The dramatics have been plenty on track all week at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway for the Tour Type Modified.
Unfortunately most of that drama has revolved around who was wrecking who.
Thursday night the division put on a clean show and fans were treated fantastic dramatics in the battle for victory.
Matt Hirschman got under Jon McKennedy for the lead off of turn four on the final lap to win the 35-lap Tour Type Modified division feature at New Smyrna Speedway.
It was the first victory of the week for Hirschman, of Northampton, Pa., who had a second place finish in Monday’s 50-lap feature, a third place in Tuesday’s 35-lap event and a second place in Wednesday’s John Blewett III Memorial 76.
“It’s been tough but tonight they came to me at the right time,” Hirschman said. “I didn’t get any late restarts, we’ve been terrible on those.
“I’ve got to thank the whole team, Pee Dee Motorsports. It’s a big effort to come here and do this. I’ve got to thank them, my whole crew, they’ve been working hard. We’ve been here later than we’ve been in recent years with the delays and rain stuff like that. Glad to get a win for them.”
McKennedy, of Chelmsford, Mass., was second and Ron Silk of Norwalk third.
Hirschman became the fourth winner in four Tour Type Modified events this week at New Smyrna joining Craig Lutz (Monday), Patrick Emerling (Tuesday) and Ryan Preece (Wednesday).
The Tour Type Modifieds close out their five night run at New Smyrna Friday with the running of the Richie Evans 100.
“Hope for a win tomorrow night too, but at least we got one because one is going to be tough to get this week,” Hirschman said.
Hirschman started fourth in the 35-car field Thursday.
Ronnie Williams went by pole-sitter Silk at the start with Hirschman quickly making the move to second place.
On the second attempt at a lap 12 restart it was McKennedy jumping from fourth to second by third place Silk and second place Hirschman.
With 20 laps left McKennedy got under Williams for the lead with Hirschman moving to second a lap later.
From there Hirschman sized up McKennedy through to the final lap. On lap 35 Hirschman gave McKennedy a tap in turns one and two and got to the low lane off turn two. Hirschman was up to McKennedy’s inside through turn three. Hirschman won the drag race off of turn four to secure the win.
“[McKennedy] started backing up to me,” Hirschman said. “Backing up front and center corner. We’ve been close all week to winning and started getting closer and closer. I would have been content with a second but he just backed up to me too much.”
Tour Type Modified Feature Thursday At New Smyrna Speedway
Cryin Matt with the underpowered engine wins. Interesting.
And he set fast time as well.
I guess he found a motor with more power.
Hmmmmmm
Is PeeDee going to Martinsville?
Did they tech that car, Slow as a rock race before !! or the fuel . sounds like BS.
2 fast times, 2 seconds, a third, a win, the points all but locked up. Down on power. Amazing.
The whining not a good look especially when you’re leading the points and ultimately winning. No doubt though the guy is the maestro and commands a loyal following that consistently delivers excellence. Love his thoughtful interviews where you can see the wheels turning. Waiting too long to drive it in deep like Preece for the win. Integrating a Rusty Crews anecdote in his comments was nice. Driver for Pee Dee, owner, fabricator, his own crew chief calling the setups, strategic driving and consistently winning. Forget the Big Money. The single greatest active modified talent in racing in this era.
Ron Silk a big story too. A newer team and fast. Ron having an atypical night of erratic driving Wednesday and the boo birds mostly doing their best imitation of crickets. He should be kind of proud of that. A well deserved mulligan for years of good clean driving and winning.
The announcers said what the division needed was a good clean sprint to set up the big race for tonight. Accolades to the drivers for delivering as well as the maestro for taking down the win.
That winning, dominating, and underpowered 60 car is just begging for an in-depth, detailed tech inspection. Just begging…
Why do these guys go there knowing their chances of winning are marginal and the likely hood of junked cars high? I read them crying about how expensive these cars are all the time. So why go and save your car and extra parts for local racing? What’s happening there is nothing new. Why not bring a second car knowing at least one will be junked before the week is out??
Ask Dafella why they don’t bring a second car. They got no money. They only have money to drive one race car all the way to Florida. Then race five nights in a row. Then wreck their one car. Then drive all the way home. They got no money. I wonder if Matt wishes he wasn’t crying about motors now. Did they cheat up their current motor? Did they change motors? What’s tech like down there?
Everyone used to always bring their open competition engines to these races. There was a kind of Gentleman’s agreement that if you went through the large expense of traveling to Florida to support the World Series that you didn’t have to worry about pulling off your oil pan or intake or heads . Everyone knew the would check carburetors with go / no go gauges. Check axles, tread width, ride height, left side weight and other things, BUT ENGINES would be left alone….. Joe Brady along with everyone else brought the BIG MOTORS down south didn’t complain and ran what the BRUNG. Brady was a Big WINNER down at New Smyrna in the #00 … Check the Record Books >>>/////????? But when the legal engine went in for Tour Races wasn’t quite as Competitive but still did Win Races up and down the East Coast. Ted Christopher Won plenty of Races with the BRADY BUNCH at all sorts of different tracks down south when Ted was racing 60 – 100 races a Season … Run what you BRUNG and keep your mouth shut and enjoy the warm Weather … This was BEFORE BIG MONEY teams took over ….
