Steve Masse celebrates victory Thursday at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl
WATERFORD – Earlier this season Steve Masse put a message out through social media that had many wondering if the 26-year old was ready for retirement from the rigors of Modified racing.
Masse posted on Facebook that he didn’t feel like racing anymore.
“I just didn’t feel like going to the races,” Masse said. “I didn’t feel like competing. I just kind of took a break and did other things for a little bit. I’ve been playing a lot of golf and I suck at it, so it’s been fun trying to get better at it. … I pretty much had no drive. No reason to come [to the track.].”
The Bellingham, Mass. driver eventually made the decision to return to driving cars instead of golf balls and Thursday night at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl that decision led to the biggest payday of his racing career.
Masse won the NorthEast Race Cars & Parts Tri-Track Open Modified Series Ron Bouchard Memorial 100 Thursday at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. The event carried with it a $10,000 winner’s purse.
“This is my first open show race win ever,” Masse said. “My first big payday.”
Richard Savary of Canton, Mass. was second and Woody Pitkat of Stafford third.
Savary started on the pole and was the dominant force in the early going.
But on a lap 53 restart it was Pitkat moving to the front past Savary. The caution flew on lap 55 and on the ensuing restart it was Eric Berndt moving to second past Savary.
But two laps later Savary moved back by Berndt for second and quickly pulled back on Pitkat.
On lap 60 Savary went under Pitkat into turn one and came off turn two back at the front of the field.
Masse had pitted on lap 37 and worked his way back through the field. He moved past Pitkat for third on lap 71 and then got by Matt Hirschman for second on lap 83.
The caution flew on lap 89 and on the ensuing restart Masse was able to edge Savary at the line for the lead in a side-by-side battle and then clear Savary off of turn two on lap 90. From there he was never challenged again.
“I was giving it all I had to get to his back bumper before I got to line up on his outside,” Masse said. “His car was going pretty straight and I was getting nervous. His car was good. But after the restart it really started to give up.”
Said Savary: “We took a strategy of staying out because we started on the pole. So we didn’t pit for a tire, Steve did. That put him in a little better position. … It was good racing. We weren’t going to give up the track position. It was going to be too hard to come from the back. It just came down to too many yellows and he had a better right rear tire than I did. I’m really happy. Our car ran great. Nobody out here could have ran with us on the same tires.”
Savary took out Hinckley and you could see Les put his hands up after he got out of the car at Savary. Savary doesn’t get a penalty but Pennink get told to go to the rear after contact with Berndt?? But it was great to see guys pass on the outside lane big tip of the cap to Masse that was some great racing. Great event, one of the best races all year. I can’t wait for October.
That was a great show. Outside lane was dialed in last night. Made for some great racing. Competition level was so high. In the first 35 lap green flag run Savary was only able to lap like 3 cars because everyone was so good. Packed house. Packed pits. Show got over at 10:45. Can’t complain about that…Seekonk ended at 11:30 when the Tri-Track Series raced there and that’s a loooong night with a looong way home.
Attention big money modified car owners and sponsors, you have just been taken to the wood shed by a family owned team with an old car and no sponsor! Take notice and someone give this young man a top notch ride, he has more raw talent than most!
Savary can’t help it he’s a hack. Pennink can so they take that into account.
I couldn’t have said it better, Chuck. Now the question is, who wants to win the lottery out there?
All the pre race pub was stressing the fact that the show would start and finish at a decent hour. The chatter on here after the Waterford open wheel event helped Im sure. Power to the people!
This series is great for the owners, fans and hopefully for the track… Other promotors should take note. Always enjoyed watching Steve, uses his head not his bumper or nerf bar. I like the 3 division race program, just wished for min of 10 cars per heat, boring w 7 or 8 cars. Trophies for the heat winners is a nice touch
Savary is a hack
CONGRATS TO STEVE MASSE & CREW!!!! I once had the opportunity to talk to Steve. He is such a down to earth humble guy; a really great representative of the sport!! A well deserved win, for sure!!
Chuck, none of the big money teams showed up. Don’t know why but I think it’s because they run the NASCAR spec engine and the open shows don’t allow them. If anyone has the answer let me now.
Hey Joey, customer feedback was used to make for a better customer experience. See how that works?
Franky, the Tour has an event at Riverhead on Saturday. Might be why some of them didn’t show up.
Wasn;t able to make it, daughter started at UConn and it was nothing but packing and unpacking last 24 hours.
Anyone know what the car count was?
Anybody see the fight in the main grand stands next to turn 1? Entertaining for sure. Just wondering what that was all about.
40 cars and another excellent TTOMS race……….3 barnburners so far
Was right below…looked like people who has way too many drinks beforehand.
These open competition mod races are the best races anywhere in the country. Thank you Dick Williams and the rest of the Tri-Track crew for sticking together and keeping this series going. I feel like you guys finally have some momentum going into the future, keep up the good work. And thanks to all involved with the Ron Buchard pre-race tribute, it’s times like this that remind me that modified people, the teams, fans, track owners and promoters are all like one big family.
As long as these races stay at the shorter tracks and not go to Thompson or Stafford,this series will be just fine.Best racing anywhere.
Mudbus- I completely disagree, and if the Tri Track series people follow this forum I think this would be a perfect time/people to try and bring back the Thompson 300 as a open race under Tri Track rules.
I agree mudbus, keep these races short track. Thompson 300 would not work under these rules due to the constraints on the number of tires allowed.
FIGHT! Did DAH real loser finally get a beat down ?
Make it the Thompson 301. As everyone knows, all things with 01 are awesome!
Please let the 300 die peacefully!
250 laps of riding around , 50 laps of racing.
Lets face it all the action was in the parking lot, not on the track.
Back in the old days there were fights in the stands and pits every week. I heard the kid taken away in the ambulance was an innocent bystander.
The 01 caught fire at Riverhead… rapture?
Jim, I’m fine. No where near the incident where troglodytes ran out of intelligence and had to get physical.
Where’s Joey? He’s so concerned about image and perception, he’s got to be very concerned about the fisticuffs. Sure he doesn’t want to sully the image of race fans at New London-Waterford Speedbowl.
They said the dude was fighting like a girl so i figured it was DAH real .