This past weekend NASCAR’s Whelen Modified Tour rolled into Thompson International Speedway (Thompson, CT) for the World Series of Speedway Racing presented by Xtra Mart. The 150-lap event marked the close of the 2009 race season for the WMT.

On Saturday, persistent rain showers caused the cancellation of all on-track activity. As a result of Saturday’s washout – practice was cut to 30 minutes and qualifying was canceled (the field was set according to points).

On Sunday, the WMT teams ran in a brief practice session. Following the practice all WMT drivers participated in an autograph session for the fans in attendance.

At approximately 4:35 the green flag waved signifying the start of the final event of the WMT’s 25^th season. The UNION Insurance Group/SpaceFitters Chevrolet started the race from the 25^th starting spot. When the caution came out on lap 43, the team brought the car to pit road for tires and fuel and adjustments. Shortly thereafter, on lap 82, Renee spun her ill-handling car trying to stay in front of the leaders. Eventually, the No. 90 car would find its way back onto the lead-lap (via the Lucky Dog) – but with about 20 to go – the car developed an electrical problem. After losing several laps in the pits, the team remedied the situation and returned the car to the track. In the end the electrical problem forced the team to finish the race three laps down from the leaders.

Teddy Christopher won the race and Donnie Lia captured the Championship. The No. 90 car was credited with a 16^th place finish.

“We had all sorts of problems today,” recounted Renee. “We were loose from the start. Then we lost the brakes. We seemed to fix all that during our many stops – then we lost power with an electrical problem. It’s certainly not how we wanted to end the season.”

With the 2009 season in the record book, we look forward to keeping your updated with off-season news and notes. Please check back for frequent updates.

With snow gently falling over much of the state and temperatures dropping into the mid-30s – and more bad weather in the forecast – Thompson International Speedway officials have postponed the World Series of Speedway Racing.

Originally scheduled for this weekend, the event has been postponed until Oct. 23-25. The schedule for the weekend will remain the same. This is just the second race during the 2009 season that has been postponed.

According to published reports in The Hartford Courant, Don Hoenig (Thompson’s track owner ) was quoted as saying:  “We desperately wanted to run the World Series event this weekend. But, when virtually every weather forecast is predicting a complete wash out, we felt we had no choice but to move everything to next weekend.”

Next Saturday’s schedule calls for Whelen Modified Tour qualifying at 2:30 PM, with the 150-lap Whelen Modified Tour race going off on Sunday at approximately 3:30 PM.

This past weekend NASCAR’s Whelen Modified Tour returned to Stafford Motor Speedway (Stafford Springs, CT) for the running of the 37^th annual Carquest Fall Final.

Despite persistent rain showers on Saturday, the WMT hit the track for a few rounds of practice. And, despite posting the 10th fastest practice time during the brief session, the No. 90 car unexpectedly developed a problem under the hood.

After weighing all their options, the team principals decided to take a provisional starting position into Sunday’s field – then do a ‘start and park’ during the race.

“After putting our heads together we came up with a few options, but realistically none of them were any good,” said Renee. “We opted for a ‘start and park’ because we just can’t take the chance of hurting this engine. Looking at the big picture, basically we sacrificed Stafford so we could have the engine back together in time for the season-ending race at Thompson.”

As Renee stated, next up on the WMT’s schedule is Thompson International Speedway’s annual World Series of Speedway Racing. The three-day event – featuring 14 different divisions – will run on October 16-18.