Ryan Preece celebrating victory in the NAPA SK 5K Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway (Photo: Stafford Speedway/Driscol MotorSports Photography)
It’s a common cliché in in racing that everybody hates a winner.
Friday night at Stafford Motor Speedway Ryan Preece was a winner.
A very very big winner at that.
Preece, of Berlin, collected more than $12,500 for his victory in the second NAPA SK5K Friday.
And it seems with that huge win came a lot of huge hate.
The problem being, in today’s world of internet vitriol, fact and fiction often get very blurred.
If it’s on Facebook it must be true, right? Well, not always. Actually usually not, but that’s a story for another day. Back to Friday, it seems a lot of fiction has grown and spread like wildfire concerning some race procedures during the event at Stafford.
The rumor that the track went 28 laps under caution after a bad crash early in the event has taken on a life of its own through comments on Facebook and RaceDayCT.
During Friday’s event Preece had major issues involving a radiator hose during the event. Though, never at an point did the track do anything to help Preece get that work done, as is the rumor being spread by many.
Those saying that the track went 28 laps consecutive under caution so Preece’s team had time to get work done are 100 percent wrong.
Here’s the facts. At no point was there ever a stretch where 28 laps of caution were run consecutively. An official review of the event proves that point.
After a hard wreck involving Dan Avery the track was faced with much cleanup work. That cleanup work was completed and the race went back to green after 12 laps were run around the track, not 28. And three of those laps were because officials were waiting for competitors to agree that the track was safe enough to race on.
so according to Race moniter, the race took 1 hour 32 min. If the sk’s Ran 21 second laps, 100 laps would take 35 Min. That leaves 1hour of caution flag laps. I dont know about there just being 12 caution laps in that period. That leaves a whole lot of time for the rest of the cautions. Can you Break it down for us Shawn?
Show The Facts,
No, I don’t have the breakdown of the laps/minutes for every caution period during the event. But I do know that the most often referred to period that has been most referred to as being 28 laps was in reality 12 laps.
How many caution laps were there for the caution off turn 2 where a good chunk of the field hit the wall coming off two?
Yes Dan Avery was crashed but what about mike Christopher jr who hit the wall head on and destroyed his car in the same incident because of this situation?
so how did you get to the number 12 with no break down of laps?
you people are crazy, you think the red flag should come out for every caution? Ryan won, you all hate him, get over it! It’s absolutely insane to think a) it’s possible to fix a race and b) that a race track would…Can someone explain how Stafford Speedway benefits at all from Preece winning? Someone please explain that….
1 hour 21 minutes My Laps your count of caution flags.Is off
Well he is the face of modifieds LMAO
Why was this article even written?
Because you guys like to make a soap opera out of everything.
Anybody that was there knows the cars went about 40 total laps under caution! Is SMS trying to “clarify” that they were not trying to help Preece? Well how about this one, Preece craps out in heat race, he goes to pits, gets car fixed and is allowed to go out with the SK Lites to test his car! I have never seen that happen at Stafford and I have been attending races at SMS since the 80’s, over the years some have tried to do that but it was frowned upon and usually resulted in a trip to the tower! I must say reading the list of problems Preece had on Friday one has to wonder, who is in charge of weekly maintenance for that team?? Just my thoughts…
Hoping for a speedy recovery to art , great people .
Carl D, the red flag shouldn’t come out every time. Were you at the 5k to win race? With Preece dropping the fluid in the track, water I believe, Avery slamming the wall and leaking, and Christopher Jr slamming the wall and leaking, turn 1 was completely covered in speedy dry, from the beginning of the corner to the middle. Do you honestly think that the red flag should not have waved? I believe Preece made it back out with a few laps of yellow anyways. My argument has less to do with Preece winning, but with a car being under weight by a few pounds, about a gallon of gas. Didn’t a car run out of gas with a few laps to go too?
Just my thoughts.
Teddy was allowed to run his car in an sk light heat race less than two weeks ago after a weight fell off another car an punctured the radiator.
To Anyone else with a keyboard and a cowboy hat on.
Ryan is good, so is Rocco, bonsignore, pennik and just about any of the other 15+ drivers that could win at any point in time in that division. Its an awesome division to watch every week. Is it jealousy or just simply that you need a reason to hate someone for using the talent they have and taking full advantage of it?
Please everyone why is this so important to you all that you must find a reason a race track helped someone win?
Did stafford tell everyone from last place to the top three, three times!!, to let Ryan pass them all?
Did stafford tell ruocco to punt williams so Ryan could benefit from it? Full well knowing that williams would win if he didnt??
Is it possible that you all missed stafford waving off restarts for other racers being on pit road?
