With rain off and on, especially in and near Bristol it was looking iffy at best for a race at Thunder Valley.
Practice was interrupted a bit on Tuesday and qualifying was canceled but other than that it was smooth sailing.
The past few days traveling 14 hours to see race that lasts less than 1 1/2 hours really confirms why I am a race fan. Good racing, a great racing facility,good company and good stories .
The #4 Mystic Missle does prove that the best man can win. Donny paced himself the 1st 75 laps of the race , made a few adjustments and had the field covered the last 75 laps of the race. Even jumping the start and giving back the lead did not slow Donny down.
Donny won the 1st ever Whelen Mod race at Bristol, hopefully the first of many races there. TC Ted Christopher looked like the car to beat but he got tight as the race went on and he could not hold back the potent#4.
Great runs by Ryan Preece, a couple more laps and he may have had 2nd. Ryan has had 2 wins and a 3rd in 3 races, not too shabby. George Brunnhoelz III a southern driver from Babylon NY was strong all day and finished 4th. Woodie Pitkat was near the top 5 all day and finished 5th.
Tod Szegedy looked real strong early, running secong most of the race, but faded to 6th. Rowan Pennink, Ed Flemke, Burt Meyers and Erik Rudolph had good days to round out the top 10.
OK the other side of the coin, James Civali, Buddy Emory and Matt Hirshman had the dubious honor of being the first mods to wreck at Bristol, they along with Ryan Newman had short days when he got bounced of the backstretch wall when the field checked up for that wreck.
Saves of the day, Erik Rudolph in his run in the canceled time trials, he was sideways and almost didn't lift and Eric Goodale who lost the handle under Ed Flemke had it turned hard right and only lost 1 spot.
Plus something you rarely see, Mike Stefanik had a good race going when he blew the engine late in the day. The other Sprint Cup driver in the race, Kasey Kane also left the race with a blown engine.
Wow is one of the words I have for not the race but the event at Bristol Motor Speedway, great is another. Bristol really knows how to stage an event and I for one hope it is a yearly event at that. Many others shared that thought. You really feel a part of "Big Time" racing when you have a race at Bristol!
Up next and closer home to the teams, Chemung NY on August 29th.
No comments:
Post a Comment