(Press Release from Riverhead Raceway)
Ryan Preece (Photo: JD Motorsports)
It could very well be that Ryan Preece of Berlin, Ct. and his TS Haulers team are hitting their stride at the right time of the busy race summer when they roared to victory in the inaugural Exit Realty Modified Touring Series 125 Saturday night at Riverhead Raceway.
The win came on the heels of Preece’s Wednesday night triumph on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour 125 at the Thompson Motorsports Park and has the team riding a wave of momentum heading into next Saturday night’s Riverhead 200 WMT event at Riverhead Raceway.
The MTS race was completed despite dismal weather conditions as the Riverhead & MTS staffs hustled the show along before the rains arrived which they did right after the final checker of the night waved.
At the drop of the green flag Woody Pitkat edged his way to lead the first lap before upstart talent Dillon Steuer moved past on lap 2. Pitkat gave chase to the race leader until the 8th lap when David Schneider whose team had to swap motors to run the 125 made his way by for position. Schneider stayed second behind Steuer until the 23rd lap as Eric Goodale made an inside pass entering the first turn for position. Once to second Goodale, a past WMT winner at Riverhead reeled in the race leader Steuer with Eric’s efforts aided by a 56th lap caution flag that would bunch up the field. It was during that yellow flag period that the likes of Ryan Preece, Woody Pitkat, Jon McKennedy and Donny Lia all ducking to the pits for a change tire along with other adjustments. Steuer and Goodale elected to stay out and not sacrifice track position..
On the ensuing double file restart Goodale would actually lead lap 57 to the outside of Steuer with Dillon rallying back to take the lead back on lap 58. Meanwhile armed with a new tire and adjustments Ryan Preece was on the march towards the front as he caught Eric Goodale and passed him to the inside exiting the fourth turn for second on lap 75. Over the following eight lap Preece fist caught and then went to work on Islip 300 winner Steuer for the lead as the 15-year old was hoping for another big race win. Entering the third turn on lap 83 Preece was able to find a lane under Steuer to take over the race lead and once out front Preece would pull away over the final 41 circuits.
As the double checker flags waved Ryan Preece would cross the line earning his 15th career Riverhead Raceway win list moving him into sole possession of 27th on the all time win list at the historic quarter mile. Dillon Steuer of Bohemia was runner-up in the Northeastern Office Equipment Chevy while Jon McKennedy of Chelmsford, Ma raced his way back to a podium third place finish in the Exit Realty entry. Eric Goodale of Riverhead and Woody Pitkat of Stafford Springs, Ct completed the top five. David Schneider, Rowan Pennink, John Fortin Sr., Donny Lia and Chris Pasteryak filled out the top ten.
Never made the trip in riverhead. Every picture I see has empty grandstands, what is the average attendance?
14 cars at Riverhead MTS
16 Cars at Jennerstown ROC
19 Cars at Speedway 51 VMRS
28 cars at Thompson WMT
=TOO MANY SERIES
wmass01013…preach
simple solution – 1 mod touring series. Everyone else, race your local track till your ready to run the 1 touring series. Maybe someday
Really only 14 cars, is this the truth or just an estimate? I have saying what wmass1013 just mentioned above all along, way too many modified touring series in New England. I’m sure some racetracks are not loving the MTS to much now, low car counts, low fan counts add up to lots of lost revenue for the tracks. It will be interesting to see how many MRS cars show up at the New London Waterford Speedbowl on 6/24. If any track needs a large car and fan count it is definitely the bowl. I would hate to see George Whitney take a bath on his first event due to the MTS taking a piece of the modified pie away from the MRS program.
Best case scenario is a MTS/MRS merge.
The MTS is hurting now. They aren’t drawing cars or fans. Schedule conflicts are coming. July 1st being the first one and now Tri Track is kicking off their season. The numbers will only get worse. Neither MRS or MTS interest me at this point. Zero excitement factor with either series. Too many series is right. Then again, most of us saw this coming.
Here’s a thought. Is the Seekonk Open the biggest asphalt modified race in the country? They are expecting 50 plus cars. Every series will be represented. The biggest names in the sport are entered. I can’t think of a bigger one myself.
Now this creates an interesting situation. If Preece drove the 6 on Saturday night then how is he going to drive the 6 at the tour race on the 24th? I believe NASCAR has a rule about racing or testing at the same track as a scheduled race 7 days prior.
Most of us saw this coming is right. The way I saw it was the mts was trying to put the mrs out of business. Now I guess we wait and see who folds first. Or they both stick around and the fans suffer with low car counts.
Especially being the same team and car.
Kevin, or the other option is that the MTS dissolves and the cars go to MRS.
That’s ideal. But too many egos involved.
Not sure race teams are interested in competing with/going back to the VMRS. Both the VMRS and the MTS competed this weekend. The MTS drew some big names (Preece, Pennink, McKennedy, Pitkat); the VMRS did not.
Steve,Riverhead has stands all around the track unlike most places I have gone to that have stands on the front stretch only.They are usually full.You sit right on top of the action.It is a fun and racey
place.You should try it sometime.Humphry,some of the locals usually race in the tour races after racing the week before so I will be surprised if the tour cars that raced Saturday would be disqualified.See everyone Saturday.
It was a race, not a test, & maybe not even the same car!
The #6 team has two cars; it seems to me the “blue” car is for short tracks and the “orange” car is for the bigger tracks. It’s hard to expect lower budget teams to tow from New England to Riverhead NY and/or almost to the Canadian border without a worthwhile sized purse and/or tow money to help with the additional travel expenses. I think if most teams can recover their expenses for participating and the weather report is not threatening, they will show up. Exhibit A is the TriTrack series.
Wow what a shocker the car who won tested the tire the week before wish everyone had that option
To those hoping for — or speculating about — a conglomeration of the MRS and MTS: that’s exactly what we had, before the MTS came into being. And in my opinion, that was _still_ “too many series.”
The root of the situation is the fact that no weekly tracks in this area besides Riverhead run full modifieds as a regular division. Back when tracks did run mods weekly, there was no need for a multitude of touring series. Nowadays, it seems everyone feels they can line up a few tracks, run a few races, make a few bucks and eventually grow to challenge the NWMS. The reality is, most (or all) will eventually fall by the wayside.
Just wait until someone comes up with the “brilliant” idea of running an SK-type touring series. Fragmentation is the modern way!
MTS runs American racer tires not Hoosier. I don’t get Bill d’s statement
I read somewhere that Preece and crew were not at Seekonk the week before because they were doing some tire testing, I would assume the American Racers at Riverhead. I guess they were putting some extra effort into winning at their car owner’s track; it worked!
Evans , cook , bodine , Bouchard , flemke , desarro , da bug man . This was racing . 100 plus mods at the big T hooking cars out of the sand banks . Them days are gone ,gone ,gone , and the cookie cutter modifieds of today just don’t cut it for me anymore .all these series to watch q heat race It’s over as far as I’m concerned stick a fork in um !
and with the MTS WAY of playoff racing win and yur in the FINAL preece won Monadnock and didn’t go to SEEKONK and Barrett WON at Seekonk and didn’t go to Riverhead
Yes art they tested the tire at the track the week before it helps when your car owner owns the track I’m sorry but that doesn’t pass the smell test
Bill d,The TS team has used the tire several times in the past.How do you know they “tested the tire”?Does the promoter know?Is it against MTS rules or just some smell test?