Clean Sweep: Doug Coby Scores $10K Mod Win And NEMA Boston Louie Title At Seekonk

Doug Coby (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

Doug Coby (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

The reigning NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion had a night of moonlighting action Wednesday that couldn’t have been much better.

Coby, of Milford, began his night at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway by scoring victory in the prestigious Boston Louie Memorial Northeastern Midget Association event.

Coby was making a start in the event for the Bertrand Motorsports.

Then he closed out his evening at Seekonk scoring the big money payday in rolling to victory in the $10,000 to win Northeast Race Cars & Parts Tri-Track Open Modified Series Open Wheel Wednesday event.

Coby, driving for the Mike Smeriglio Racing team he competes with on the Whelen Modified Tour, captured victory in the event for the third time. He also took home wins in the event in 2011 and 2013.

Ron Silk of Norwalk was second in the open Modified event and Rowan Pennink of Huntingdon Valley, Pa. was third.

Comments

  1. That was easily the most talented field anyone will see all year. You could have made a case for every driver having a chance to win. No lapped car traffic. Just good hard racing all night. The Seekonk Open remains the best gig going in my mind.

    All that said, after 10pm I don’t need a 30 minute driver introduction and redraw. That should have been a rolling start. A 11:30pm finish is way too late for a weekday. Seekonk could shave a few more minutes off by starting the night at 6:30 or 6:45 instead of 7pm.

  2. Brian Danko says

    He won more money in a non-NASCAR tour than running a running a NASCAR tour race, How sad.

  3. Brian Danko says

    Before my computer kept repeating itself, Doug wins more in a non NASCAR tour race than winning a tour race. That is sad. Wonder how many other tour drivers showed up?

  4. Way too long on cautions. I know off track pitting is a PIA but it dragged especially late. But was quality racing. Competive through out the talented field. Pitkat Pennick Colby Szegedy Bonsignore Seasely Suess McKennedy TC (wrecked in heat race) Talman ,Barrett. Hirshman Hinkley jeff and Keith Rocco and I am sure I’m forgetting some too.

  5. Shawn,this major race needs much better reporting.It is one of the biggest modified races of the year.

  6. Very true, what’s the purse money for a tour race …

  7. Bob Npt. says

    Way too late a finishing time for a week night. Seekonk needs to figure out a way to move the show along next year. Hope the Tri-Track race at Waterford has a better plan. Another week night show.

  8. knuckles mahoney says

    Decent race. Came away with the same conclusions. Hinckley is the most under rated driver out there. Started 22nd, and finished 4th, put on a clinic on how to drive a modified. Rocco is way over rated, started in the top 6 I believe, and went backwards. Seuss is also way over rated. They keep touting how he’s a 2 time southern WMT champion, who cares, its easy to the best of the worst. He comes up here and in every race is really not a factor. And if Coby is in the field, hes likely the guy to beat. Agree with the starting late stuff.

  9. Great job doug
    Sorry about our disagreement ways back
    Madison respect for you and your crew

  10. I completely forgot about the ROC race tonight. Seekonk could have had even more cars if not for that. That’s a crazy sick thought given the talent that was already on hand last night. Now the modified world heads to NH for July. Two WMT races, two VMRS races and the Star 125. Who said CT is home to the modifieds??

  11. open wheel fan says

    Excellent Show but I agree with Bob Npt on way too late for a week night event. Seekonk needs to fine tune the starting time as I live 90 minutes away from track and getting home at 130am is too late. As much as it is a great night of modified racing and the great modified talent I will have to rethink going next year only because of the time of race and the very long night. It is probably the best modified show in New England. Very competitive show to say the least. Nice tune up for Coby for the September tour race. You can probably put his name on the trophy now and make out the check to him.

  12. Here we go lets bash the WMT.
    The Seekonk purse was great.
    WMT drivers dominated the race.
    Coby, Bonsignore, Silk, Pennink. Also on hand Pitkat, and Dowling.

    Race Winners WMT 2016
    Race #1 Timmy Solomito $8,650
    Race #2 Coby $10,650
    Race #3 Silk $7.500
    Race#4 Coby $8,900
    Race #5 Santos $6,700
    Race #6 Timmy Solomito $5,000

    2015 September race at Loudon Coby won $15,950.
    That’s a lot better than anything else out there. not even close.

  13. The only thing besides the race being finished so late is the race director.
    Tom Fox is a joke the calls he made in this race really screwed the fans out of a great finish between Coby and Bonsignore.
    This isn’t the first time he screwed up a race.
    Maybe he had a plane to catch. LOL

  14. wish I had the time to go last night. how was the crowd?

  15. Great racing and a star filled field but what was the deal with the 27,13 and 21 cars being sent to the back for stopping on the track while under caution. Was this discussed at the drivers meeting. I would think there may be 3 less cars at star.

  16. knuckles mahoney says

    Craig: Hate to tell ya, but WMT guys did not dominate the show. Yeah top 3, but Woody, and Dowling were never even a factor, not even close. Hinckley and Hirschman passed woody like he wasnt even there, as usual. Dowling, sorry but he wasn’t even close to a factor. Jaded much? And the cars had to go to the rear because they required assistance to get moving again. Sorry man, but thats been in the rule book forever, don’t blame the official.

  17. O-M-G!!!! Matt Hirschman didn’t win???

  18. Warren27sk says

    What rule book says after a lengthy caution cars cant be pushed? In a race that doesn’t count cautions I do not see the problem with cars needing a push and getting their spots back.