It was a long caution but so what. Yhe intro to the race was ridiculous by comparison. I’d be willing to bet some of those laps were checking on Avery to make sure he wasn’t dead or hurt. Maybe they didn’t realize how bad the clean up was going to be til it was pointless to red flag it. There is favouritism at every track, with good reason people want to see the best cars on the track every week. Preece has missed or started and broken early in races at stafford. I think he broke a distributor last year and missed a feature, I don’t remember them throwing a caution and allowing him to fix it. If this had been a single car spin with no need for the clean-up he would have been laps down, or needed to break a record for the repair to stay on the lead lap. It wasn’t and they took advantage. Again so what, he still had to charge through the field three times to win. This week will be an off week with tires and he’ll struggle to run up front, but if he does run good and wins it’s not because stafford “fixed” the racing. If you want to watch scripted racing it’s on most Sundays on nbc. They throw caution flags for a hot dog wrapper so the racing is bearable to watch for 10 laps. Enjoy what you have because these sks are awesome. As for me preece is not my favorite driver but he has my respect as an extremely talent racer. So sit down enjoy the racing and cheer for your favorite but leave your negativity to your drive home from the track.
I was at the race Friday and what I saw was a great race and awesome finish. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary with the way the track cleaned up the mess after Ryan blew a hose in turn 1. They used a ton of speedy-dri, and anyone who saw the wreck would understand why.
Hats off to the Preece team for putting in the effort to get the car back on the track. From the sounds of it there are a bunch on newbies on here who have never seen a race team replace a radiator under caution and not lose a lap. It doesn’t happen nearly as much as it used to, but if a team has it’s stuff together it can be done.
I have some facts for Shawn. The leaders were coming out of 2 when the caution flys. If you count that lap and the lap before green there were 13 caution laps. But 12, 13, 14, who cares. The REAL problem here is that most of those caution laps were 1 minute 10 seconds long on average when the average caution lap at caution speed is 45 seconds. 70 seconds vs. 45. Who told the pace car driver to slow it down? I don’t think he’d make that call on his own. I got this info watching an in car camera from this race. The total time was 14 minutes, 25 seconds of caution time to clean up. So simple math would mean the 12/13 caution laps would have been 19/20 caution laps which usually means a red flag situation. Thanks to Shawn to report on an issue that was getting out of hand. But these are the facts as I saw them. The race gods smiled upon the 6 car all day. This was one of the moments they did.
Unlike some of you I attended the SK 5k or should we say 30k. I did not see one person say anything about how Stafford posted over $30k in purse for one race, I guess we can just all forget that happened.
Get over the fact that your favorite driver didn’t win, maybe attend the race before you bash it.
Btw CVS has a sale going on for Kleenex buy 1 get 1 FREE because you will sure need it next week when your driver looses again.
Fred, I can only assume the incident you are referring to with TC having lead go through his radiator was on May 15th when Ron Silk was driving the 15 car, yes lead fell off the 15 car and damaged TC’s radiator and I believe Rocco also had damage from that lead. I do know Silk got a $500.00 fine for that incident. I did not personally see TC go out with the SK Lites on that night but I will take your word for it. That being said, TC had lead that was suppose to be secured cause his damage, no fault of his or his crew, they should let him go out if he wanted to, no other car caused the problem Preece had in his heat race on Friday night, so why let him go out with the SK Lites? Is this something new we are going to see every week, if someone has a problem in the heat race, they can fix the car and go out with another class to test it? I doubt it, the point is I never said Preece lacked talent, what I am saying is bad luck can strike even the best, when it does , most have to try to salvage what they can for the night and move on to the next week. On this past Friday night I feel Stafford went above and beyond what was appropriate, to ensure that the Preece Team was able to repair the car several times. The question is, would they have done the same for Tommy Membrino, Todd Owen or Matt Galko? I don’t think so and again, just my thoughts…
Just my thoughts,
I don’t comment much on here, but I do read this website quite often. You seem to have quite the opinion on mr. Preece, as you comment on every article that has something to do with him.
You seem to have quite some knowledge about racing, how tracks choose to operate there races. Maybe your on a race team?
Point of my comment: why is this such a big deal? Kid won the race. Came from the back. Passed a lot of cars, had some luck with the 9 and 59 incident and looked like he held on from there. Why does everyone have such an issue with it?
I go to the races to see side by side racing. EXCITEMENT! That’s what stafford has produced this season. What you, and others write on here make it look like everyone pulls over and lets Preece just drive by. Seems like judging from the MRS DQ article, maybe you have some sort of affiliation with the 50 Sk, or with Pitcat in the past of some sort since you seem like you had so much knowledge of what happend?
