Berndt Celebrates Triumph in Sunoco Modified 20/20 Feature at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park

The incident worked to the benefit of  Ryan Preece who took the lead after the restart, after starting deep into the top ten. He would go on to win segment one while Eric Berndt finished second and Pitkat recovered from the mid-race incident to finish a strong third.

The field was shifted for the second segment, sending Preece to the rear of the field and while he had made his way to the top five within the first three laps Preece’s luck would run out when mechanical failure caused him to retire only a handful of laps into the segment. He would return for the third and final segment. 

Pitkat’s luck would continue however as the seasoned veteran and points leader led much of the second segment, despite his involvement in the crash in segment one. Following a crash with four laps to go when Ladyga encountered more trouble, slamming the outside wall in a one car incident, Pitkat saw his lead disappear after teammates Berndt, who had been involved in an incident early in segment two, and Rocco took over the top two spots and never looked back. Pitkat would settle for third for the second consecutive segment while Berndt followed up his runner-up finish in segment one with a win, carrying only three points, one for his win and two for his runner up, into the final segment. Pitkat had the second lowest amount of points going into the final segment with six followed by Keith Rocco who had accumulated eight points.

The ten-lap final segment had Berndt and Pitkat starting on the front row, having accumulated the least amount of points and, while a daring dive to the bottom on turn 2 gave Pitkat the lead, a spin would bring out the caution and reset the field as it was at the start due to the field unable to complete a lap. The two leaders also made contact before the caution came out as the entered turn four.

Pitkat attempted another daring dive on the restart but was unable to pass Berndt, who ran away with the lead and never surrendered. Pitkat took part in a hard fought battle with Keith Rocco who took the second position on lap four. The teammates Berndt and Rocco would finish one-two once again and Pitkat would go on to finish third in all three segments of the 20/20 feature event. Preece finished fourth in segment three after he was sidelined for much of segment two.

Berndt’s point total of only four points was low enough to give him the overall win while Pitkat finished second with nine points and Rocco finished third with ten. Berndt’s victory proved to be the highlight story of the night as the veteran drove the #76 for the first time during the 20/20 feature. He said he was thrilled to be in victory lane and thanked his team for their hard work and for giving him a shot.

“It feels great you know. These guys put in a lot of hard work for the two cars they had here tonight,” he said. “We finished first and second (in segments two and three). What more could you ask for. It’s a great organization and I’ve got to thank them for giving me the shot and here we are.”

Starting off the night were the Vintage Outlaws with a ten lap feature that saw the fifth win of the season for Smithfield, Rhode Island’s Scott Quinn. After starting in the back of the field of seven cars Quinn moved his way through the field quickly, taking the lead into turn one at the start of the third lap of the event. He never looked back and took home the hardware.

“I’d like to just thank my brother (and Crew Chief Rob Quinn, Jr.) for all the work he does and my sponsors,” he said. “We’re winning because we go home every week and we pull the car apart and we just build it right back to new and come back to race – The car is really good and my brother made a good call with a gear change because he knew the track would be slippery tonight so we were able to try something different and it worked.”

Next in line were the Late Models, which ran caution free for a 25-lap feature dominated by Mark Curtis who started on the front row. The race featured bumping and banging by several drivers as they worked their way to the front, however Curtis never blinked in his quest for his second Thompson victory of the season.
Curtis said, “We got that good start up front – We had just a really good car. We made some wholesale adjustment to tighten it up with the slippery conditions out there today and I just paced myself trying to hit my marks.”

Curtis was later disqualified after Tech inspection, giving Jeff Rocco the win for the night, followed by Keith Rocco as well as Rick Gentes and Brian Tagg.

The third feature of the night, the Xtramart Limited Sportsman Series, was full of action as the 20-lap feature saw an intense battle for the lead through much of the race. The biggest battle of the race saw eventual winner Jesse Gleason and runner-up Larry Barnett side by side or nose to tail for much of the race and a battle for second in the first five laps became a battle for the lead after early leader Joshua Wood lost control coming out of turn four. Gleason inherited the lead with Barnett close behind.

Gleason would go on to claim victory and talked about his run to the win in victory lane.

“It was a long day and it’s just really really hot out,” he said. “When you’ve got Larry (Barnett) behind you then you know you’re in good hands. He and I have raced for almost ten years and we rarely trade paint so I know that he’s a good old school racer like myself.”

Barnett held on for a second place finish while Scott Sundeen and Corey Hutchins finished third and fourth. Wood recovered from his early spin for a fifth place finish.

The final event of the night featured the Monster Mini Stocks with an experienced veteran taking the win while the runner-up saw the best finish of his career in the series. Eric Bourgeois found himself back in victory lane after early leader Jeff Moffat, Sr. suffered mechanical issues causing him to retire from the race. The big story of the event was the career-best run for Nick Matera who finished second. The run was so impressive Bourgeois gave him credit for a good race after pulling into victory lane.

