Ellwood Hopes to Sustain Momentum
Kyle Ellwood rallied from a cut tire on the first lap of the Performance Plus 150 to finish 15th. The inaugural NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Myrtle Beach (SC) Speedway was his third top 15 finish.
“It was a fun place to drive on and you really had to be able to figure out your limits there rather quick because if you didn’t you burned your car up,” Ellwood said. “So, it took a lot of thought. It wasn’t just to go out there and hammer down. So, my thoughts on the whole race was it was pretty good.”
The Riverhead, NY driver felt confident in his car even though he was off the lead lap. Seven cars were eliminated in a pair of late restarts.
“In the middle of the race, I picked off as many cars as I could. I damn near felt like we passed probably 20 cars out there. I seen a lot of cars but at the end, I just let ’em all have at it. I didn’t want to tear our car up since we want to have a good opportunity going into this Thompson show.”
Ellwood has a new sponsor, First Data and Clover for the first three races of the season. First Data is a credit card transaction company based in Atlanta, GA. Clover Network, LLC. is a subsidiary. Their point of sale products evaluate revenue, transactions, and sales data.
Fans can get more information at next month’s events at Thompson (CT) Speedway Motorsports Park and Stafford. Melinda from First Data will have a kiosk and credit card machine setup.
“It’s helping this tour racing take off for us going to these first couple of races with First Data. So, definitely excited to have them with us. … We’ll see what happens after Stafford if we continue or not and we’ll go from there.”
Ellwood is excited for new sponsors interest in the series.
“It is nice to see that some of these companies are coming and jumping in like First Data and Starrett and all these new companies that are getting on board with the tour. It’s pretty cool to see that there’s still interest out there and we need it to keep going.”
Ellwood would like to compete full time. He expects to enter both races at Riverhead (NY) Raceway and the last two races at Stafford (CT) Motor Speedway and Thompson.
He will also make appearances at the monthly extra distance time trial show Riverhead has. Ellwood is looking forward to the Islip 300 and the inaugural Modified Touring Series (MTS) races. He may also return for some Legend Cars races.
The No. 17 Chevrolet is owned by John Ellwood. Jarod Zeltmann is the crew chief. Wayne, and Brian Densieski also work on the team.
“Everybody who comes to the shop on a week to week basis and puts some time in here, it all means something at the end.”
Ellwood is using a Randy’s Performance built motor in his 2014 Troyer. Ellwood is supported by ASI Racewear and Natural Design Inc.
Ellwood is focused on top 15 finishes this season. Preparation and reliability in his racecars wil be key to achieving this. The next event is Icebreaker 2017 at Thompson on April 7-9.
“We’ve gotta finish every race that we enter. We can’t have any misfortune with mechanical failures. We gotta make sure the car’s prepared every week and just do the best we can on our end to make everything go.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com
Racing-Reference.info
Debbie Horn photos