The Whelen Modified Tour made its first of four stops at Stafford Motor Speedway (Stafford Springs, CT) on Sunday, April 26. Sunday marked the 38th running of Stafford’s annual ‘Spring Sizzler’ event.
The weekend opened, for the WMT, with a mid-morning practice session on Saturday. Time trails followed and, despite a dreaded early draw (the car was just the 6th to take the track) – of the 36 cars on hand – the No. 90 team qualified 23rd fastest.
On Sunday the team participated in Stafford’s Pit Party. The hour-long event provided the thousands of fans in attendance with the chance to meet their favorite drivers and get an up-close look at the cars that would take to the track that afternoon.
Starting the 200-lap race from the favored inside lane, the team stuck to their strategy of just trying to stay out of trouble.
“We approached the race conservatively. We just wanted to stay on the lead lap for the first 150-laps. Then, the plan was to go racing for the last 50,” explained Renee.
Despite a good plan, the day quickly unraveled following contact with the 32 car – on just the 22nd lap. Following a solid trip into the outside retaining wall in turn four, the car was removed from the racing surface – with the aid of two wreckers.
The No. 90 car comes to rest with right-side damage. Photo by Howie Hodge.
“I thought we gave him plenty of room. Apparently not. I don’t know if he got loose and came up into us or if his spotter just cleared him too soon. I don’t really know what the deal was, other than it was way too early for something so stupid to happen.”
Regardless, the team will have the opportunity to try it all again as they return to Stafford on Friday, May 22 for their next WMT event – a 100 lap race. For more information on the event, please visit Stafford’s website.