When the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series announced last year that the series would add an event at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in 2022 veteran Tour Type Modified racer Chris Pasteryak knew it was a race he would be heading to.
The Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series runs its first event ever at Thunder Road Sunday as part of the track’s 59th Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic racing card. The 100-lap Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series event will pay $10,000 to win.
Pasteryak is one of the few drivers in the field with previous experience at the historic quarter-mile bullring in Barre, Vt. The last time the track hosted a Tour Type Modified event was 2010.
The Modified Racing Series ran once annually at Thunder Road from 2008-2010. Pasteryak competed in the events in 2008 and 2009 at Thunder Road and then was a crew member in 2010 when his father Charlie and late uncle Carl raced in the last Tour Type Modified event at the track.
“They had a great crowd always there,” Pasteryak said. “And that was a really neat place. I was excited when I saw it on the [Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series] schedule.”
Pasteryak sees the positives of the event being much more than just competitors and fans getting a chance to return to such a historic venue.
“I think it’s just cool to go there,” Pasteryak said. “I don’t think we should be trying to replace the Late Models there, but if we can go up and hit that White Mountain Motorsports Park, Thunder Road, Oxford Plains Speedway area and maybe have one race a year at any of those places and have it be a success we could kind of keep it special. Especially now with FloRacing and the other streaming options, if we could build interest or they see it once on that, maybe they tune in and watch an Open show from Stafford [Speedway] and kind of build interest for everything.
“Anytime you can diversify a little bit and not put all your eggs in one basket it’s a good thing. We can have enough Modified races local to guys that maybe aren’t from Connecticut, that’s also a good thing for [Modifieds]. We’re always going to need more cars and more people and more interest and the more interest you can build going to different places the better it is for the division. Then when we do have a big race like the Spring Sizzler we can have more cars to draw from to make it an even bigger event.”
Modifieds have competed sporadically at Thunder Road since 1965. After a messy event from the Modified Racing Series in 2010 the division was dropped from the schedule at Thunder Road.
“I hope we don’t go up there and make a bunch of asses out of ourselves like the last one and then have to take another 12 years off from there,” Pasteryak said.
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