Woody Pitkat
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver Woody Pitkat is putting being a part-time with the series behind him.
Pitkat confirmed Thursday he will drive for Goodie Motorsports on the Whelen Modified Tour in 2017.
After contending for a championship in 2015 with Buzz Chew Motorsports, Chew shocked many when he closed the team down not long after the conclusion of the season. In 2016 Pitkat drove part-time on the Modified Tour for Lowell, Mass. based team owner Kevin Stuart.
“I’m pretty excited,” Pitkat said. “It’s an opportunity to run a full season and try to contend for a championship, which I was trying to do when I was running for Buzz. This is an opportunity to do that. I think it’s a good team. They show up to the track pretty much second to none. You can just always tell it’s well maintained and good. I’m looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be good.”
Pitkat will replace Jeff Goodale in the Goodie Motorsports ride. Goodale said in an announcement on Facebook that he is stepping away from the ride to focus on his family business.
“Woody was one of the first of the veteran drivers to come up to me during my first year on the tour,” Goodale said on Facebook. “That is something that has always stuck with me. He is a true talent and a class act and will represent Goodie Motorsports and Riverhead Building Supply very well. We have a stacked team for the 2017 season. Our team is alive and well. Make no mistake, we are coming for the title.”
Pitkat has made 119 career Whelen Modified Tour starts and three series victories dating back to 2007. He finished third in the Tour standings in 2015 and was contending for the series championship with eventually winner Doug Coby and second place finisher Ryan Preece right up the last event of that season.
When Chew announced he was closing his team down, Stuart, a longtime team owner with the Valenti Modified Racing Series, connected with Pitkat. Pitkat ran 13 of 17 Whelen Modified Tour events for Stuart in 2016. He has seven top-10 finishes for the team.
“Obviously I want to thank Kevin Stuart and Kenny Stuart for everything they’ve done. He gave me the opportunity to run a [Whelen Modified Tour car in 2016] and I probably wouldn’t have had anything this past year if it wasn’t for Kevin.
“There were some pretty bad weeks when he probably could have shut down, but he kept doing it. It wasn’t just at the races, but a lot of things he did for me behind the scene too. I appreciate everything he has done. It was a tough call to make because I haven’t have to be in the situation before. When [Buzz Chew Motorsports] was calling me I didn’t have a ride at the time.”
Jeff Goodale has run full-time the last two seasons on the Whelen Modified Tour, with 31 career series starts. He has two top-five’s and eight top-10’s. He was 13th in the series standings in 2016.
if they stay with the spafco car that will be three good teams out there with them ….the 51 …the swanson kid with kenny barry crew chief …and woody …..at the end of the year the 51 was the best car out there most of time ….had to be to beat that 2 ….so if they share a little info around woody could be very strong and even win some races if the cards fall right ….good luck to all ….modified racing needs more chassis and teams that can win races……99% troyer is not good for any series ….
Buzz Chew closed the team down? No he got tired of NASCAR’s guff and did the smart thing and switched to the dirt circuit with Mike Mahaney as his driver!
He found that dirt is far more fair!
Sorry to see Jeff Goodale get out of the seat; he looked to be making great progress! However, it’s a good opportunity for Woody to be back full time on the tour. Good luck guys!
It’ll be interesting to see if Kevin Stuart’s team runs part-time again on the tour. Maybe with Todd Szegedy? #85 is listed as one of the MTS supporters.
Jim,
Looks to be a lot of fun for Buzz Chew going from running Top 3 every week to using provisional’s just to get in the show and run 18th
I’m pretty sure Buzz Chew ran dirt years ago so it’s nothing new to them
Best of luck to Woody,this was a tough year compared to past years
You either like the racing you do or you do not…..Which is why Chew is not running an asphalt mod any longer I am guessing.
“Class Act”…. Sounds like Jeff missed the end of the MRS race at the world series, Woody showed us just how classy he is.
Congratulations and best of luck to Woody
The 88 never did anything before Woody got behind the wheel. The 46 was gaining on it all year with some top 10s to show for it. If Woody can replicate that success next year the 46 could be in the mix.
