Tyler Rypkema celebrates victory Tuesday in the Tour Type Modified feature at New Smyrna Speedway in New Smyrna, Fla. (Photo: Jim DuPont/The Chrome Horn)
For the second consecutive night at New Smyrna (Fla.) the regulars of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour followed an underdog to victory lane in the Tour Type Modified feature.
Race of Champions Tour regular Tyler Rypkema of Owegom N.Y. scored victory in Tuesday’s 35-lap Tour Type Modified feature at the World Series of Asphalt Racing at New Smyrna.
Jimmy Zacharias of Candor, N.Y. was second and Jon McKennedy of Marshfield, Mass. third. Ryan Preece of Berlin was fourth and Jimmy Blewett of Howell, N.J. fifth.
It was the second of five consecutive nights of Tour Type Modified features at New Smyrna Speedway. JR Bertuccio won the first event of the week on Monday.
Rypkema started on the pole and led every lap.
“We went out for practice and we had 60-plus lap old tires on and the car still felt really smooth and really good,” Rypkema said. “So I knew when we put new tires on we’d be really good. I didn’t think we’d be that good.”
Great racing last, 185 with 1 caution. Good field if Mods; not a bad race but no real threats to take the lead. Top 3 in the Super Late Models on the show of the night!
This is great news for the tour. Give these guys hope that they can compete against some top teams from the tour. Hopefully it translates into bigger fields when the season starts.
Good to see a guy from my “hood” get the win. Tyler’s been getting better the last couple of years on the ROC. Along with Jimmy Z. They had some help though. Brooksie let the built motor guys have a little more gear. It certainly helped them on corner exit. Maybe some of the spec motor guys will
be in frustration mode for awhile. No matter though, fresh faces in the winner circle is a welcomed surprise. Tonight should be interesting.
Agree ^
Franky, I completely agree! If these guys realize they can run competitively with the WMT regulars, hopefully they’ll have more incentive to come up north for some of the races.
Underdogs are kicking butt at NSS this year and that’s a HP track. 25 cars for the first two shows is very good. NSS has really made it a worthwhile event again after the last few yrs were less than spectacular for the mods. Tour opener less than a month away baby!!
He’s not running the WMT….He’s an ROC guy!
Not to rain on the parade here,but for all the complaining we do about the WMT, it is a murderous schedule.Tough on equipment and teams.The travel is tough also. Very hard on the smaller teams.It is indeed nice to see speedweek come back and new faces in victory lane is nice to see.
I counted I think only 4 actual WMT cars down there. Quite a few names I’ve never even heard of before. Not that it matters. A few start and parks I would assume.