Everyone used to always bring their open competition engines to these races. There was a kind of Gentleman’s agreement that if you went through the large expense of traveling to Florida to support the World Series that you didn’t have to worry about pulling off your oil pan or intake or heads . Everyone knew they would check carburetors with go / no go gauges. Check axles, tread width, ride height, left side weight and other things, BUT ENGINES would be left alone….. Joe Brady along with everyone else brought the BIG MOTORS down south didn’t complain and ran what the BRUNG. Brady was a Big WINNER down at New Smyrna in the #00 … Check the Record Books >>>/////????? But when the legal engine went in for Tour Races wasn’t quite as Competitive but still did Win Races up and down the East Coast. Ted Christopher Won plenty of Races with the BRADY BUNCH at all sorts of different tracks down south when Ted was racing 60 – 100 races a Season … Run what you BRUNG and keep your mouth shut and enjoy the warm Weather … This was BEFORE BIG MONEY teams took over ….
Like Norm ,rest his soul from Precision race engines used to say ,boy that handling makes my engines look good , I know a lot of people don’t buy into that theory but I think Norm knew what he was talking about
Suitcase, TC was challenged down at New Suhmyrna, and instead of dropping his oil pan, he packed up and went home.
Elect, the chassis folks would say that a little extra horsepower sure makes their chassis look good.
Wish all those harping on 60s comments after Tuesday night’s race would just back off. I’m sure Matt was just venting on his frustration after not being able to pull ahead and grab a 🏁. If anyone knows the in’s and out’s of an engine package it’s Hirschman. The staff at New Smyrna must be doing something right based on tremendous car counts the last several years. Yes I’ve been there when double digits for tour types was considered a decent year. Ricky Brooks got things turned around and while I’m sure it’s not perfect they’re trying to create as level a playing field as they can. Hence the rapid uptick in car counts which has made the racing a pure treat to watch. If there was something blatant going on I’m sure they’d catch it. Let’s give credit where it’s due. Wether it’s Pee Dee or the family car or whomever else may ask him to race . You know when Matt Hirschman shows up at the track your going to get his best. He never shows up without a plan and how to execute it. If I may borrow a time worn cliche, like a fine wine Matt just seems to be getting better with age. Let’s hope Mother Nature let’s em get in the premier event of the week.
Greg Motta, the guy that’s whining about being a victim and at a disadvantage is leading the event, won a race, has a good chance to win the week, and you are saying back off??? 🤪🤣🤣🤪🤣🤣. Is he not winning by a big enough margin????? 😝😝🤪🤪🤣🤣😝 When you are winning and dominating, you are not at a disadvantage, nor are you a victim.
Dareal while I agree that his comments probably don’t go down well with most of competitors who must be saying “how can you complain when you are running so well”. The part that irks me is whenever and wherever he runs well all I hear is “check his engine” “check his carb” “where’s tech” “how do they let him get away with this” etc. This young man can just flat out tune, prep, and race his modified about as well as any other driver today in the modified ranks, And sometimes you need Lady Luck too. On Tuesday when he got shoved up in the wall (I’ll not name that driver) he very easily could have taken on some major damage. Lucky for him Preece checked up rather than drive through him. A “dominant” week would have looked very different with a DNF. Enjoy tonight’s race all, stay away rain 🤞
For once in my life, and I mean ONCE, I agree with dareal.
I am pulling for Jon McKennedy tonight. He has had a tough week and I would love to see him put one on the bank.
Earl, I’ve been keeping count… you’ve agreed with me at least three times, and that’s just recently. Take your Prevagen and ginkgo biloba.
Well Greg Motta, do you see why people scream to tech the 60? Strongest car, dominated the event. Won races and the event. How the driver whines about being at a disadvantage and a victim, and then wins by that margin can be considered highly suspect. It’s as egregiously stupididiotidmoronic as Trump claiming that the election was a landslide in his favor, and was stolen from him, and Texas then suing numerous other states for the way they conduct their elections. Is Texas a state with super powers? He got away with it the first time, not this time. MH clearly sandbags, does not show his cards, then activates the Flux Capacitor at go time. If that is a result of purely saving his car, or other diabolical and nefarious means has yet to be confirmed.
If you want to be tribal, fine, go right ahead. But don’t play the victim card, for you only put yourself and MH at further exposure and risk.
I’ll give you that MH is a sharp one, perhaps one of the sharpest. But is that being applied to enhancing performance within the rules, or clever, cunning and sly dalliances into the grey zones? He could work hard in either direction.
But I highly recommend he stop playing the victim card. He makes himself look foolish. It might play well on TV and over the PA, but to insiders, not so much.
Trump. Bouncing around Dafella’s huge bigly beautiful head forever. 🤡
🌈🦄2020, I’m enjoying this, laughing all the way. Trump is in YUGE BIGLY TROUBLE, and I’m enjoying every minute of it. Hey, the Senate just voted to have witnesses. 😷🤪😝🤣😝😝😝🤣🤣. That means more illegal, unethical, and disgusting GOP behavior will be exposed. Loving every bit of it. It will be a hoot when/if current GOP Senators are called as witless witnesses. The same people that are supposed to be impartial jurors. 🤣🤣😝😝🤣🤣 If the GOP Senate was smart, they’d vote to convict Trump, or get Trump to admit guilt with a deal to get him out of the party and politics, and cut their losses. It’s only going to get worse, and all that gets exposed will be used for the coming Senate elections where the GOP is already at high risk. If Trump doesn’t get his way, he burns the place down and that is exactly what he is doing. I’m loving it. Hey, there are current non-Trumpster GOP that are looking to start a new party and let the old GOP burn down.
So primitive and tribal.