Zeke, Did you happen to see how the 51 passed the 16 in the WMT race on World Series Weekend? Get over it, it appears Masse has, it is my understanding that Masse stopped by to chat with Pitkat at Waterford and even gave Pitkat a t-shirt. By the way, are you a Hillary voter? The reason I ask is you have alot in common with them, continue to complain about the outcome even though it will not change a thing! Pitkat won the MRS race at the World Series, Trump won the Presidential Election, it is what it is! Again, Just my thoughts…
To Just my thoughts, you couldn’t have paid me to vote for Hillary, so your comment couldn’t be further from the truth. True, I didn’t like the pass on Masse or the arrogance Woody displayed to the crowd after at Thompson, but I was over it long ago.
Just My Thoughts… consider this. Things change. TC gets disqualified after “winning” races.
Back in 2012, when Obama won over Romney, and Obama won the popular vote, Trump thought Romney won the popular vote and went on a Twitter rant calling the Electoral College a threat to our Democracy, and demanded the elimination of the Electoral College. He went on a Twitter rant. You do recall that he considers everything rigged and corrupt. Hillary Clinton presently leads the popular vote by 395,051 votes over Donald Trump, as of this writing. And I am sure you have absolutely no clue of the history and original purpose of the Electoral College. The Electoral College was put in place to prevent Congress from electing the President, and because the Congress thought that the public was too stupid to elect a President, the Electoral College was a compromise. The EC is to vote to compensate the popular vote in the event that undue influences were applied to the popular vote. Go read up on this. I warn you, it is far more than 140 characters. With Presidential elections controlled by the Electoral College vote, the democratic principle of “one vote, one person” does not exist. The popular vote is quantized, and democracy is suppressed. Today, all the Electoral College does is give the Presidency to the loser in a close race. Hillary Clinton LEADS THE POPULAR VOTE BY 395,051 as of this writing.
I do not apologize for informing you. Go read the Federalist Papers, the section on electing a President, and the section in the Constitution. It’s all in there. Perhaps 200 years ago, the EC had some benefit, but today, there have been many other changes that makes the EC archaic, unnecessary, and it clearly infringes on the basic principle of a Democracy, one person, one vote.
I am amazed that people are completely clueless about the Electoral College.
Lets leave politics out of this, PLEASE!!!. You guys want to argue politics, meet in a bar somewhere.
darealgoodfella, I have no clue why you feel the need to give me a a lesson on the Electoral College, my point was “It is what it is”, Pitkat won the MRS race, Trump was elected President! There is nothing anyone can do about it, perhaps you are one of those bitter Clinton voters, are you aware that there are millions of absentee ballots out there that were not even counted? They are only counted in a close election, if you don’t like the Electoral College, write your Senator, don’t really think anyone on a racing site is interested in your history lesson. Last but not least, usually when TC gets disqualified after a race is over it is because his car failed post race inspection! Again, Just my thoughts…
Dareal I’ve been busting your stones about thinking you know everything about everything but I gotta give you a thumbs up on your last post. And Zeke maybe that’s why they chose Woody they saw he’s not going to settle for 2nd or first loser. And todays Headlines Trump thinks they might only have to make some adjustments to Obama care. DAY ONE IT WILL BE GONE,it’s 3days after he was elected SUCKERS
Just my thoughts,
YOU are the one that posted this first : “By the way, are you a Hillary voter? The reason I ask is you have alot in common with them, continue to complain about the outcome even though it will not change a thing! Pitkat won the MRS race at the World Series, Trump won the Presidential Election, it is what it is! Again, Just my thoughts…”
You brought it up, I responded. Do understand that concept? How could you post something like that and then ask why I responded to it?
That is why I schooled you on the Electoral College. My daughter is a lawyer. Yeah, it is what it is. It’s totally f’ed up. Just like all the other discriminatory and racist content that WAS part of the Constitution and in force. Things like black people are only worth ⅗ of a white person, women were not allowed to vote, people were too stupid to elect a president, people had to be qualified to vote, and other things that you have no idea existed but were changed. Many of the freedoms, liberties and norms you enjoy today were illegal and unConstitutional. There was a woman interviewed about the current election cycle and she said she values voting because when she was younger, she was tested to be qualified to vote. She is a natural born American.
As of this writing, Clinton leads Trump by 574,064 votes. Just My Thoughts, go ahead an explain that. If Trump won the popular vote and Clinton won the Electoral College, you’d being going berserk, and the rest of the Deplorables. And Trump would have filed 8,000 lawsuits by now. Instead, we have Trump as President Elect and the Deplorables are exercising their new found white superiority and going around beating up people of color.
Elect, Trump has held every position possible on every issue. He’s a pathological liar, and people trusted him. Voter’s remorse will set in very soon, he’s already walked back many of his ‘promises’. The Republicans have what they asked for: control of the Presidency, the House and Senate. It’s all on them, nobody else to blame. Midterm elections can’t come soon enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEskg0Z-NAQ
As John Force says “second place in the first looser” and he is correct. But sometimes it is better then going off double ended. I would like to see some dam respect between drivers as I enjoy clean racing rather than watching drivers punt each other out of the way. Anyone can do that and win.
The Goodale’s put out some good cars. Woody needs a good, stable ride.
Good things should come of this.
And in 2012, Trump went on a Twitter rant, calling the Electoral College a threat to our Democracy and that it should be eliminated.
Don’t you think he should be a man and accept the popular vote?
Good luck to Woody in the 46 machine. It should be interesting to see how this combination works out.
I come to this site for racing related news. Enough of the political drivel. God knows we’ve had enough of it for the past 18-24 months. The anointed one lost. Get over it.
If you watched the modified tour race on Sunday at Thompson when Justin passed Timmy for the lead after the pit stop it was 50 times worse then what woody did Saturday night. Obviously Timmy has a brain in his head and decided to left unlike masse so stop whining you Hillary lover !
darealgoodfella, You are not the only one with lawyers in the family, I have five, however that does not make them or myself an expert on the electoral college, this site is the wrong venue for that. There are plenty of sites out there where you can school voters on the electoral college. By comparing Zeke to Clinton voters was simply making a statement that you need to get over what happened in the past and move onto the future, “It is what it is.” I agree with Long Time Fan, get over it. Again, just my thoughts…
Give me a freaking break, this is about Woody and his new ride. Not a civics lesson on the electoral college vs. the popular vote. Let’s stay on track kids!
^ exactly.
humphry, you have to admit, you and many others learned plenty about the Electoral vs popular vote. There is still so much more I could tell you. We stopped burning witches, but we continue with the Electoral College. Still room to create yet a more perfect Union.
Just my thoughts…, you should have left it alone at “It is what it is”. Stop gloating over losing the vote of the people, and winning by a rigged Electoral System. It IS rigged, that was the intent when it was implemented 200+ years ago. To alter the popular vote. But you have to do lots of reading to learn that.
Woody has been a journeyman looking for a stable ride. Maybe this one will stick. The Goodales appear to be a dedicated Modified racing family.
This is just like Ted’s fuel this year and last year’s cylinder heads…
Nevermind the fact that Hillary Clinton was crushed in the states where she actually campaigned. They knew the rules going into the election and still got rejected by the American people.
Shawn, think you’ll have much more to report on silly season?
How many cars/teams have the Goodale’s run? There have usually been a couple, and they are pretty good (no pun).
Hey Frank Rizzo, Clinton campaigned in the battleground states, the states heavily hit hard by steel leaving, auto manufacturing leaving, and coal dying a slow death. Clinton didn’t promise to bring back all those companies and jobs, like Trump did. Trump preyed on desperate people, and there is no way he is going to fulfill those promises. And may I take this opportunity to remind you that Clinton leads Trump the popular vote, the vote of the people, by 630,877 votes. Trump is the loser of the popular vote. The Electoral College is a defective, broken, archaic, rigged system. It was designed to be.
darealgoodfella,
I think so yes.
darealgoodfella, At this point what difference does it make? I am going to borrow that line from your defeated Hillary, however I am referring to the MRS race and the election, not four Servicemen that lost their lives under her watch! On a lighter note, hoping for a successful 2017 season for Woody, Jeff and the Goodie Motorsports Team! Again, Just my thoughts…
It doesn’t matter if it was 2 votes, 630,877, or 10 million votes. It also doesn’t matter if your VP fuel is the same color and almost the same specific gravity. You knew the rules going in… Read your rulebook because changing the Constitution is going to take a little more than some whining by second rate lawyers from the Constitution State. You will have better luck changing the NASCAR rulebook to no longer require licenses!
Ha Ha, it turns out now that the final count is in from Michigan and Nevada Trump did win the popular vote. The DNC and George Soros tried so hard to steal the election and FAILED!!!!
Apparently Silly Season includes elections.
Just my thoughts… you are begging for these replies. If you did not mean the four servicemen that lost their lives under her watch, why did you bring it up? Because you did. When someone says it’s not about money, it’s about money. When someone says it’s not about sex, it’s about sex. But hey, I won’t bring up the THOUSANDS of service men and WOMEN that lost their lives during the Cheney/GWBush initiative to find WMDs that didn’t exist, and the resulting Cheney/GWBush wars that only made things worse. And the commensurate cost of trillions of dollars that are now part of our national debt that will take two generations to pay down. The wealthy will not pay down that debt, the Trump tax plan that has been released gives HUGE tax breaks to the top 1%, raises taxes on the working classes. Remember he said that he will increase taxes on the wealthy? That’s just one pre-election promise that has been proven to be a baldfaced lie.
R-I-Z-Z-O, getting caught using illegal fuel or heads will not get the rulebook changed to allow that fuel or those heads. Protesting about being caught cheating is silly. But protesting is legal and allowed by the Constitution, and protesting is how this country continues to become a more perfect Union. It does matter. The Electoral College has been a leading search topic lately, and has been the leading topic on Twitter. It does matter. What the Deplorables are doing since election day, exercising ‘white supremacy’, is not legal or allowed by the Constitution.
So you and the rest of the Deplorables swallowed the con hook, line and sinker. I hope the barbs aren’t hurting. The embarrassment of believing the baldfaced lies will force all the Deplorables to defend Trump. You watch, it will happen. I will not be wrong, as much as I hope I will be. So when the Deplorables are done loyally defending and/or denying all the promises Trump made that turned into baldfaced lies, what is left? Why did you vote for this guy? LOL!!! Trust me, honestly, I gotta tellya, it matters. Bigly.
You will all be writing letters to your US Reps and Senators to eliminate the Electoral College pretty soon.
Here’s looking forward to the Silly Season! Kinda funny that the election takes place at the same time.
Yes indeed the election is over,maybe along with our future.While this thin skinned nincompoop was running a campaign of fear mongering the GOP kept him at arms length.Now that he’s won and has started backing away from his ridiculous proposals Paul Ryan wants to cut our medicare.Thats right, it is first thing on his agenda.Reublican control over congress and the white house is going to be much worse for us than the supposed high ticket prices at our racetracks.The american people think that this is some kind of Melissa Fifield popularity contest and continue to vote against their own interests.Most of us don’t own oil wells.We will soon see how all this shakes out.
You lose says: “Ha Ha, it turns out now that the final count is in from Michigan and Nevada Trump did win the popular vote. The DNC and George Soros tried so hard to steal the election and FAILED!!!!”
As of this writing:
Trump has 60,371,194 votes
Clinton has 61,039,676 votes
… which is 668,483 MORE than Trump, and hence, Clinton is leading the popular vote, and is expected to win by a larger margin as the rest of the vote comes in.
Just Google “2016 popular vote”. It is updated frequently. And you’ll see all the news outlets reporting that Clinton won the popular vote.
I hope Woody wins the Most Popular Driver Award this year.
Hey Dareal… There is another site with some good silly season fodder. There are articles on both MRS and MTS 2017 plans. There is also an article about how Chase Dowling’s dad is selling off all their Tour equipment and he has zero solid plans for 2017. Then there is the one about Tyler Truex (Martin Truex’s cousin) who is looking for sponsorships to run the NWMT part time for 2017. He had a solid top ten down at the north south shoot out in his first time in a Tour type mod.
Also Dareal in regards to electoral vs popular vote…. if it was ever changed to the popular vote there would be so many different variables that would change. The voter turnout would be drastically different in the non swing states… for example, a democrat from Wyoming might actually start to vote or a republican from Mass because their vote would start to matter. Also the candidates would focus their message to different parts of the country than they currently do. So even if Hillary wins the popular vote it doesn’t mean she would have if the system were different… big time butterfly effect
Hillary’s legacy will be remembered by this one irrefutable fact no matter what dareal argues, Clinton looses to Trump.
Good luck Woody, SPAFCO all the way!
Can we PLEASE talk about racing on our RACING web site and forum. If I want political BS I’ll go to some other site. It’s not fair to Shaun or any other readers to hijack this site for your own political views.
RaceDayNH, say it isn’t so about Chase Dowling. I like that kid. He is a bright spot for the future of Mods. I hope he gets a ride. Tyler Truex should get his cousin to do a joint sponsorship deal with Martin’s sponsors, to get the Mods attention at the Cup level. That kind of sponsorship association between series would be very beneficial.
Good points about the EC vs popular vote. Many things could and should change.