Its pretty sad how bitter people can be, but hey, that’s just my 2 cents
2cents, I was at the SK 5K, I agree the SK racing has been great this year, it is not the racing that is the problem, it is the FACT that all drivers and teams are not treated the same. I myself have been on my feet several times this season, yes there has been some exciting races. I feel Pitkat is a talented driver, but I was not at MRS race, I was at Stafford and no affiliation with the 50 sk either, just a retired race fan, stating ” my thoughts”. I suppose you think I am a Reen fan, as I commented on that story also, I can assure you I am not. TC is one of the best drivers in the Northeast, but I don’t think he should get any sort of special treatment. As far as the MRS article, were you at Waterford last year when Stuart, owner of the 85 made a big scene? If you were you would have thought the same thing I did when I read that article, here we go again, this idiot is shooting his mouth off. It was Stuart himself that brought up the 42 team, it appears you think it is okay for Stuart to bring up “favortism” in the MRS, which appears to have no merit, but I cannot comment on favortism that does exist at Stafford? Go behind the scenes, take a walk around the pit area at Stafford, talk to some of the teams and you will hear the same thing I am saying. By the way, I do enjoy reading the articles on racedayct, however I do visit other sites to get information not found here. I am heading out to Loudon, NH tonight, and I will not be at Stafford this week , so no just my thoughts for a few days. Enjoy the races !
Im amazed that people think Ryan Preece is the only person to ever go out and make sure his car is fine. It has happened a 100 times over the years for many different drivers. Maybe you went to get a hot dog or a beer and just never realized it. This was the biggest SK race of all time and people paid to see the race. Why wouldnt you want all your best cars in this race to please the fans? This one one of the best races in years and everyone is complaining. With all the negativity the surrounds Northeast racing no wonder there is no one in the stands. Maybe their sick of everyone whining at every event. If I wanted to check out Stafford and I went on facebook why would I ever go? Its not the tracks or the drivers destroying racing, its the sorry whining fans that are destroying it.
When Shawn put this site online I was under the impression it was a site that posted articles and gives fans, drivers, crew members, car owners, ect. a place to voice their opinions. Lets face it everyone has an opinion and often times it may differ from others, it seems that some people posting on this site feel the need to censor other peoples opinions. For example: the incident on Friday night between Frank Ruocco and Ronnie Williams, in my opinion Ruocco dumped Williams, Ruocco says it was just a racing incident, Williams I believe has the same opinion as I do. I personally do not feel judging by the crowd Friday night, that everyone is complaining, but remember it is a site for anyone to express their opinions. And NO I am not associated with the Williams team, just calling it as I saw it. I personally, find Shawn’s site very entertaining, and enjoy reading all the comments, if you do not respect that all who comment have a right to their opinions, you could always ignore what you do not agree with. JMO
Just my thoughts,
No, I was not at Waterford for that race last year. I heard about it, but was not there. I guess I just wonder why you choose to comment on these articles screaming favoritism?
I want to know which race teams you ask about favoritism? Is it Keith Rocco’s team? Teddy Christopher’s team? Or perhaps a team that doesn’t win and just seems like they can’t break into the circle.
is this a never ending story? Because some teams got beat, they scream favoritism?
I think Facebook / racedayct would be a better place to read if people who left comments would have logic behind there thoughts. Not just ” he got this, why didn’t I” answers.
I’m sure there is a past article where Keith, teddy, and woody were all being called the “golden boy” within the past 6 years. I recall a time woody won the , what used to be the stafford 150, where he changed a tire from a wreck and came back to win, and I remember certain teams would rather complain to officials and plead there case so they win the race, rather than congratulate the person who won. Do we have a lot of sore losers in our sport? Or is it just the fans/team members that come on here that are sore sports?
As for me, I’m a underdog fan, I love seeing guys like Joey c, Ronnie Williams, even Shawn T. Have great runs because I am a racing fan. I don’t have blinders on when I watch races like some people apparently do.
Again, just my 2 cents.
Well… _I_ liked it! Driver intro was a tad long, but otherwise a very enjoyable evening. Along with the SK 5k, this week, I also enjoyed watching the Saunders twins chasing Arute in the LLM feature.
I’ve been watching local racing since I was a single digit aged kid at the Danbury Racearena. One thing that never changes is that every time someone gets on a hot streak, there’s always someone to loudly tell everyone in earshot how the streaker is getting “the wink” from the track. Social media and web comments sections just provide a bigger megaphone…
See everyone on at the track!
