Todd Szegedy’s mangled ride after rallying to a third place finish in his first appearance with Kevin Stuart’s Valenti Modified Racing Series team in April at the Waterford Speedbowl
Despite having a suspension against his entire team lifted by Valenti Modified Racing Series president Jack Bateman, team owner Kevin Stuart told RaceDayCT Friday morning that he has decided his team will not return to competition with the series this season.
Stuart was fielding a team full-time on the series for driver Todd Szegedy of Ridgefield. Szegedy, a former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, was in his first year competing full-time with the Valenti Modified Racing Series.
Bateman had originally suspended Stuart’s entire team for three events, but on Thursday Bateman said he was modifying the suspension and that only Stuart himself would be suspended for three events. He said the team was welcome to return to competition in the next series event, Saturday at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway.
During last weekend’s event at the Waterford Speedbowl, Stuart grabbed a radio from a series official and directed a tirade over the series radio frequency directed at Bateman. Stuart said he lost his cool because teams were being allowed to work on their cars in the pits under a red flag while Szegedy was sitting on the track.
When the red flag was lifted Szegedy was ordered off the track by series officials and disqualified from the event. On Tuesday Bateman announced the original three-race suspension for the team.
“After talking with all my guys about the situation, we’ve decided not to go back with the [Valenti Modified Racing Series],” Stuart said. “I tried to negotiate a different situation with him. They don’t want to admit any guilt to things, they don’t want to admit that they anything wrong. They want to put everything on me.”
Stuart said Bateman refused any explanation on why certain teams were allowed to work on cars under the red flag. The Valenti Modified Racing Series allows work on cars under a red flag that were already in the pits before the red flag came out, though multiple witnesses have confirmed that cars were being worked on in the pits under red that had come in off the track from incident that brought the red flag out late in the event.
Stuart said he’s unsure at this time where the decision leaves him as a car owner.
Stuart said Friday that he hopes to speak with a current Whelen Modified Tour team owner concerning forming some type of partnership that would keep Szegedy racing for him in 2015.
I’m sure a class like Stuart would be welcomed with open arms on the Whelen Tour.
I will never go to a mrs series race again. Nor work on a mrs car again. The stunt they pulled at waterford was not acceptable. Rules are rules . No wonder the series is dying and car counts are down. No one wants to see crap. It’s a shame that people spend so much money and effort just to get screwed. Bateman failed.
Mr Stuart said: “I tried to negotiate a different situation with him. They don’t want to admit any guilt to things, they don’t want to admit that they anything wrong. They want to put everything on me.”
What might have Mr Stuart tried, or better yet, needed to negotiate? It seems as if Mr Bateman ‘evolved’ and was going to let the team race sans the primary assailant. What further capitulation could one really expect from Mr Bateman considering he had one of his officials assaulted?