Chris Pasteryak Wins VMRS 80 at Stafford Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — The Valenti Modified Racing Series made its final visit of thte 2015 season to Stafford Motor Speedway for the 6th Annual VMRS 80. Chris Pasteryak took the lead from Woody Pitkat on a restart with 20 laps to go and then held Pitkat off to the checkered flag to pick up his 5th VMRS feature win of the 2015 season.
The race began with Dylan Kopec taking the lead from the pole with Norm Wrenn, Rowan Pennink, Todd Szeged, and Keith Rocco making up the top-5. The caution came out with 6 laps complete as Dan Meservey took a spin through the frontstretch infield.
Kopec took the lead back under green and he held the lead until lap-9 when Rowan Pennink moved to the front. Pennink’s time out front was short lived as Todd Szegedy took the lead on lap-12, but his time at the front was even shorter than Pennink’s as Woody Pitkat took over the lead on lap-13. By lap-20, Pitkat was still in the lead with Szegedy in second and Ted Christopher third. Keith Rocco was fourth and Kopec had fallen back to fifth.
Pitkat and Szeged were starting to pull away from Christopher in third and by lap 30 they had a 2.5 second margin built up. Pitkat was closing in on lapped traffic and he began to start navigating his way by the slower cars on lap-37.
Bobby Drown dropped off the pace and parked his car behind the pit wall on lap-46 while Pitkat continued to lead the race with Szegedy, Christopher, Rocco, and Kopec giving chase. Pitkat’s lead was erased by the caution with 58 laps complete for Carl Medieros, Jr. coming to a stop on the backstretch.
Pitkat took the lead on the restart with Szegedy, Rocco, Christopher, and Chris Pasteryak making up the top-5. Kopec dropped out of line and slid back to 8th place but his car looked to be back up to speed. The caution came back out with 59 laps complete for spins by Medieros and Russ Hersey in turn 3.
Szegedy spun in turn 2 on the restart and the chain reaction behind him collected several cars including Pennink, Kirk Alexander, Medeiros, Rocco and brought out the red and yellow flags.
Pitkat took the lead with Pasteryak, Wrenn, Kopec, and David Schneider making up the top-5 before the caution came out with 60 laps complete when Szegedy and Mike Keeler spun in turn 1.
Pitkat didn’t come up to speed on the restart and Pasteryak streaked into the lead with Kopec taking second. Pitkat settled into third with Mike Willis, Jr. and Christopher behind him. Pitkat quickly worked his way back into second with Willis, Christopher, and Wrenn behind him.
With 10 laps to go, Pasteryak had a half second lead over Pitkat and Pitkat was closing that gap down slowly lap by lap. With 5 laps to go, the gap was down to less than three tenths of a second. Pitkat was able to close to within a car length of Pasteryak, but Pasteryak was able to hold him off to the checkered flag to pick up his fifth Valenti Modified Racing Series feature win of the 2015 season. Willis finished third, with Christopher and Wrenn rounding out the top-5.
VMRS 80 (80)
1) Chris Pasteryak
2) Woody Pitkat
3) Mike Willis, Jr.
4) Ted Christopher
5) Norm Wrenn
6) Dave Etheridge
7) Keith Rocco
8) Dylan Kopec
9) Dan Meservey, Jr.
10) Matt Swanson
11) Donnie Lashua
12) David Schneider
13) Mike Keeler
14) Kyle James
15) Jeff Pearl
16) Russ Hersey
17) Anthony Nocella
18) Todd Szegedy
19) Rowan Pennink
20) Todd Patnode
21) Kirk Alexander
22) Chase Dowling
23) Carl Medieros, Jr.
24) Dennis Perry
25) Bobby Drown
26) Ronnie Williams
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR