NASCAR Announces 2012 WMT/WSMT Schedules
Today, NASCAR announced the 2012 schedules for both the NASCAR Whelen Modified and Whelen Southern Modified Tours.
In its 28th season of competition, the WMT will feature a 14-race schedule. While, in just its 8th season, a 12-race schedule was announced for the WSMT.
“We’ve been looking forward to the release of both schedules. Now that they’re out, Ed and I will sit down with our team and sponsors and determine a schedule that works for us,” said Renee. “In all likelihood, we’ll do a combination of North and South races – similar to what we ran in 2011.”
WMT
April 15 – Thompson International Speedway
April 29 – Stafford Motor Speedway
May 12 – Monadnock Speedway
May 25 – Stafford Motor Speedway
June 23 – Waterford Speedbowl
July 14 – New Hampshire Motor Speedway
July 28 – Riverhead Raceway
August 3 – Stafford Motor Speedway
August 9 – Thompson International Speedway
August 22 – Bristol Motor Speedway
September 9 – Thompson International Speedway (WMT/WSMT Showdown)
September 22 – New Hampshire Motor Speedway
September 30 – Stafford Motor Speedway
October 14 – Thompson International Speedway
WSMT
March 25 – Caraway Speedway
April 7 – Caraway Speedway
April 14 – South Boston Speedway
April 21 – Caraway Speedway
July 6 – Caraway Speedway
August 4 – Bowman Gray Stadium
August 22 – Bristol Motor Speedway
September 1 – Langley Speedway
September 9 – Thompson International Speedway (WMT/WSMT Showdown)
September 29 – Caraway Speedway
October 11 – Charlotte Motor Speedway
November 3 – Rockingham Speedway
Dupuis Closes Out the Season at Tri-County
This past weekend, Renee again traveled to North Carolina for the running of the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour event at Tri-County Motor Speedway (Hudson, NC).
Once again in an Ed Bennett-owned, UNION Insurance Group backed Chevrolet – the team first participated in two practice sessions.
Following practice, came qualifying. Adding some drama, Dupuis spun coming to the green during time trials – then put up a time that landed her on the top of the qualifying charts. While her time didn’t hold up on the pole, it did end up being the 4th fastest time of the day – her best qualifying effort of the season.
After an autograph session on Tri-County’s front stretch, the green flag waved for the 150-lap feature at approximately 8 PM. NASCAR’s lap-by-lap recap of the race can be found here. Starting from the outside of the second row, Dupuis wasted no time in moving forward and was running in second place by the second lap.
“We felt like Tri-County was going to be similar in pace to Hickory,” explained Dupuis. “So, right away, we gave a bunch of spots away – looking strictly to just ride somewhere in the top-10 for the first 100 laps. Like Hickory, we thought the pace they were setting out front would never work.”
The strategy was playing out as Renee lost a couple of spots in the melee that caused the caution on lap 38 – but recovered and was running solidly in the top-10 at the 100-lap mark.
“With about 50 to go, I started to go. At first I could see we were catching the pack in front of us – but with like 25 to go all we could do was pretty much maintain.”
When the yellow flag waved with just 5 laps remaining, Renee was in the 7th position. The team opted to bring the car to pit road for adjustments – with the goal of grabbing a few positions on the green-white-checkered finish.
“We made a real bad call there at the end and didn’t get out of the pits fast enough to get back in position for the restart. It cost us two spots in the finish.”
In the end, the No. 59 car was credited with a 9th place finish. The Tri-County race likely marked the end of the season for Renee.
“In looking back over the season, I think we learned a lot. We ran at a bunch of places I’ve never been to. And we ran races
[150-laps events with no pit stops] we clearly weren’t used to running,” offered Renee. “At each race we obviously unloaded competitive cars – I can’t thank Ed and my guys enough for that. We just didn’t hit the actual races the way we needed to. I know if we go back, we will approach each race a bit differently. Whether it’s making minor tweaks to the set-up or changing our strategy I think we all have a better understanding of what it takes to race down South.”
Plug Wire Hinders Thompson Run
Over the past weekend, Renee competed in the UNOH Showdown at Connecticut’s Thompson International Speedway. 46 cars in were attendance for the inaugural combination NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and Whelen Southern Modified Tour event – which featured twin 125-lap features followed by a 50-lap shootout.
Following two practice sessions, each series participated in qualifying – where Renee turned in the 15th fastest time for the WSMT.
On Sunday morning, all of the teams in attendance participated in an extended autograph session on Thompson’s front stretch.
At approximately 1:30, the green flag fell for the WSMT 125 lapper. Renee wasted no time moving forward and was running in 8th place by lap 25. Just 10 laps later, she moved into 6th position. However, just a few laps later Renee experienced a loss of horsepower.
“We obviously had a really good car so it was really disappointing,” Renee explained. “Up until that point we really were just riding around out there – it was early, we were just saving our tires.”
In the end, the team discovered a plug wire had fallen off – so essentially Renee ran the last 90 or so laps on just seven cylinders. The team was credited with an 11th place finish.
In the 50-lap shootout, Renee started from the 10th position. The team opted to drop out of the race at about the half-way point when they felt they had more to lose than gain.
“We didn’t like the pack of cars we found ourselves running with and felt we stood a strong chance of getting wrecked. So, like several other teams, we just plain pulled the plug.”
A re-cap of the weekend activities can be found by clicking here.
Next up the team again heads south to Tri-County Motor Speedway for a NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour race on Saturday, September 24.