    Is it also a rule that cars that are sent to the rear start 2nd and 7th then get black flagged once they go green with under 10 to go?

    If you want to send them to the rear, OK. That’s really screwed up but don’t screw the race up even more by allowing them to keep their spots on the last restart in the race. At one point they ran 5 extra caution laps trying to get cars deep in the field lined up correctly. Then you decide it wasn’t worth the time to line up cars in the top 10 correctly later? What a mess.

  19. knuckles mahoney says

    Dareal: Hirschman was really never in a good position all night, started the race in the 21 spot. Neither was Hinckley, but they both made thier way through the pack, and salvaged some good finishes.
    Warren: I agree with you. They should never have started the race until those 2 cars went to the rear, not black flag them after the race started. But, I do agree with the ruling, not the execution.

  20. My question is how do you put a car that did not cause the caution or was involved in the accident to the rear especially when cautions do not count? Who’s rules were they running under? VMRS, WMT, Seekonk? Seems to me it was Foxes rules and we all know how that has worked in the past!

  21. Muddbus461 says

    That was a great show,it could have started earlier.The modified talent was second to none.This is one of the best if not the best shows of the year.It was pretty good that after 75 laps all 27 cars were still on track and on the same lap.I will also say that it was good that there was not a rolling chicane called Melissa Fifield in the race.Great job TTOMS and Seekonk

  22. TC and Andy J left Seekonk and made the Lancaster show on Thursday. Emerling won it after Hossfeld had a mechanical failure late. No Hirshmann though.

  23. Juan Lesstime says

    There were no rolling chicanes at Seekonk because there were enough entries such that heat and consolation races weeded out the slower cars. If the NASCAR WMT could ever draw enough cars to the point that a few fast cars had to take a provisional then the chicanes fall out of the field.

    The race was a good one but the race should have never restarted with the penalized cars in the field. If Silk could have actually restarted next to Coby the result might have been very different.

    They should have thrown the red flag and either settled it or towed them off the track. I don’t care what the NASCAR rules or the MRS rules are, I would love to see the actual rule in print somewhere as it applied to this race. Specifically what rule was Fox applying. There is no argument that the cars stalled and required push truck assistance to start.

    The race doesn’t need a 6pm start time, stay with the worker and family friendly 7pm start. The program just needs to be more time efficient. With only three divisions there is no reason the 100-lap main event cannot start by 9:30 pm. Start by eliminating some heat races by putting more cars in each heat. I’d rather watch 3 15-lap heats than 5 12-lap heats with only 8 cars each. With a consi and a B-main one gets plenty of chances to make the show if they pull a poor starting position in their heat race.

  24. what is the OFFICIAL finishing order. I would also like to know were in the rules it says that a car can NOT be pushed on a yellow flag to start the car is sent to the back of the field. or is this just a tom fox rule. i hope is is not at star for the next race….

  25. old observer says

    Just a couple of comments, Great!!! show.
    On the scanner they tried for several laps to get the penalized cars to the rear & told them they would stop scoring them but they kept their positions and raced to the end so they could discuss it then. Not sure of the results. The late hour & long race probably influenced the officials to proceed & work it out later.
    Good crowd & good racing throughout the pack.

  26. getserious says

    Usually, Shawn has the best coverage of NewEngland mod shows. I always check here for a full recap. This week I waited to see if Sid’s would have a video so I could watch first, but when he didn’t I came here. But, what the heck happened?!?!? These couple of paragraphs are it ?!?! Only from the comments do I get any sense of what the race was like. Shawn, I’m severely disappointed if this is all you have this time.

  27. getserious,
    The only advice I can give you is to call the management of Seekonk Speedway and tell them you’d like to see special events there covered by this site. Other than that, nothing else I can do. There’s an official at the track who is also a “reporter” for a website that covers short track racing and also happens to be an official with the series that was running concerning your comment. This “reporter” also has a history of getting caught plagiarizing short track racing news websites, including this one. So you might understand from that why getting in there to cover anything is tough. Not worth the drama and headaches it creates unfortunately.

  28. getserious says

    Shawn, I’ll be calling them.

  29. Seekonk fan says

    Getserious, Get serious.
    Tracks make money by people buying tickets, if you could watch or read a full report the next day , you might not go. Simple.
    You should have went.

  30. Racepig46 says

    Seekonk fan- People want reports and coverage when it comes to sports. As for the tracks lacking income; There is an abundance of reasons why speedways are short on population, but to claim people won’t go because they can read a full report the next day is unreasonable. Reporters are resources. And if a track doesn’t use these resources then they are denying their followers with updates and are missing out on publicity opportunities.

  31. Fast Eddie says

    Race reports can be a source of indirect advertising. If someone reads about some really good racing and/or a great finish at a track they didn’t go to, maybe they will be more enticed to go to the next one. Shawn, your reports are great, and I remember last year when you also had issues with Tri-Track access. I appreciate whatever reporting you can do! I love the Tri-Track series, but I think they are missing out on an opportunity to build their fan base by not giving you proper access to cover the race.

  32. Fast Eddie,
    Thank you, though I will say in this instance those in charge with the Tri-Track Series had nothing to do with why I was not covering at Seekonk. Dick Williams of the Tri-Track Series was actually trying hard to fix issues

  33. Seekonk fan, without coverage, there is no exposure and nobody knows what is going on.

    For a track/sanctioning body to refuse/deny exposure in these days when racing needs any possible form of exposure to get people in the empty stands is just suicidal. It costs big bucks to promote, and outlets such as RaceDayCT are excellent promotion. The press exposure is needed to stir up excitement.

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