Woody Pitkat celebrates victory in the Tri-Track Open Modified Series main event Sunday at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl’s Bemers Super Bowl of Racing
WATERFORD – Woody Pitkat hasn’t made all that many appearances in his racing career at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl, but it seems he’s building a habit of walking away with the big victories when he does.
On Sept. 3, 2011 Pitkat won the marquee SK Modified Nationals 150 at the Speedbowl in just his second career start in the division.
Sunday Pitkat added another major event victory to his short Speedbowl resume.
Pitkat scored a major payday at the Speebdowl in winning the 65-lap Tri-Track Open Modified Racing Series feature at the Bemers Super Bowl of Racing at the shoreline oval.
“This is just a place that I like to come to,” Pitkat said. “I’ve never raced here weekly. … But the place just seems to fit me well.”
Les Hinckley of Windsor Locks was second and Ron Silk of Norwalk third.
Pitkat earned a $5,000 winner’s purse for the victory. He also scored a $2,000 check for finishing second in his 35-lap semi-feature qualifier for the event. With additional bonuses Pitkat will take home more than $8,000 for the day at the Speedbowl.
“This is just awesome,” Pitkat said. “I said after we finished second in the heat race that this was like our fourth second place [in the last three events]. We wanted to win so bad. Finally we got the win.
“It’s definitely right up there with winning at Loudon and stuff. It was very big. … It’s really cool.”
Pitkat started ninth in the main event and quickly made his way toward the front of the field. He was up to second behind Steve Masse when caution flew on lap 19.
On the ensuing restart Pitkat went to the lead and never trailed again.
“I knew [Masse] likes to go hard, kind of like I do sometimes,” Pitkat said. “He wasn’t really warming up his tires. I was like, ‘Hmm, I wonder what he’s doing there?’ I just tried to keep good heat in the tires and thought maybe he’d slip. He got a good first initial start and I think I shifted before him and just tried to drive it in there. I just used the momentum. We had such a great car today. I usually stick on restarts.”
It closed out an immensely successful closing stretch of the Connecticut short track racing season. Last week at Thompson Speedway he clinched the track’s SK Modified championship and also his first Valenti Modified Racing Series championship. He also closed out the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season at Thompson in third place in the series standings, which marked a career best.
Results – Tri-Track Open Modified Series Main Event
October 25, 2015 – New London-Waterford Speedbowl
- Woody Pitkat, Stafford
- Les Hinckley, Windsor Locks
- Ron Silk, Norwalk
- Ted Christopher, Plainville
- Ryan Preece, Berlin
- Steve Masse, Bellingham, Mass.
- Jon McKennedy, Chelmsford, Mass.
- Chris Pastreyak, Lisbon
- Matt Hirschman. Northampton, Pa.
- Chase Dowling, Roxbury
- Andy Jancowiak, Tonawana, N.Y.
- Todd Annarummo, Swansea, Mass.
- Dennis Perry, Pawcatuck
- Mike Holdridge, Madison
- Kirk Alexander, West Swanzey, N.H.
- Max Zachem, Preston,
- Zane Zeiner, Bath, Pa.
- Dan Meservey Jr., West Chatham, Mass.
- Joe Doucette, Framingham, Mass.
- Brendon Bock, Franklin Square, N.Y.
- Anthony Nocella, Woburn, Mass.
- Keith Rocco, Wallingford
- Eric Berndt, Cromwell
- Norman Wrenn, Nashua, N.H.
- David Schneider, Northport, N.Y.
- Richard Savary, Canton, Mass.
congrats woody.. what a great year you have had..
The day was long due to the rain but the racing was good, food not so much… Wish I could have stayed for the sk race but had enough for two days
Woody you had a year anyone would be proud of,great job!!!!
How about a run down from the media. I am sure there was more than 3 cars there. This series needs some media attention if they plan on surviving. Was Preece there?
The Tri Track series is all done. That was announced months ago.
NH Mark,
One of their organizers did publicly announce in May that the series was folding after this year (Tri-Track Open Modified Series To Fold After 2105 Racing Season), though I’m not quite sure they’re sticking to that declaration. Organizers have talked openly recently about events for next year, so it remains to be seen what will happen.
I don’t know how you can say the series has no press NH Mark. They released a full blown write up with a detailed review of the race with a full rundown this morning. It was a long late night yesterday. It takes a little bit to write such a great report like they released this morning.
I talked to James about next year. He told me the tracks he was going to try and run the series at. Not letting any cats out of the bag, but it sounded like next year was really going to happen. No hesitation in his voice.
silk should be in a tour car hands down he can still wheel a car and brings it home in one piece
I didn’t see anything when I was there but apparently someone was handing out flyers advertising a new modified series that they want to start. Do we really need another one?