“Just my thoughts” is a Preece HATER, simple as that. Besides Stafford he also thinks Preece has the Tour and its officials in his pocket too. If you remember he is one of the three dopes that couldn’t figure out how the 6 got a lap back at the 125 at Thompson and claimed favoritism then as well. Just another huge bore that says ridiculous stuff like he has never seen anyone allowed to shake out a repaired car. This lasted 2 laps by the way if that before the Lite race went yellow and he pulled off. Guys like this are an embarrassment and I’m sick and tired of hearing this constant crying out of these individuals who are supposedly in the pits and infield weekly but don’t know a damn thing. Try the stands out for a goof and you may learn something and get up to speed. A few on here are so lost the rest of the country that reads these posts must think there is a half price Lobotomy stand in the pit area of each Connecticut track. Please stop embarrassing us all with this little girl whining BS.
2cents, I do not comment on things I have not seen with my own eyes or heard with my own ears. You could buy a pit pass and wander around the pits on a Friday night to see and hear for yourself, it can be very interesting at times. Rocco will admit, he has not had the best of luck at Stafford thus far, but he is leading the National Points, so looks like he is holding his own. TC and Pitkat will tell you some nights are better than others, but both are working towards getting the cars to perform better. Preece has not had the success he has had in the past few seasons until the SK 5K, could be the turning point for his season, it is a new team this year. Todd Owen has had a fast car many weeks this season, just no luck. What about Mike Christopher Jr always starts at the back, just trying to get a feel for it, yet always is in a wreck, even when it looks like he is going to miss it, someone hits him into it, no luck at all. I have not run across too may sore losers in the pits and I do not have blinders on when I watch the races, I do know those that do. By the way, most people like to see and underdog do well, including me. Again, just my thoughts…
Sect D. Row25, Do you have a NASCAR Modified Tour rule book? If you do not, I suggest you get yourself a copy and read the section about pitting. The rule is different for cars that have received the “Free Pass”, versus cars on the lead lap who did not get the free pass. Preece was a free pass car before the pit stop in question. And if you got out of Sect.D Row 25 and took a trip to the pit area at Thompson, you would have found several teams that had a problem with NASCAR waving off the green! If my posts bother you so much, I have a simple solution for you, DO NOT READ THEM!
Just my thoughts,
For someone who was at the race did you not watch? The 6 was the free pass on the caution before that. Then the caution came out. That’s when the 6 pitted. He did not put at the same caution as when he got the lucky dog. I suggest you buy yourself a copy of the video tape.
You must have a NASCAR license if you have a wmt rule book, because what fan would just want one to have one? I certainly don’t. I do in fact know the 6 didn’t pit the same caution as when he got the free pass.
“J,M,T’s , This whole thing was explained to you already. I did it myself. On the Thompson article I said what this guy 2cents just said. Go back and take a look. This is the fact. You missed a caution, had it explained to you, and still go and post the same thing again. How many people have to tell you that you are wrong before you accept it?
I also noticed the caution was not thrown when the 87 LLM was on the infield of turn 4. I’ve never watched a race where the caution wasn’t shown before the cars at race speed came upon a stationary car. Especially at the less experienced levels. But an Arute was in the lead. Hmmmm
And a red flag was warranted for the prolonged caution in the SK race.
I’m pretty sure they didn’t throw the caution with 87, 1 because it wasn’t he first spinning out on his own and they were about to or already had crossed for the white flag. And personally while it may not be the safest thing to do. I’m fine with it, too many times these drivers spin out on there own and sit there and wait for the yellow. Frankly I’m sick of it. I think it was the 51 in the sks who spun out just before bonsignore went passed preece. He spun out and get it refired within seconds but sat there with it running til the yellow came out. I know this because I was sitting right there and heard it running. So if you all want to hate on preece that’s fine but had that driver done like he should have done, ya know running near last place, and moved on bosignore would have won. Well sort of until he went through tech. I think it’s time for these tracks to start imposing lap penalties for bringing out a yellow. Cause you all know full well if someone had taken these drivers out and they were pissed they seemingly have no problem restarting there car and chasing someone down.
Just My Thoughts, I know you weren’t there tonight at Stafford so I’ll fill you in. Hang on to your hat. The 4 LM had engine problems in his heat and then later when the Limited’s came out for the feature there was the 4 LM at the tail end to get a few laps to shake it out. The entire situation was near as you can get to identical to last weeks scenario. Two laps in this one went to caution also and the 4 rolled back in to the pits leak free and proven ready for its feature. Oh and I almost forgot to tell you, PREECE won.
Now that this race has come and gone I suggest some of you take the ride to Oxford Plains in Aug for the 250, probably the best racing event in New England, entries to date are 51. SNE entries include Derek Ramstrom and Dillon Moltz and Thompson regular Larry Gelinas is a regular in the race.