This was awesome: ” for example, a democrat from Wyoming might actually start to vote or a republican from Mass because their vote would start to matter. ” START TO MATTER????? All votes should always matter EQUALLY in the Presidential vote. The Electoral College says that some votes are more equal than others. That the stalwart states discourage voting from the opposition, domination, and coercion, is exactly what the EC was supposed to prevent!!! But in a subtle and slimy way, the EC causes a distortion in the vote, away from the will of the people. And as far as where the candidates focus their message, today they IGNORE the stalwart states (nothing to be gained, nothing to be flipped) and focus on the battleground states. The battleground states got all the attention. The Washington Post reported that a mere 107,000 votes in three swing states gave Trump the EC victory. And may I remind you that Clinton leads the popular vote, now up to 668,483 votes, and that margin is expected to get bigger.
In plain talk, the EC is supposed to be sort of a circuit breaker in the event something went wonky. The popular vote is clearly for Clinton, the EC vote is for Trump. Somebody go ahead and explain that the EC was designed by the Founding Fathers to do exactly that.
In 2012, Trump went on a Twitter rant, calling the EC a threat to our Democracy, and should be eliminated. Think he’s gonna be a man and say he didn’t win it right, and relinquish the election to Clinton?
Enough this is a racing site.shawn please shut these self righteous know it all’s up and stop printing responses with political garbage. I’m hoping woody does well in his new ride and is competitive for the championship.
Brian n… I agree. I thought I had some good info on silly season that hasn’t been posted here. Just couldn’t resist throwing my 2 cents in after reading all the other rhetoric. Sorry pal
Chase Dowling gone, the Mark Spyher team gone, Lia only wants a part time schedule, if he finds a ride at all
The NWMT is deadman walking.
Hi boys! Sorry I’ve been on a sabbatical of late but I must say that I love to see you all debating the election issues, especially the sociopolitical ramifications of the carburetor college! I can’t wait to hit the accelerator pump and give Melissa a boost in her next quest… Bigly! Bottoms up!
Well, Brian n, I recall seeing Trump sponsorship on Woody’s car. NASCAR has a diversity program to help it get over the exclusivity that exists. There was the big news to get rid of the Confederate flags that flew all over NASCAR races. And let’s not forget that Woody’s car carried Trump sponsorship. Will Woody bring that Trump sponsorship, and the associated politics, with him to the Goodale ride? There’s a direct link between Trump and Woody due to the Trump sponsorship on his car.
Andy, say it isn’t so!!!! Somebody will pickup Dowling, maybe. Any empty car out there? The news of the Sypher demise is shocking. All the same equipment as the 2 car, but different brain trust. I thought those LFR cars were a “team” and shared set up notes? Oh well. That’s too bad. And those LFR chassis are now worthless. What about the 6? Will that still be a casual operation, kept ready for Preece when he is available?
What about Bock? When he showed up, he was pretty good. Full time?
Liz!!! So glad to see you again. Silly season brings about interesting things, such as sponsorship discussions and opportunities. Who woulda thunk it that our little Modified racing series would get attention from a Presidential candidate? WOW! That is HUGE. Who knows what sponsorship opportunities will happen in 2017! Planned Parenthood is getting overwhelmed with donations in the name of Mike Pence. Perhaps that bounty can help sponsor your favorite, the 01, and get even better equipment, if that is possible.
Glad to see another fan of “Bigly!” and complete, parsed sentences. But with the new crowd, I’d be very careful about using “Bottoms Up!”, they might consider that an invitation, permission, or consent.
You are an intellectual 10!
With Blewett out, who will drive the Mystic Missile in 2017??
Showtime and the Missle are parting ways… Shawn, there seems to be a lot of silly season items going on. How come no articles here… are the ones on other sites not substantiated or something? MRS 2017 schedule, MTS info, Dowling story, lia and #8 team, truex, showtime, to name a few
You sir are a self righteous bigmouth and bully. Just can’t leave the political bs alone. I truly feel sorry for you old folk who have nothing better to do than write books about whatever you’re sure is right due to your narrow minded ever shrinking grip on reality. Take your meds and relax. NH raceday sorry that was attached to your comment it was meant for garbage spewing out of touch bully.thanks for your silly season updates
No worries!
RaceDayNH, I think Shawn likes to confirm these stories. Other sites have had misfires, Shawn doesn’t like misfires. I prefer that too.