Lovelace Going Pro Stock Racing in 2016
Rey Lovelace of Cranston, RI will be moving to the Pro Stocks full-time at Seekonk (MA) Speedway next season. Car owner Don Parsons purchased Tom Scully, Sr.’s No. 3. The No. 98 Anytime Realty car will be purple, white and silver stripes. The No. 98 was used by Parsons and his father in motocross. Parsons’ Anytime Realty sponsors Ryan Lineham, Mike Cavallaro and Christine Cavallaro at Seekonk. Additional sponsors include Law Offices of Michael C. Lima of East Providence, RI and Pillar to Post Home Inspection of Bristol, RI.
“There’s some new people that help us with the Pro Stock,” Lovelace said. “We’ll probably have a lot more hands on deck this year.”
Lovelace’s team will maintain the Pro Stock and Street Stock. Lovelace’s Street Stock will be running a partial schedule with Parsons and his father splitting time. Lovelace may run the Triple Crown races.
“When he (Parsons) wants to drive, he’ll drive the Street Stock. And then if we’re at any practices or anything like that basically he’ll be able to take the Pro Stock out.”
2016 pro stock ride
Posted by Lovelace Motorsports on Sunday, September 13, 2015
The 10-time Street Stock winner ran a Late Model in 2008 and a Pro Stock at Thompson in 2010.
“I’m looking forward to moving up full-time next year in a car that I feel that we could be competitive in with it. And I don’t feel like we’re behind the eight-ball like when we did it before. So I feel like we’re going to move up with some good knowledge, some good people, and I think the car’s going to be pretty good.”
“We’re going to try to run for Rookie of the Year will be first and foremost and then just basically running consistent whatever that may be. Consistently in the top 15, consistently in the top 10, finishing races, not wrecking, stuff like that. Finishing in one piece every week is basically a very good goal and then we’ll get faster from there.”
The defending champion had 2 wins, 10 top fives, and 14 top tens in 16 starts. His average finish was 5.6. The 31-year-old driver team ended the year fifth, 72 points behind champion Paul Lallier.
“The Dodge body actually helped a hell of a lot more than I thought it was going to. I feel like it lightened up the car about a hundred pounds and it helped definitely helped with downforce. But I feel like we really could’ve won the championship this year if it wasn’t for a couple of mishaps. One being opening day the points getting that disqualification (53 points for a heat win and second in the feature) was just an oversight on our part and it was very, very minute and then we blew a module probably like six seven weeks ago in the feature, which I think we would have won the feature if we didn’t do so we left about a hundred points on the table and it wasn’t our fault. If we wouldn’t have lost the points we did, we would have won the championship by like 30-35 points.”
“This year statistically was better than our championship year last year. … We really, really, really had a good year this year. I couldn’t ask for more than that. It seemed like we were in the top three or the top two in the heat every week in the top three in the feature every week. So there was only a couple of races where we kind of finished out of the top five. I think we didn’t cross the scales maybe twice this year in either heat or feature.”
“I think it frustrates anybody not to be able to get. Especially to be that close three years in a row. I mean, we lost in 2013 by the skin of our teeth. It was just unlucky. Nothing that we did we just ran over debris on the track and it just took us right out of it. And then to win it in ‘14 by 50 points and then to have a statistically better season in 15 and finished fifth in the points, almost tied for fourth, It doesn’t do any justice to the season that we had ’cause when people look at it for what it is a fifth in points.
“Fifth in points they’re like ‘oh, you know, there’s four other guys that finished in front of you.’ They think they had better seasons than you. Maybe winwise, what the 74 and the 70 got three wins this season. But statically I finished better than those guys every week. Every week for the most part. Overall I finished better than them all season aside from the module going. And where I would have restarted that race fourth. The deuce jumped the start, fourth went to second, which was the 70 started outside pole and won the race from there and we were faster than the 70 that race. So I really think that would have been our win. We left about five feature wins on the table this year. One from a bad call where the 70 come across our nose and then the 56 we raced him we basically lost that race by six inches ‘cause I really, really wanted to run him clean like I do with most guys,you know. If I would have roughed these guys up we probably had six wins but I don’t drive like that.”
“Thank my crew my father and the sponsors that have been with me over the last five years Anytime the last two, Lifestar the last five, and the same thing with Bills Tools been on the last five years, and then Rocky D’allesio, who does my motors, and Adam Clieman, who does all my vinyl work with me.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com