Ron Silk Wins Whelen Mod Tour Pole At Riverhead; Doug Coby Involved In Nasty Qualifying Crash

Ron Silk was fastest in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour practice Saturday afternoon at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway and then backed up that practice by winning the pole in time trial qualifying for tonight’s Hoosier 200 at Riverhead.

Doug Coby’s car is brought to the pits after a crash in Whelen Modified Tour qualifying Saturday at Riverhead Raceway (Photo: NASCAR)

It was the first pole of the season for Silk of Norwalk.

But the story of qualifying at Riverhead were the issues of reigning series champion Doug Coby of Milford.

Coby crashed hard during his qualifying effort, effectively destroying his No. 52 ride. Reports out of Riverhead were that Coby had a stuck throttle.

Without a team backup on site, it was unclear immediately what Coby’s options were for participating in the event. Coby posted on Twitter at about 7:30 p.m. that he couldn’t find a ride for the event.

Ryan Preece of Berlin was second fastest in qualifying. Preece, who is looking for his third consecutive series victory, won last year’s lone Modified Tour event at Riverhead.

Donny Lia of Jericho, N.Y. will start third.

Eric Goodale of Waterford was fourth fastest. Matt Hirschman of Northampton, Pa., who was filling in for series regular Bobby Santos III with the Tinio Motorsports team, was sixth fastest in qualifying. Coby had put up the seventh fastest time in qualifying prior to the wreck.