Pitkat Powers to First MRS Win

                               Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford Springs, CT.

Hometown racer, Woody Pitkat used his second row starting position to sit back and witness a fierce duel between pole sitter Keith Rocco and Ryan Preece, who swapped leads 11 times before Pitkat used a turn three slingshot on lap 48 to become the third different leader of the event. But Rocco, certainly not a stranger to the Stafford half mile regained the lead on a lap 51 restart.

Rocco and Pitkat would run bumper to bumper for the next 17 laps until Pitkat used another inside power move on lap 68 to put Rocco and the rest behind him. Rocco would finish 0.344 seconds behind Pitkat and Todd Szegedy was one second further back to finish third.

"The win shows I have top notch equipment and great people backing me, a great supporting cast." Woody said. "Obviously it's huge to win here with the MRS, I felt we were going to have a good car, we had a great car at Monadnock and we started a little too good at Lee and I used it up." As for the racing action in front of him Pitkat said "I really couldn't tell what those guys were doing, if they were playing with each other or what, but with lap traffic becoming a factor I had to get in front of them (the leaders) and if I do start to wear my stuff out at least I'll be in the lead. It's awesome to win in the MRS, I really wanted to do that."

　

Todd Szegedy of Ridgefield, CT, the Monadnock feature winner turned in an other consistent run coming across the stripe in third. Szegedy commented," Excellent, starting towards the back, you have to use it up a little bit to get there but I was happy with it. We were off just a little off on the balance, but any time you finish in the top five it's a good night."Asked about the 13 lead changes that happened in front of him he said, "Any time you have lead changes it makes for good racing and that's what the fans are here to see. I think it is a great thing, the racing was fun, everybody was respectable out there and it's a fun and competitive series to race."

Another late race charger was Ted Christopher driving the Brady owned number 00. After the half way mark of the 80 lapper, Christopher powered up and continually picked off competitors coming from 11th to fourth, where he finished.

Last year's New Hampshire State Champion and Monadnock Speedway Champ, Todd Patnode of Richmond, NH brought the Stebbins owned number 05 home in fifth place in his first appearance at Stafford in a modified. "Car went good. I told the crew before I went out there, If we were 10th in one piece, I would be ecstatic, so were pretty happy with the car, it was a little freer than it needed to be at the end, but it's really the first time we've been here. We'll take home the notes, were really close. We started 13th and I just tried to hit spots because this track is new to me and pretty soon we started passing some cars and I thought we got to be getting somewhere up there. Fifth is not a win, but it's like a win for us, so were happy with it."

Veteran Dan Meservey Jr and team made their first appearance of the year and did a masterful job finishing up with an eighth place. Dan said, "It was okay for our first race, I guess we'll have to accept that. We set the car a little too tight thinking it would free up at the end, but it really didn't, it stayed tight the whole race. If we could have been a little bit better we could have been in the top five. I was having a pretty good time out there trying to conserve at first because of these tires, at half way I could see some guys backing up, but I just tried to keep smooth, I did get racey with a couple of guys which hurt my right rear. We were just a little too tight, that was my biggest part."

Only three yellow flags slowed the action, the final one coming on lap 73 when the popular Norm Wrenn of Nashua, NH crashed violently against the front stretch wall ending up in the turn one grass. Norm was unhurt, but his car was destroyed.

Next on the MRS schedule is Seekonk Speedway, Seekonk, Mass., June 6th.

Summary.

Race #2

Entrance-26

Distance-80 laps.

Lead changes- 13

Cautions-three- lap 50, 51, 74.

Margin of victory -0.344.

Best lap -18.640 Rocco

Best speed- 96.567 Pitkat

Heat winners- 31 Preece- 25 Pennink-68 Rocco

Finish.

1-42- Woody Pitkat

2-68- Keith Rocco

3-85- Todd Szegedy

4-00-Ted Christopher

5-05- Todd Patnode

6-43- Kirk Alexander

7-25- Rowan Pennink

8-45- Dan Meservey Jr

9-66- Dylan Kopec

10-38- Mike Willis JR

11- 99- Richard Savary

12-19- David Schneider

13-31- Ryan Preece

14-17- Donnie Lashua

15-7-Bobby Drown

16-77- Matthew Mead

17-96 -Dennis Perry

18-36 -Chris Bolton

19-93 -George Sherman

20-53 -Norm Wrenn

21-22- Roy Seidell Jr

22-15- Charlie Pasteryak

23-13- Steve Masse

24-5ct-Chris Pasteryak

25-56- Michael Keeler

Source Jim & Crystal Snape and all photos by simply the Best, Crystal Snape