{"id":23130,"date":"2018-05-08T16:43:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T20:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=23130"},"modified":"2018-05-07T20:44:47","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T00:44:47","slug":"rowan-pennink-sets-sight-on-vmrs-80-at-stafford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2018\/05\/rowan-pennink-sets-sight-on-vmrs-80-at-stafford\/","title":{"rendered":"Rowan Pennink Sets Sight On VMRS 80 at Stafford"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Rowan Pennink Sets Sight On VMRS 80 at Stafford<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Stafford Springs, CT)—When the Valenti Modified Racing Series descends upon Stafford Motor Speedway next Friday, May 18 for the VMRS 80, Rowan Pennink will be looking to continue his red hot start to the season. Pennink, the 2013 VMRS Champion, opened the season with a win at Thompson and most recently a VMRS win at Waterford, making him 2 for 3 thus far in 2018 behind the wheel of Gary Casella\u2019s #25 machine. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never expect to run like we have but you hope you can,\u201d said Pennink. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a really good car at all 3 races so far. Unfortunately at Monadnock we broke a heim joint and we weren\u2019t able to finish the race. All of the guys on the 25 team have been doing a great job bringing a fast car to every race and that makes my job a whole lot easier to drive a fast car. We won last September at Stafford and we won the last race of the season at Waterford in the MTS with the 25 car. If they can bring a car like that to Stafford for me, I think we can have a pretty good Friday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Pennink is to continue his winning ways, he will have to do so from the back of the pack at Stafford. VMRS rules state that the most recent feature winner will start in the last qualified position for the feature if the driver finishes in a qualified position following his or her heat race, no further back than 18th. But that fact doesn\u2019t seem to faze Pennink at all as he is confident he can race his way to the front no matter where he starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually don\u2019t mind starting at the back, that gives me a chance to run my own race and do my own thing,\u201d said Pennink. \u201cWe\u2019ll run at our own pace during the race and try to save as much tire as we can in the heat race. Knowing that we\u2019re starting in the back, we might try a little different strategy throughout the race and it should be fun. There\u2019s really no point to finishing any higher in the heat than we have to since we\u2019re starting in the back. Every time Gary\u2019s team brings the 25 to Stafford, we seem to have a chance to win the race. It hasn\u2019t always worked out that way, we\u2019ve had some rear end failures that have taken us out of race, but if not for that it seems like we\u2019ve always had a chance at winning and hopefully we can do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the VMRS 80 next Friday night and the Lincoln Tech 80, scheduled for August 31 at Stafford, Pennink and the #25 team will be coming to Stafford for the June 8 and July 13 Open Modified 80 shows. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re planning on running the 25 car at those 2 open shows,\u201d said Pennink. \u201cAny chance we get to run a Tour style modified at Stafford we will. I\u2019m sure they\u2019re going to be 2 great shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with his duties behind the wheel of the #25, Pennink will be looking to add his first SK Modified\u00ae feature win of the 2018 season. Pennink opened the 2018 season with a 6th place finish in the NAPA Spring Sizzler\u00ae feature and he finished 5th in the 40-lap SK Modified\u00ae feature last Friday night to currently occupy a 3-way tie with Matt Galko and Michael Gervais, Jr. for third place in the SK Modified\u00ae standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an issue with the engine at the Sizzler and we got that figured out for last Friday night, we just didn\u2019t have the handling quite where we needed it to be,\u201d said Pennink. \u201cWe got the engine squared away and if we can get the handing worked out, hopefully we\u2019ll be up front and contending for the win. Keith [Rocco] has been tough to keep up with so far, but things can change awful quickly at Stafford in the SK\u2019s so we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Valenti Modified Racing Series will take to the track next Friday, May 18 with qualifying beginning at 6:15pm. Stafford\u2019s five NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions will also be in action. Tickets for this event are priced at $30.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seat tickets are $32.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Motor Speedway offers plenty of free parking along with overnight parking available for self contained Recreational Vehicles. <\/p>\n

For the 28th consecutive season, the month of May is Youth Organization Month at Stafford. All children 14 & under are admitted FREE when wearing a youth organization team shirt or uniform. Children must be accompanied by a paying adult. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rowan Pennink Sets Sight On VMRS 80 at Stafford (Stafford Springs, CT)—When the Valenti Modified Racing Series descends upon Stafford Motor Speedway next Friday, May 18 for the VMRS 80, Rowan Pennink will be looking to continue his red hot start to the season. Pennink, the 2013 VMRS Champion, opened the season with a win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,16,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-stafford-connecticut","category-touring-series-news","category-valenti-modified-racing-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23131,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23130\/revisions\/23131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}