Our goal is to just finish and get the experience. My crew chief seems to think that we’re going to do pretty well. He’s given me a whole bunch of confidence, but the main goal is just to finish.… As far as Riverhead is concerned, we want to get a few wins and hopefully at the end of the season we’re on top. But take it weekend by weekend and finish and try to be up front is really the goal.”
Another factor is obtaining the necessary help to add a race like the NAPA Spring Sizzler at Stafford.“We’ve got to have enough help for the two pit crews really ’cause we don’t want to share a pit stall. So we really need like 10 guys if we’re going to do a tour race.”
The No. 46 team is sponsored by the family business RiverheadBuilding Supply and SpeedWorldFX in Riverhead.Goodale will run a SPAFCO car with a spec engine this season.
“It’s mostly a young team, a lot of my friends from back when I was in high school. I got some guys that work for RBS that come to help out, my crew chief especially.”
Ellwood has been friends with Goodale for years . They have been teammates since Ellwood brought his Legend Car to them in 2009-10. He brings additional help to the team, “his crew guys, he’s got his family that comes by and helps, so he’s a great guy to have around.”
Ellwood picked up his first Riverhead Modified win on July 12. Goodale said that helped the team’s confidence, but it also adds to a “friendly rivalry. … He’s my teammate, but I also want to beat him too. So seeing him being successful, it gives me that much more motivation.”
“I’ve got a great teammate as far as Kyle goes. When he wins or does something, I’m always asking him questions. We’re always sharing ideas, sharing what we did on that track that day and he’s a great help.”
Goodale hopes to emulate his cousin Eric’s extensive schedule someday. Eric raced at New Smyrna in February, the full NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and a limited Valenti Modified Racing Series slate last year.
Goodale had a separate program when he was racing Legends. Since going Modified racing, the cousins have worked together.
“I’m constantly going over their shop, exchanging parts, exchanging ideas, them giving me advice. They come to my shop if I’ve got a problem or something to do with troubleshooting they’ve came over.”
Edgar Goodale fields the No. 58 car for Eric on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Eric finished seventh in the standings with four top fives, and seven top tens in 13 starts. The team won their first series race at Riverhead.
“They always arrive with great equipment. They’ve got a great team. All those guys over there are super helpful. They just need luck to go their way. … They’ve got everything else. They got the driver, they got the crew.”
Goodale purchased Bob Katon’s 2003 Troyer Modified and converted it to an SK Modified last year. The rookie was one of two in the Tour-Type Modified field at Riverhead. He raced a limited schedule at Waterford (CT) Speedbowl and the World Series at Thompson.
“The car was fast and we had a lot of luck with it. It stayed pretty consistent week in and week out.”
“That was a blast, especially being able that we were running and SK car with a tour type field at Riverhead. The track’s small enough to be somewhat competitive, so going into the Icebreaker this year it’s going to be a whole bunch of new experiences for us.”
Goodale’s crew chief Douglas Ogiejko of Calverton, NY works at Riverhead Building Supply and came from the Ken Massa’s M3 Technology team. The No. 51 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour team and Justin Bonsignore used SPAFCO Race Chassis last year.
“My crew chief seems to know that confidence is a skill that I kind of lack, especially ’cause we just haven’t won yet, so he’s always doing his best to boost me up and to keep me motivated. He does a great job at that. He did amazing work last year.”
“The guys at SPAFCO have been exceeded my expectations already. The time they’ve taken to make sure while they’re building my car they’re doing it right and they’re calling me with updates. They’re asking me a lot of questions about personal preference and all that, so as far as customer service goes they’ve been awesome. I drove up there about a month ago just to look at the progress and they showed me around and showed me the new things that they were doing, and they’ve been extremely helpful.”
The team is awaiting the arrival of Goodale’s car from Preston; SPAFCO is preparing to paint the chassis. The team is “going a little stir crazy” while Goodale and Elldridge’s cars are getting built.
“We just can’t wait to have some cars in the shop and start making progress towards getting ready for Thompson.” Thompson will be Goodale’s first Tour-Type Modified race and the first to feature pit stops.
Goodale began his career in Go Karts when he was seven-eight years old. He raced Midford and Westhampton, while Riverhead was his home track. Once in high school, he moved to Legend Cars and switched to SK Modifieds after graduation.
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com