“Digging Deep With Denise” is a semi-regular question and answer feature with local racers and racing personalities produced by RaceDayCT’s Denise DuPont
On Saturday the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour competed at Monadnock Speedway, a paved one-quarter-mile oval track in Winchester, N.H. Twenty-one teams competed in the 250-lap feature event. Trevor Catalano of Ontario, N.Y., qualified third, started the race fifth and went forward to capture his first series victory.
During the race Catalano and Stephen Kopcik made contact on lap 131 both spinning and bringing out a caution. Catalano restarted the race just outside the top-10 and charged forward to take the lead on lap 195. As the race closed, the 17-year held off advances of series points leader and reigning champion current Ron Silk to win the Duel at the Dog 250.
Thoughts on Duel at the Dog 250 race …
“I fired off a little too tight for the short runs, so we tried to play our cards and drop back a little bit. We just rode around hanging out somewhere from eighth to 10th for most of the race. We made this plan at the start of the day. Most of the people told us they were going to pit twice and come in to take rears. Me and my dad decided that we were going to take one tire. We were going to try to play the strategy and go for the win. Knowing that, I tried to take care of the tires that we were not going to pit for: which was the right front, left front and left rear. On lap 131, I was in eighth and decided I was going to try to get in seventh. I peeked my nose under Stephen Kopcik and he got free and we got together. He came down and I was trying to stay off of him and let him gather it up at the same time, but we spun. We went back to around twelfth position after that. We gained a few spots before the last caution came out. (Lap 180 caution) I said to my dad: ‘Everyone is coming in do we want to come in. Do we want to come in?’ He said: ‘Nope, we made our spot we are staying out.’
“I did not think that we had it in us to be able to hold Silk off. I thought we would be OK and have a top five finish, both because of our strategy and it was tough to pass. Drivers were struggling to pass. It felt like we did not have the drive off to pass people. So, our only really strategy then was to stay out, take the track position and hopefully we could hold him off. And we did.”
Thoughts on the pit stop and race strategy …
“It puts a lot of strategy into it. I felt if there was only going to be one caution, then everyone would be on the same strategy. Sometimes, I go to these races and there is only one caution on lap 90 in a 250-lap race. Then if there is a caution at 130 laps, everybody comes in. So, if you come in on lap 90 then you stay out for the next caution, you take the gamble and try to gain track position before the last pitstop later in the race. But in the end, it is tough to say. Because a lot of people are going to do what the leader does just to stay on the same strategy”.
On the 21-car field at Monadnock …
“I feel like the [Whelen Modified Tour] has had a lot more cars this year than in the last couple of years. Meaning car count has gone up this year. A place like Monadnock, I like to have [21] cars. The Tour may not like it but having 28 or 29 cars on a quarter mile is a lot of cars. And there is a lot going on on the track.
“We have been treated amazingly on the tour and we have love it. This is probably the most fun that we have had as a family in a couple of years. Last year … we tried to go somewhere else. We were trying to do all of it and we ended up with maybe one weekend off last year.
“This year on some off weekend we may go and do some dirt racing which is just fun. It is just a completely different world out there. And then we have time that we can actually put into the Tour cars. I feel that we have made progress with all three Tour cars this year. Every track that we go to all three cars could be in a top ten with one right move.”
Is racing a hobby, a passion …
“It is a hobby for us. For me personally, I just got done with high school and now I will be going to college. We all get home around [5 p.m.]. We go inside and change and come out and work on the cars until 10 or 11 p.m. We laugh and work on everybody’s car. We all try to work to get better. It brings our family together. It allows us to all come together and work on the cars and gives us something to talk about.”
Favorite Track?
“[Holland Speedway]. It is a track that many people may not know the track which is kind of funny. My favorite track is Holland Speedway which is in Buffalo, NY. I like to drive in deep. So, I like to over charge the corner and I can get into the center and off the corner. I am not used to lifting early. So, at Monadnock I really struggle at because in turn three and four I usually miss the corner for driving in too deep.
“I do like Holland a lot. It has a lot of banking and it has two grooves. A lot of people run the bottom, but I prefer the top. So, I run way high and above everybody else that is there. Since I have started racing, Holland has been one of my favorite tracks. And I do not know if it is because I always have done good there, but I think it just fits my driving style more.”
Which Modified series do you prefer competing in …
“I have only run the [Race of Champions Series] and the [Whelen Modified Tour]. I like the Tour best because I feel if you run good at the Tour you can run a lot of places. There are not a lot of places where you can go and say you ran with Matt Hirschman, Ryan Preece, Justin Bonsignore, Ron Silk… The tour just seems to bring the best of the best for modifieds. Any track that they go to throughout the year you are going to race against the best guys in the Modified business.”
You work together in the shop, when on the track it it every driver for themselves or do you work together …
“On the track it is a family effort. On the track if I get to Tommy and he thinks that I am better at the time, he will just let me go. We try to help one another. If one person is better than us at the time, we just let them go because maybe they can go up there and win the race. Then we can celebrate! Or maybe their car is good right now but I think my car may be better in the long run. And maybe it is better in the long run and I get back to Tommy, he lets me go. It always been of one of us we think is better we try to do the nice thing and let them go. If we make an adjustment and we think it is an adjustment that might help Tommy, we let him know, ‘Hey we did this, it may help ya.’ So, we try to help each other the whole time which is huge. We have three teams there but it is like one team the whole time.”
Does the family go to the track with a plan …
“It all kinds of just happens. We all have our own crew chiefs which makes it all run smoother at the track. My dad is my crew chief so when we get to the track, we got what we got. You can make small adjustments here and there but you are not going to make big swings and make up a ton of ground.
“[At Monadnock Speedway] we were fast in practice. We were second for the first 30 minutes at Monadnock. Then we just missed our mark. We told Tyler we were pretty good.
“We kind of all leave the shop with the same setup for the most part. There are a couple of different things because of the driver preference. It is really just how your race goes. One of us may get caught up in a little jingle then the other one of us is in front. Then that one may get caught up in a jingle. It just kind of has been how did your race play out kind of thing for the whole year. I really feel that we could have finished with a top ten in every race that we ran this year and then we just had some bad luck throughout the year. We lost a couple of motors, we got into a jingle took us out of Riverhead and then at New Hampshire we were running around third and had to come in because of a hole in the left front. So, we have just had some bad luck.
“Tommy has a lot of speed which a lot of people do not realize the speed he has had. But with the speed it does not really show much. We will go one place and he may lose a brake so he is hanging on. Or he loses a motor. It just seems like something seems to happen when he is at the track. This weekend the shifter broke in his car. So, it just has been an up and down time for him.”
Where did Tyler Catalano learn how to race …
“My mom actually taught most of us to race. My mom spotted for me my first-year racing. Then Tommy spotted for me for two to three years. They used to tell us that it was like a (radio controlled) car because we would go to places that Tommy was fast at, and he would tell us where to lift, this is where you get on the gas and this is where you do this and that. And I would go out there and listen to him. So that was where the joke was that he was driving the RC car from the spotter stand. Tommy has taught me almost everything that I know which is cool. I will see him do something on the track and I will think – ‘Hey you told me to do that.’ So, it is cool to race against him Tommy is definitely smarter than me. I see him do something and I think that it was something that I should have done 3 laps ago.’
“But my mom got us all into racing. And my dad of course. They actually met racing at a track near us, then it all just kind of carried over into a big family thing.”
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