NHMS Mod Tour Notes: Rough Finish Leaves Raw Feelings For Ted Christopher And Donny Lia

LOUDON, N.H. – Nobody will ever mistake Whelen Modified Tour drivers Ted Christopher and Donny Lia as close buddies.

Though there was nothing about what happened Saturday that will help in smoothing any lingering hard feelings between the two.

A rough final lap of the F.W. Webb 100 Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway left Christopher sore and seething and Lia insisting nothing done was malicious.

At the white flag, Lia looked to make a move under second place running Christopher on the frontstretch. But contact between the two cars sent Christopher jerking hard into the outside wall and then back across the track for an equally nasty meeting with the inside wall.

After the race Lia was profusely apologetic about the incident.

“We were going to fight for the win and we got a run on [Christopher] and I got into the back of him unintentionally and caused a big wreck I guess,” Lia said. “It’s racing. I feel really bad about it. It by no means was anywhere near intentional. It was just trying to get a run and go to the bottom and got him in the left rear corner of his bumper, the worst place you can get somebody, but you’re at risk for that when you have a run. It was racing, it happens and I feel really bad about it.”

While Lia drove to a second place finish behind race winner Doug Coby, Christopher was left struggling to climb out of his mangled No. 3 Boehler Racing Enterprises ride. Christopher said he was nursing a sore left arm after the wreck.

“That’s what happens when you get wrecked by a dumb [expletive] on the racetrack,” Christopher said of Lia. “He’s unbelievable. The [outside wall] hit wasn’t as bad as the inside one. That’s what hurt my arm. That one really hurt.

“He’s dumb. He did that to me a few years ago [at NHMS]. He [expletive] hooked me. He just doesn’t know how to do it there. He’s just so dumb. He just [expletive] hooked me. You don’t [expletive] hook people on the straightaway, he’s so [expletive] stupid.”

Christopher said the wreck leaves his BRE team in a bad position heading into next week’s CarQuest Fall Final at Stafford Motor Speedway, the penultimate event on the 2012 Whelen Modified Tour schedule. The team had planned on running the same car at Stafford.

“You know what, that [expletive] Lia gets to go back to his desk and sit and play tic-tac-toe all week and I’ve got to go to work this week and now I don’t have a [expletive] racecar to race next week,” Christopher said. “That’s what happens when you race with people that have money but don’t have brains.”

Silk Left Wondering

When the caution flew for a turn one crash on lap 93 of the F.W. Webb 100, reigning Whelen Modified Tour champion Ron Silk thought he was in the pefect position to make a run for the win.

Silk had jumped from fourth to second on a lap 92 restart and was stalking race leader Doug Coby in front when the yellow flew.

But when series officials lined up the field for the final restart of the event they moved Silk back to fourth behind Coby, Christopher and Lia.

“I think I had a car that could have won,” Silk said. “I got into second on the second to last restart but I was only behind Doug for a lap but I felt like I had something I could work with.

“I know went over the start-finish line and completed the lap, and then the yellow comes out and they put me from second to fourth.”

Silk said he didn’t even consult with series officials after the event.

“I don’t even ask anymore because it’s just pointless,” Silk said. “They make it perfectly clear that they’re the boss and if you don’t like what they say you can leave. I just don’t understand with TV cameras, transponders, everything else that they have …. Maybe they have, I don’t know, I don’t want to say something and be an idiot and they can show me that four cars didn’t make it over the start/finish line, but I don’t know, when the yellow came out we were down the backstretch.”

Lia Questions Tire Issues

Lia said a bad tire to put on his car at the halfway break made getting through the final 50 laps a struggle for him.

“One of the big issues that we’re having right now on our series with Hoosier is the inconsistency with the tires,” Lia said. “I got a right front, it was almost like they put a cue ball on the right front. We were absolutely so wicked tight in that second run, I couldn’t really get back into the gas pedal, and when I could I had to get the car loose to do it so I was sideways.

“I don’t know. We’ve got to figure it out with Hoosier and see what’s going on because it’s been getting really really bad lately with inconsistencies tire-to-tire.”

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