Donny Lia (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver Donny Lia and team owner Mark Sypher will both step away from running full-time with the series in 2017.
Sypher and Lia have partnered on their No. 8 Whelen Modified Tour team since the start of the 2015 season.
“I’m thinking about running less races, like maybe six or nine races,” Lia said recently. It’s all personal, family stuff. My kids, work, you know, it’s just, it’s just gotten to be too much to run the whole season.”
Lia is a two-time Whelen Modified Tour champion, winning titles in 2007 and 2009 with team owner Bob Garbarino. He has made 186 Whelen Modified Tour starts dating back to the 2001 season, with 17 career victories. He had 11 top-five’s and one pole the last two seasons in his partnership with Sypher.
“Pretty much right now I’m probably not going to be involved in racing,” Sypher said. “I’m backing off a little bit. It’s a good time for me to take a break. Donny is going to be doing a few races here and there. I may work with some other people, we’ll see what happens.
“I’ve been doing this quite a long time and it might be a good time to maybe break away a little bit and regroup. … Somehow I’ll still be involved. … The [No. 8 team] will not be Donny Lia and myself.”
“The #8 team will not be Donny Lia and myself”.I wonder what that means?Sounds unhappy to me.
I think it means one less car in 2017 on a series that already is too low on cars.
It also means one step up the grid for Melissa Fifield.
The Melissa stuff gets old. Point is the tour isn’t going to be that great, the other mod series blow, so looks like SK’s at Stafford is were it’s at. To bad these mod series can’t merge and dump NASCAR !
Mod Man, Stafford SK’s are the mods to watch. Great racing.
Stafford SK’s are awesome so is the track,but I need mods or supers mixed in to make it worth the drive
Lia needs to run his own operation.
It means he may let someone use the number or sell the number for provisionals/owner points.
“The [No. 8 team] will not be Donny Lia and myself.”
That is not about a number and who uses it or doesn’t use it. It looks to be about Donny Lia and Mark Sypher not going to be on the same team, regardless of the team number. I don’t think they split up because of the car number.
What happened to all the Mark Sypher equipment? Cars? Engines? Hauler? Etc?
darealgoodfella says:
June 21, 2018 at 1:54 pm
What happened to all the Mark Sypher equipment? Cars? Engines? Hauler? Etc?
Maybe you should ask at the next Kid’s Club meeting you attend.