Melissa Fifield said she has dreamed of competing on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour since she began racing at 12 years old.
(Photo Courtesy of Melissa Fifield)
In 2014 she will make that dream a reality.
Fifield said Wednesday that her family owned team will move from competition on the Valenti Modified Racing Series to the Whelen Modified Tour for next season.
“I’ve always wanted to race on the Whelen [Modified] Tour, since I was very little,” Fifield said. “That’s been my main goal ever since I got in a racecar was to do that. With the some of the opportunities that have come up, I’ve decided I’m going to give it 110 percent and go as hard as I can there.”
The 21-year old Fifield, of Wakefield, N.H., began in karting at 12 years old and spent five years running Allison Legacy cars before joining the Valenti Modified Racing Series in 2012.
She qualified for 16 Valenti Modified Racing Series events over the last two seasons.
“We have been exploring sponsorship opportunities,” Fifield said. “With the TV coverage that [the Whelen Modified Tour offers], it’s presented a little bit more opportunities with the Tour than it did with MRS. I was really planning on staying on the [Modified Racing Series] for another few years and then some opportunities came up for me to make the move now so we decided and go ahead with that. We are stepping up our equipment and we’re definitely going to be a lot more competitive than I was in MRS.”
Fifield will become the first female driver to compete regularly with the series since Renee Dupuis ran all 14 events in 2010. Dupuis, of Glastonbury, who has made one start with the Modified Tour each of the past three seasons, has 114 career starts in the division dating back to 1998. Dupuis has also made 11 Whelen Southern Modified Tour starts over the last three seasons.
Fifield’s father Ken will continue as her crew chief. She said the team likely won’t make it to the Whelen Modified Tour’s UNOH Battle at the Beach exhibition event at Daytona International Speedway in February, but she will be ready for the season opener on April 6 at Thompson Speedway.
Fifield said she isn’t worried about making the jump too fast.
“I’m pretty confident,” Fifield said. “I believe in myself as a driver. Definitely with stepping up the equipment game, that definitely plays into a lot of my confidence factor. On MRS I didn’t have the top equipment. I had a pretty old chassis and we were down on horsepower. Things have changed for us with our new equipment.”
This is interesting news. I wish her luck.
why?
Better have deep pockets.
Real deep!
Better get a spotter.
that’s the problem to many deep pockets and no drivers
The interesting part about this story is that a team is leaving the mrs for the wmt, seems backwards….
That isn’t backwards, there is far more prestige and better opportunity in the Whelen Mods.
I wish her luck, but you would think that running in the top 15 and be within a half-second of the top cars of the VMRS would be a goal to hit first.
Why not just step your equipment up and stay in MRS. It’s probably cause almost everyone qualifies everytime they bring There car to a Whelen tour race. MRS you can’t do that, you actually have to make it in the race through heats
is this the #07 car that was always a lap or so down in the Valenti Modified races this year?
mod22 is 100% right !
Very well said Fred, my thought’s exactly the whelen tour doesn’t have enough cars to send people home so she will at least get more track time than she does in the MRS
there is a minuim speed at every track tho,or you get black flaged
What a joke the “tour” will be in 2014. Pay more than $20 to watch a tour race next year and you are getting ripped off. They need to change the name. Maybe call it the lil rich kid circuit. Or maybe call it The Tour, Real racers wanted. Richie Evans and company would be ashamed to say that they were ever a part of this “tour”, Its easy to see why they have 95 caution laps every race. Got to go see how much money my mommy and daddy have. Maybe I am a “race car driver” too.
So she’s the latest believer in the alchemy that TV time equals money…
Its so funny coming across this article now in October of 2023. I didn’t realize she started in the tour in 2014. Welp next year will be her 10th season. Anyway, reading this article made me cringe. This girl somehow has gotten the most popular driver award literally since her Rookie year in 2014. Other then that she barely makes minimum speed. She rides around and especially the last couple years ( 2022 and 2023) there are just a handful of drivers that run the full tour. In 2022,only 8 drivers ran the full tour. Yes Melissa was one of the 8 drivers. She finished 15th in points only 1 point ahead of 16th Ken Heagy who ran just 12 races. Oh and 21 points ahead of 17th who was Matt Hirschman and he ran just 7 of the 16 races. As for 2023 7 drivers have run the whole tour so far which is 17 raceswith Martinsville left next weekend is the 18th and last race. And Melissa is one of them. She is 10th in points. Jake Johnson is ahead of her in 9th in points by 32 points and he has only ran 13 races compared to her 17! She could literally get her first top 10 in points this year! Lol but I think Anthony Nocella sitting in 11th in points just 10 points behind her is gonna show up to Martinsville and likely take that away from her. He has only ran 13 races compared to her 17. Anyhow. Tobread this article and see ZERO improvement since her Rookie year and she is always atleast 1 second off pace, in New Hampshire she qualified last 3 seconds slower then the pole time!! I looked at her social media. She has 2 cars and 0a big race shop full of everything the top teams have….for what? Smh