THOMPSON – Ronnie Williams opened the 2023 season at Thompson Speedway scoring a $10,000 payday in the Icebreaker 125 at on April 8.
Thursday Williams was back counting the big cash again at Thompson.
Williams held off Chris Pasteryak over the closing laps to win the caution-marred Twisted Tea sponsored 50-lap Thompson Outlaw Modified feature at Thompson Speedway.
Williams, of Ellington, collected a $5,000 winner’s purse for the event.
“I love coming to this place,” Williams said. “I think coming to this place with an SK Modified taught me a lot, and coming here with Gary [Casella] in the past also helped. Obviously we have it figured out right now with this team, but things can change just as quickly as they get good.
“I know there’s some things we want to improve. We’re like 80 percent right now, which is scary, but I know with the guys that will be here we’ll need to keep improving. But it feels damn good to win.”
Pasteryak, of Lisbon, was second and Joey Mucciacciaro of Wolcott third.
Pasteryak’s last ditch effort to challenge a dominant Williams on the last lap came up short.
“He scared me a little there,” Williams said.
Said Pasteryak: We’ve been running pretty good lately. It’s nice to have some momentum. … I’d like to to thank everybody that sat here, it wasn’t the Modified division’s proudest moment. I wish I could have made it a little closer and a little more interesting on the last lap, but I got a little free off of [turn] and I wasn’t even close enough to make it interesting.”
Mucciacciaro recovered from a lap 36 incident to claw back to the podium.
“A great run for all these guys who work on this car,” Mucciacciaro said. “It’s been about two and a half years since we’ve been out here with our own piece and we’re back with a brand new car. It’s been a learning curve with the new rules and everything, but we’re working on it and getting better every race.”
Matt Swanson started on the pole and held off the challenges of Carl Medeiros Jr. over the early laps.
Caution flew on lap four when Buddy Charette got into the turn three wall. Swanson held off Medeiros on the ensuing restart with Williams making the move into the top four.
On lap 11 Williams moved past Medeiros to take over second.
On lap 15 Williams made a diving move to get under Swanson in turn three, but Swanson was able to defend the top spot off of turn four. But the defense was short lived as Williams was able to grab the lead through turns one and two on the next lap.
Caution flew on lap 24 for the spinning car of Kevin Folan in turn four with Williams leading, Medeiros in second and Swanson in third. Swanson headed to the pits under caution, moving Pasteryak to third for the lap 24 restart. Swanson rejoined the field in ninth after pitting.
Caution was back out on lap 33 for the stopped car of Andrew Charron in turn two with Williams continuing to lead Medeiros and Pasteryak in third.
It was a short green flag run when the race got going again as caution flew on lap 35 for the stopped car of RJ Marcotte in turn three. On the ensuing restart it was Williams quickly checking out from Medeiros, but it was back to caution on lap 36 for the spinning car of Glen Steger on the frontstretch.
Another attempt at a restart on lap 36 got messy with Paul Buzel and Mucciacciaro getting together in turn two just after the green flew.
Swanson, who had pitted twice previously, came to life on the lap 36 restart. While Williams checked out quickly, Swanson moved past Pasteryak for third and then Medeiros for second. Pasteryak fought back though and two laps later got back by Swanson to move into second. By then Williams had built a three-quarters of a second lead over the field.
Swanson’s up and down night got worse on lap 45 after contact with Medeiros sent him spinning.
On the lap 45 restart Williams and Pasteryak quickly checked out from third place Mucciacciaro for the final run to the checkered.
Kurt Vigeant of Oxford, Mass. was fourth and Swanson, of Acton, Mass., rallied to fifth.
Williams and team have shown this car to be super fast however the short field is an embarrassment . stick a fork in thompson.. as hard as these promotors are trying its not going to work ..
That was the sorriest lineup I ever seen at Thompson, just two good guys out of the 15 cars the first two 50/75 should of just raced them self’s the rest were all beginners, that was sad glad I stayed home🙄
Well that’s just disrespectful. Teams show up to race, they are having their own races within the race a critical part to the sport of racing. A fan that defines the sum of a race only what happens at the front suggesting they need not have come. If you’re not including the 25 in the short list of good cars then your credibility in naming just the two drops precipitously.
I can’t speak for anyone else but I surely can see what Thompson has become and it looks pretty successful. It’s a multi entertainment, recreational venue headlined by golf and road racing. Mid 70’s was the total car count across 6 divisions in a mid week show capped by fireworks that’s a good night of entertainment is it not? The weekends packed with road racing their racing bread and butter so perhaps unrealistic expectations and not Thompson is the issue.
If you follow regional racing at all it’s clear mid week events are a challenge and the ACT/Pass promoters trying to find a way to make it all work. Is anyone questioning whether the Icebreaker and World Series are working? These shows are a bonus to be savored is my thinking.
Fireworks and Supers who doesn’t like that? Well actually I don’t like Supers nor even consider them racing. More a spectacle of speed more an ooh and ahh type of deal. Racing America let us down……again…..so no PPV. But the intervals indicate that the NESS “race” was pretty typical. 10 cars and spread wayyyyyyyy out at the end. But it was the high banks at the Big T man the pinnacle of speed in New England short tracks right?
It’s a about the butts in the seats that’s the whole story. A fair number of butts, the experiment a success and mid week, non Tour events perhaps live to race in 2024. No butts they tried and need to be appreciated for that.
Too many divisions for a Wednesday night and they should cut the features back 5 or 10 laps when less than 20 cars,it was nice to see a great crowd.
Congratulations to Ronnie Adam Les and the whole #50 team. Great Job guys.
I agree with Doug. It’s totally disrespectful to put ANY team down, they are the show. As if any of you keyboard cowboys could do better. RESPECT.
Thompson hit on something, 50 laps, flat out, no stroking it, foot to the floor for 5k. Put up or shut up. This was a home run with a pretty decent crowd.
As far as the supers go, Seitz was in a zip code of his own from practice to heat race to feature.
I was a little disappointed at first at the car count (15) but the top 5 kept things interesting. Thanks to everyone that made up the field.
Chris Pasteryak put on a show, best I’ve seen him run in a while. I can’t count how many times he got shuffled back because of a bad lane or pass a car, have the yellow fly just to give the spot back. If he wouldn’t have got a little loose at the end Williams was in trouble. Great job Chris and crew, can’t wait to see what you got for the next one.
You can only race who shows up!!! Thats not the racers fault.
Thompson is on the right path with only 4 Tires and 50 laps, they need to tweek the purse next, 5k to win is not the bait the fish are biting, try 3k to win and 1500 to start, I am positive that will draw 10 plus additional cars.
They are advertising a 28k purse but thats for 32 cars, last night was 15 cars so paid out around
15-16k.
They could instead say its 28k no matter 10 cars or 32 show up and adjust payout to each car accordingly. That would spike some intrest
Much better crowd than I expected to see. The car count in all divisions was low, but overall I thought the racing was good. Hopefully the fans will continue to support the track and the promoters who have stepped up to the plate in an effort to save oval track racing at the Big T
Nice to see a good crowd on a Wednesday night! As far as the racing in general, it’s about quality, not quantity, and it was good, with battles throughout the fields in the Opens, SKL’s, and LM’s, with a wild finish to the Street Stocks. Yeah, we always need more cars to watch, but the ones that showed up put out some good racing. The fireworks were maybe part of the crowd draw, more families with young kids there, haven’t seen that in a long time.