Saturday’s have been pretty good the last few weeks for Modified driver Matt Swanson.
Two weeks ago on July 25 he finished second in the Tri-Track Open Modified Series SBM 121 at Star Speedway in Epping, N.H.
Last week, on Aug. 2, he finished third in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour White Mountain Showdown 200 at White Mountain Speedway in North Woodstock, N.H.
Saturday Swanson, of Acton, Mass., added to his Saturday podium streak in style.
Swanson put on a dominating performance on the way to victory in the 75-lap Modified Racing Series feature Saturday at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl.
For Swanson, the celebration was long awaited, albeit a painful one. Swanson was involved in a hard wreck Friday in the NAPA Open Modified 100 at Stafford Speedway. Despite waking up sore he said the thought never crossed his mind to skip the event at Waterford.
“My body worked, everything was still moving,” Swanson told RaceDayCT. “But I was definitely in a lot of pain. I told the EMT workers last night when I was getting hauled off in the ambulance they said “We think you should go to the hospital” and I said “I can’t, I’ve got another race to run tomorrow.’ So, that worked out. After what happened last night, we knew what we had to come here and do today and thankfully we did it. There’s one thing that I’ll never do and that’s quit before I even try and I wasn’t going to come here and settle with putting the race car on the trailer without fighting.”
It was the first event of the 2020 season for the Modified Racing Series.
It marked the first victory in a Tour Type Modified Touring Series event for Swanson, who also competes full-time on both the Whelen Modified Tour and Tri-Track Open Modified Series.
Swanson beat second place finishing Anthony Flannery of East Hampton to the line by 3.9 seconds. Donnie Lashua of Canaan, N.H. was third.
Eric Goodale was fourth and Andy Shaw fifth.
Congrats Matt. It was just a matter of time until you got your first tour type modified win and there are more to come.
Placed looked great.
I guess the FB complainers stayed home. But everyone else showed up. If it wasn’t at capacity, it was close. Low car counts but some entertaining racing. Big story should be that Shelly Perry walked away from a brutal wreck. The fire wasn’t as scary as the hit. Wonder if the throttle stuck.
Sounds like overall pretty much a success for the first night. Glad the complainers/stone breakers stayed home. Made room for those that wanted to attend.
Say what you want but the Speedbowl had about as many cars in total as Stafford and provided as much value. Considering the short notice and all the drama it was amazing how may teams were ready to race. They talked about the ticket vendor not being ready but would be, it never happened and people were still lined up Saturday morning to buy tickets.
Get a new owner and there’s no limit to how successful they can be.
Congrats to Matt Swanson and your team on the win. Predict many more coming your way.
Glad to hear the night was a success, and the troublemakers stayed home. Doug’s post mentioned the place being near capacity. How did they pull that off, yet Stafford is only allowed 25%? Either way, Welcome Back Waterford.
Didn’t see anything in Dougs post saying the place being near capacity unless I am missing something.
Unless he was present how would he know? My guess he wasn’t.
The Bowl may have been close to, or at, “capacity” (defined as 25% of total available seating). All in all, it was a successful re-opening. Some thin car counts, but decent racing and value (as stated by others). After a tedious Legends feature (the first of the night), things moved along quite nicely – the MRS race was over by 9:45 pm. Of course, we don’t know what the future holds for the Bowl …
My bad, 2020’s post…if it wasn’t at capacity it was close. Sorry Doug.
That’s what I meant. At 25% capacity. I think they said it would be 1043. The no beer selling is interesting. Might not be the worst idea in the world. If the beer drinkers are drinking all night and getting drunk the chances of them wearing a mask is slim. Plus the drunk fights are well known for the place. If they need to keep it at 25% might as well keep the riff raff out somehow. Looked to be plenty of families in attendance. It’s 2020. We just need to deal with it. If you want a free for all and need to drink go to Manadnock.
RESULTS
Unofficial Order Of Finish:
(1), Swanson, (2) Flannery, (3) Lashua, (4) Goodale, (5) Shaw),(6)Richard Savary, (7) Jacob Perry, (8) Diego Monahan, (9) David Eldridge, (10) Joshua Zentak, (11) Kyle James, (12) Shelly Perry, (13) Brett Meservey
Thanks to the drivers,fans and employees who came out to support this opening race.All positive.
Thank you to the drivers,fans,employers who supported this opening race.All positive.
Thanks to all the drivers ,fans,employees for supporting the opening event at NLWSB on Aug.8.All positive.
Thanks for the clarification 2020.
As far as drunks at the races one word… annoying. Especially if you’ve got kids with you. Never got into drinking at the races. After the races, now that’s a different story for another time.
Glad to hear people had a good time, and was some good racing.