“Nick’s come a long way. I looked in the mirror the last couple laps and I’m going ‘oh man don’t miss your marks’. I missed it a couple times and he was right there,” said Bourgeois who explained his main strategy was always to lead early and hold his position as long as he could. “I absolutely had no choice (but to take the lead early on). I know there were a lot of good competitors behind me – This class is really close.”

Next up for Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park is the Budweiser ‘King of Beers’ 150 & Limited Triple Crown Race No. 3 as the Whelen Modified Tour makes its return to the Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Wednesday, August 12th.
 
SUNOCO MODIFIED 20/20 FEATURE SEGMENT 1 (TOP-10): 1. Ryan Preece (Berlin, CT); 2 Eric Berndt (Cromwell, CT); 3. Woody Pitkat (Sturbridge, MA); 4. Adam Norton (Ludlow, MA); 5. Ryan Morgan (Mystic, CT); 6. Keith Rocco (Berlin, CT); 7. Nick Ladyga (Voluntown, CT); 8. Cam McDermott (Scituate, RI); 9. Kerry Malone (Needham, MA); 10. Jason Sundeen (Douglas, MA)
 
SUNOCO MODIFIED 20/20 FEATURE SEGMENT 2 (TOP-10): 1. Eric Berndt (Cromwell, CT); 2. Keith Rocco (Berlin, CT); 3. Woody Pitkat (Sturbridge, MA); 4. Kerry Malone (Needham, MA); 5. Ryan Morgan (Mystic, CT); 6. Andrew Charron (E. Greenwich, RI); 7. Cam McDermott (Scituate, RI); 8. Jason Sundeen (Douglas, MA); 9. Adam Norton(Ludlow, MA); 10. Nicki Ouellette (East Granby, CT)
 
SUNOCO MODIFIED 20/20 FEATURE SEGMENT 3 (TOP-10): 1. Eric Berndt (Cromwell, CT); 2. Keith Rocco (Berlin, CT); 3. Woody Pitkat (Sturbridge, MA); 4. Ryan Preece (Berlin, CT); 5. Cam McDermott (Scituate, RI); 6. Kerry Malone (Needham, MA); 7. Adam Norton (Ludlow, MA); 8. Jason Sundeen (Douglas, MA); 9. Ryan Morgan (Mystic, CT); 10. Andrew Charron (E. Greenwich, RI)
 
SUNOCO MODIFIED 20/20 FEATURE FINAL RESULTS (TOP-10): 1. Eric Berndt (Cromwell, CT); 2. Woody Pitkat (Sturbridge, MA); 3. Keith Rocco (Berlin, CT); 4. Ryan Preece  (Berlin, CT); 5 Kerry Malone (Needham, MA); 6. Ryan Morgan (Mystic, CT); 7. Cam McDermott (Scituate, RI); 8. Adam Norton  (Ludlow, MA); 9. Jason Sundeen(Douglas, MA); 10. Andrew Charron (E. Greenwich, RI)
 
MONSTER MINI STOCK FEATURE FINISH (TOP-10): 1. Eric Bourgeois (East Haddam, CT); 2. Nick Matera (Warwick, RI); 3. Mike Veins (Seekonk, MA); 4. Dave Trudeau (Mansfield, CT); 5. Joe Baxter (Pascoag, RI); 6. Louis Bellisle (Lisbon, CT); 7. Scott Michalski (S. Killingly, CT); 8. Steve Michalski (Brooklyn, CT); 9. Christopher Viens (Putnam, CT); 10. Ed Field (Deep River, CT)
 
VINTAGE OUTLAWS (FULL FINISHING ORDER): 1. Scott Quinn, Smithfield, Rhode Island; 2. Daryl Dutch, Greeville, Rhode Island; 3. Ben LeVangie, Plymouth, MA; 4. Bill Cummins, Clinton, MA; 5. Ron St. Germaine, Brookfield, MA; 6. Joe Babineau, North Smithfield, RI; 7. Joe Baxter, Pascoag, RI
 
LATE MODELS (TOP-10): 1. Jeff Rocco (Wallingford, CT); 2. Keith Rocco (Berlin, CT); 3. Rick Gentes (Burrillville, RI); 4. Brian Tagg (Oxford, MA); 5. Jeff Smith (Old Lyme, CT); 6. Ernest LaRose (Moosup, CT); 7. William Wall (Shrewsbury, MA); 8. Larry Gelinas (Buxton, ME); 9. Glen Boss (Danielson, CT); 10. Buddy Charette
 
XTRAMART LIMITED SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (TOP-10): 1. Jesse Gleason (Lisbon, CT); 2. Larry Barnett (Moosup, CT); 3. Scott Sundeen (Sutton, MA); 4. Corey Hutchings (Salem, CT); 5. Joshua Wood (Palmer, MA); 6. Moose Douton (Waterford, CT); 7. Diego Monahan; 8. Matt Lowinski-Loh (Milford, MA); 9. Brent Gleason (Lisbon, CT); 10. Frank LeTolle, Jr. (Wethersfield, CT)

Sources: Jason Bleau/Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park PR