Timmy Solomito (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
In April Timmy Solomito scored his first career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory in the season opening Icebreaker 150 at Thompson Speedway.
Saturday night the Islip, N.Y. driver returned to his hometrack as a series winner for the first time and left the track with win number two in hand.
Solomito scored victory in the Whelen Modified Tour Riverhead 200 Saturday at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway.
“Since I set out on the tour, this is something I always wanted to do, win in front of my hometown crowd,” Solomito said in a release. “To finally get a win here means a lot.”
It marked the sixth career Whelen Modified Tour start for Solomito at this home track. The race was extended to 212 laps because of a late caution.
Solomito led the charge of an all Long Island podium with Justin Bonsignore of Holtsville, N.Y. finishing second and Donny Lia of Jericho, N.Y. rolling in third.
Solomito battled with reigning series champion Doug Coby for the top spot for much of the final quarter of the event. He held off a Coby charge on a late restart before Coby spun in a battle for second with Bonsignore on lap 196. The race finished with a green-white-checkered ending.
The series returns to action at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with the non-points Whelen All-Star Challenge on July 15. The New England 100 will be run July 16 at NHMS.
Awesome.
Nascar needs to ban Melissa Fifield from competing in any Mod Tour event…..I am embarrassed for her…..She is not even worthy of being called a start and park car….Shameful…Please STOP!!!!….
Why would they ban the most popular driver on the tour….it’s is a shame
Yeah its gotten insane…I mean 4 miles an hour off the next to last car in qualifying she’s going to get hurt.
Any effort to ban Melissa, who I remind you is the two-time defending winner of the WMT’s Most Popular Driver Award, would reflect poorly against NASCAR’s stated diversity initiatives.
The 01… how can a car that is consistently so slow have handling issues???? Here’s an idea… rent out a track for the day and run a few hundred laps to get it sorted out before you run another race.
Pretty good race, great battling for the couple front runners. Too bad Preece got bent up. And the 4 had to start from the rear again? They were able to recover.
Great, Great Race at Riverhead.
Liz Cherokee, there is diversity and there is embarrassing. The 01 is embarrassing in so many ways. If she thinks she is doing something positive in the girl power movement, she is only showing that girls can’t compete in what has been a male dominated sport. She is being given every opportunity and she doesn’t some close to competing.
I wondered how long she would last at Riverhead. A tight track like that with no where to hide. I’ll give her credit for getting off the track after 4 laps. Smart move.
She had a brand new SPAFCO… should have had Kenny Barry get in and shake it down. That car with Kenny would be a top 5 contender. With Ms. Fifield, that car was a back marker to the back markers. It is not the equipment that produces the poor on-track performance. And her dad is the crew chief.
Before she ever enters another event, she needs to rent a track and figure it out. I think there are plenty of drivers that would volunteer to shake her car down and hand her a car that runs. There is no way a car can be routinely blamed with “handling” and other issues for this many seasons. No car can compensate for driver deficiencies.
Do we know the actual reason she ran just four laps? Did an official “remove” he from competition?
My fear is that beside being a menace out there notwithstanding at some point she’s going to
get in the way of somebody in the points race some night and mess up their season. I wouldn’t want to be a Tour official on that night. I’m not hating on her really I’m not. Her gender has nothing to do with it.
It appears she needs a serious mentor or find another hobby.
Car #01 2016 stats
Track, Place/#Starters, laps completed/total laps, Status
1. Thompson, 27/27, 50/150, Handling
2. Stafford, 27/32, 91/200, Brakes
3. Waterford, 28/28, 0/161, Accident
4. Stafford, 22/26, 117/130, Running
5. Thompson, 19/29, 119/125, Running
6. Riverhead, 27/27, 4/212, Handling
The 01 never finished ahead of another running car.
When being ‘only’ 6 laps down is your best result… 🤔
The 01 blocks passing lanes. Picture the pack of the 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 16, etc. barreling out of T2/T4 and some want to bust a move… oops… they can’t spread out, the 01 is there. Or someone tries to do a dive bomb move and the 01 is low in T1/T3 already. She makes a narrow track even narrower. And this is short track racing, just about every track is narrow to begin with.
It was a good Riverhead event. Not too many yellows, and there were some good long runs.
As I said before,she will definately hurt someone at Oswego.She is a menace.They must have money to burn.What are they trying to prove?
Muddbus461, I doubt the 01 will go to Oswego. It doesn’t go to Bristol, and it does extremely poorly at bullrings. I doubt it will travel to Oswego to pull out in 20 laps for ‘handling’ issues.
As long as the 01 doesn’t wreck, it can’t be too expensive. They rarely have to change tires. 😉
In my day even now , I would give both my lug nuts for a shot in a car like the 01. Nice girl though but needs to find that right pedal.
There should be a minimum speed for each track; perhaps a percentage of the #1 practice or qualifying speed. She’s a real nice kid, but a “rolling chicane” is way too dangerous for everyone else.