(Press Release from Stafford Motor Speedway)
Chris Pasteryak celebrates victory in a Valenti Modified Racing Series event at Stafford Speedway last year (Photo: Stafford Speedway/Driscoll MotorSports Photography)
For Lisbon native Chris Pasteryak, the difference between his 2015 and 2016 seasons on the Valenti Modified Racing Series has been a stark contrast. At this time last season, Pasteryak was in the midst of an 8 race stretch that saw him win 5 times which had him in contention for the championship along with Woody Pitkat.
Pasteryak is currently winless this season and he sits third in the points standings. Pasteryak is the defending champion of the VMRS 80 and he would like nothing more than another win to jump start the 2016 campaign with his #15 Ballard Mack Sales & Leasing / Dawley’s Collision & Custom team.
“A win would be big for us to get some momentum for the last couple of races in the fall,” said Pasteryak. “Seeing as we’ve been struggling a little bit, it would be nice to get back on the right path. We haven’t been having a bad year, but we haven’t had a good year either. Last year was just so good that anything by comparison would seem like we’re off a little bit. We ended up fifth last time at Stafford so we were pretty good. I think we have a pretty good notebook for Stafford this time of year and I always seem to run pretty well at Stafford in the fall. I feel good about our chances and hopefully we can have a trouble free night and not have to chase anything with the car.”
In order to drive his #15 machine to NAPA Victory Lane, Pasteryak and the rest of the VMRS field will have to devise a strategy of how to best manage their tires between the 10-lap heat races and the 80-lap feature.
“It’s a big challenge and it seems to change from race to race,” said Pasteryak. “Some races the track position is more important and then some races you can take it a little easy in the heat and play things out in the race. It all depends on where you’re starting in the heat race, how your lane goes right off the bat in the heat, and then how hard you have to run in the heat to put yourself in the best position for the feature. Some guys seem to have it figured out all the time and then some times you can go on a streak where you run hard in the heat because you think track position is going to matter and then you start second guessing yourself halfway through the feature. The best way I can put it is it’s a constant challenge.”
Another factor that Pasteryak will have on his side as he seeks his first VMRS win of the 2016 season is the time of season for the VMRS 80 at Stafford. Pasteryak has 2 career VMRS wins at Stafford and they have both come in the September race.
“We hope we can win again in September,” said Pasteryak. We normally go the same way with the car and then adjust to the track for each race and for whatever reason the car seems to go a little better in the September race at Stafford than in the other races.”
The Valenti Modified Racing Series will take to the track, this Friday, September 2nd with qualifying beginning at 6:15pm. Stafford’s five NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions will also be in action. Tickets for this event are on sale now and are priced at $27.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seat tickets are $30.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Motor Speedway offers plenty of free parking along with overnight parking available for self contained Recreational Vehicles.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Who cares (not about Pasteryak, but the MRS)?
When you have had more race directors in a season than teams chasing the series crown, you don’t have much of a tour.
Jack Bateman should go into witness protection after the embarrresment at OPS.
Management and officiating issues aside, the Valenti series usually provides some good competitive racing.
It’s “real” modified racing. That’s why I’ll be there.
MRS races are much better the the snore tour. The MRS has a big opportunity with the WMT consistently blowing it (Bristol).
The MRS is nothing more than a loosely organized open series. Only a couple cars have a chance at the “championship”, and the best way to increase the probability of winning the championship is to show up and run. There are so few cars that run every event.
Hope they put on a better show then they do at beech ridge and a Oxford because frankly they were boring the last few times. Sad when a car that has more power , lower center of gravity and 5″ more rubber on all four corners run slower times then prostocks. Bill Dixon is a 58 year old mod rookie who had a heart attack a few months back was the only mrs car putting a show on at oxford. If he had fueled his car he very well would have had a podium finish. Mods were turning 16.1 at start of race at oxford and the last few laps were 16.4. Time for that series to figure something out.
At most tracks, there are at least 6-8 cars with a good chance of winning each race. The players will usually fluctuate some depending on the track. For Beech Ridge and Oxford, they need more track time and they’ll get better. Maine is a good haul for most of these teams, hence the smaller car counts. Most of the events have had 20+ cars, and some have had 25+. Yes, many don’t run the full tour, probably due to $$. BUT… that also makes it interesting for the fan; who’s gonna be there this week? It’s still good racing!
Gummy Hoosiers and too many laps = riding. I think a series on the new American Racer Mod tire with the 1 tire to change option would fix most of that. Like what there doing at Perry this Sunday.
If they only fell off .3 seconds that’s is not bad for tires you run the heat race with (10-12 laps) and the feature (100 laps) all green flag.
I’m with Goodfella on this. I don’t pay much attention to MRS anymore. Other than top 3 or 4 teams it’s mostly a weekly division on wheels. I read the results on here but that’s about it. No star power there. For all the MRS will surpass the WMT supporters, it’s been over 10 yrs!! If it hasn’t happened yet it ain’t happening. The MRS had something 10 yrs ago. It’s in a major decline now. If Woody and McKennedy run somewhere else next year they would really be hurting.
It’s in a major decline now
Oswego has 22 entries on the list this morning (Matt Hirschman dropped out yesterday because the new car isn’t ready as planned). The MRS car count is still very consistent. Other than Tr-track what tour is doing what it did ten years ago?
The Tour snobbery continues
SK race was 10 times better than MRS. That race sucked. Strung out, single file racing. Most exciting move of the night was when Woody dumped the lap car that slid up in front of him going in to 3. He backed off about 10 feet, and then put his bumper in to the guys left rear and just plain dumped him. Should have been black flagged. Even Tim Bennett said it looked like he “got frustrated” on the PA. Woody got his karma punched when he did the same thing to another lapper going in to one with 2 to go and cut the rf.