It was a Saturday afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway that ran the gamut of highs and lows for NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour rookie Sammy Rameau.
In the end Rameau was able to take a disastrous ending and turn it into a positive going forward for his first-year team heading into Sunday’s Whelen Modified Tour NAPA Fall Final 150 at Stafford Speedway.
“We’re going to Stafford with our chin up and see what we can do there,” Rameau said.
After starting 18thRameau spent much of the day racing with the lead pack in Saturday’s Musket 250 at NHMS.
Unfortunately, the roller coaster high of the day came crashing down quite literally with only a handful of laps left.
Rameau was running second to Jon McKennedy for a lap 234 restart, but on the next lap contact between himself and reigning series champion Justin Bonsignore in a battle for second place ultimately left Rameau plastered against the turn three wall in Loudon.
“I just have to move on from stuff like that,” Rameau told RaceDayCT. “It was just a racing incident. I just need to move on from stuff like that and go on to Stafford.”
When the anger of incident that ended his day subsided the 17-year old Rameau was able to realize that the day was hardly a loss for his team.
“I’m not going to lie, before Loudon I really thought we were just a good top-10 competitor,” Rameau said. “But after Loudon, that was a big confidence booster for not only me but my team. I can see it in all my guys’ attitudes around the shop. Everything has changed since they’ve seen the car run up front. All I’ve heard about all week is how pumped my guys were in the pits and that just makes me super happy. I think these next two races we will definitely be up front and I hope we can come out on top.”
Rameau said he did not expect to be up front battling for victory before the Musket 250 began.
“At the start of the day I told my crew chief and my spotter that a fine goal would be a top-10 and to complete all 250 laps,” Rameau said. “I never even really thought I would be running up front with Jon McKennedy and Bobby Santos III and people like that. That was obviously really cool and I definitely learned a lot.
“I’ve been racing Modifieds now since I was 13, four years now. … Jon McKennedy … I’ve always looked up to him as a driver. … It was just crazy going for the lead into [turn] one and then the caution comes out. But battling with people like that … it’s a definite confidence booster. We’ll carry that into Stafford.”
At the NAPA Spring Sizzler at Stafford in May, Rameau had an eighth place finish in what was just his fifth career Whelen Modified Tour start. He backed that up with a ninth place at Stafford when the tour returned to the half-mile in August.
“Stafford is just the kind of place where you either get it or you don’t,” Rameau said. “I always enjoy racing there. When I first started there – I’ve probably raced at Stafford about 10 times – and the first four times we never even finished. Stafford was honestly my least favorite track ever. I believe the Spring Sizzler actually turned that around. We had a really good run there and that was my first top-10. The car was really good there and it was good in August. We figured some stuff out since Loudon and I think we’ll be really good.”
Rameau sits 12thin the Whelen Modified Tour standings with three top-10 finishes this year. He is 29 points behind 10thplace Blake Barney. He leads the Rookie of the Year standings by 41 points over Timmy Catalano.
“At [the season opening event at Myrtle Beach Speedway] we had a big talk and we discussed our goals,” Rameau said. “Our goals were Rookie of the Year and we aimed for a top-10 in points., which I think we still have left. Just to get into 10th… I think that’s still in our reach. I think if we can perform good these next couple tracks we’ll be alright and hopefully we’ll be in the top-10.”
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