Cam McDermott celebrates his first career SK Modified victory Wednesday at Thompson Speedway
THOMPSON – When Woody Pitkat runs on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour in his ear guiding him over the radio as his spotter above the track is Cam McDermott.
Wednesday at Thompson Speedway though it was Pitkat with the eyes on McDermott, expect is was from behind him on the track.
McDermott, of Scituate, R.I., held off Pitkat over the closing laps to win the 30-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature Wednesday at Thompson Speedway.
It was the first career SK Modified victory for McDermott. Getting a victory in the track’s premier division was a pretty addition to a long resume of success at Thompson Speedway for McDermott, who has previously won in the track’s former Thomson Modified and SK Light Modified divisions.
“This is awesome,” McDermott said. “I’ve got to thank all my crew.”
Pitkat, of Stafford, held on for second and Ryan Morgan of Mystic was third.
McDermott looked like he was going to have to settle in for a second place finish, but things changed dramatically on lap 25 restart when then leader Nick Ladyga was penalized for not properly restarting the event. Ladyga had been twice warned prior to the penalty, that put him to the rear of the field.
After inheriting the lead, McDermott was able to keep Pitkat at bay. Pitkat made one run under McDermott off turn two on lap 28, but couldn’t find a way to make the lane stick to get by McDermott.
“I definitely know that he’s going to race me clean,” McDermott said. “He knows what we do. I appreciated that he raced me clean. It was good.”
Ryan Preece, who won the first two events of the season, made contact with the wall early in the event and was never a factor, finishing ninth. Keith Rocco, who finished second in the first race of the season and third in the second event of the year, was involved in a lap nine crash with Kerry Malone and was scored 13th of 14 cars in the field.
So proud of cam. Great kid with a great team. Well deserved win.
Wow, those finishes by Preece and Rocco are shocking especially in a 14 car field.
Well I was thinking about going up. But when I heard there was a 5 car and 8 car heat race for the mods, plus that the mod feature went out at 6pm, that pretty much made the decision for me not to go. Congrats to the 5.
Congratulations Cam!!! You certainly deserve it!!! You work very hard at your sport.