{"id":24413,"date":"2018-12-21T11:45:38","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T16:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=24413"},"modified":"2018-12-21T08:47:07","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T13:47:07","slug":"stan-mertz-racing-to-compete-in-inaugural-bullring-bash-quarter-mile-challenge%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2018\/12\/stan-mertz-racing-to-compete-in-inaugural-bullring-bash-quarter-mile-challenge%ef%bb%bf\/","title":{"rendered":"Stan Mertz Racing to Compete in Inaugural Bullring Bash Quarter Mile Challenge\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Attleboro, MA (December 20, 2018) \u2014 <\/strong>Stan Mertz Racing has announced that it will participate in multiple Bullring Bash Quarter Mile Challenge events in 2019 with its familiar #6 Modified. Two-time MRS champion and 2015 Thompson Speedway Sunoco Modified champion Woody Pitkat will continue his relationship with the team for the sixth straight year, and the team will make its Bullring Bash debut at White Mountain Motorsports Park on June 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time\u2014there are a lot of touring series going on right now,\u201d said team owner Stan Mertz. \u201cMy team has been an established SK team, and we\u2019re actually moving up into solely the Tour-Type divisions now, rather than how we spent the last four or five years at Thompson Speedway for the most part. The other thing that I like about these races is that it becomes a race of champions when you get these Tour-Types together, versus when you\u2019re at a weekly track. The level of competition is extremely high, and (founder) Josh (Vanada) has put together a great purse, which, as a car owner, really attracts me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been to White Mountain, so we\u2019re looking forward to going there. I\u2019ve heard a lot about it\u2014it\u2019s a fast little bullring, so we\u2019re looking forward to going these small tracks where we\u2019re going to be running the SK package, rather than the full-blown Tour-Type engine package that others may run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the quality of the field and purse, two things have stood out to Mertz in joining the Bullring Bash in 2019: extending the reach of Modified racing in New England, and running on short tracks where top drivers and crews are prioritized over simply horsepower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always about expanding the fanbase, especially in the Modified realm,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere are still a lot of areas in New England where Modifieds haven\u2019t really been that feature division or focus. There are still a lot of full-fendered tracks out there that love their Pro Stocks and Late Models. I think, in going out there and getting into new areas, we just want to be able to race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love going to the small bullrings\u2014those are my favorites, and that\u2019s where a lot of the power band is equalized. They\u2019re not horsepower tracks like Thompson or Stafford, so you can take a Modified that has many different engine configurations, and they\u2019re all equal. It all truly comes down to setup and how good your driver is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind Pitkat, Mertz\u2019s operation will remain relatively unchanged from its previous championship-winning seasons. The team will continue to compete with a Northeast Race Cars Troyer chassis and Ashaway Performance Engines will continue to supply motors. Norm Perry will also return as crew chief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re incredibly pleased to welcome Stan Mertz Racing to the Bullring Bash Quarter Mile Challenge for 2019,\u201d said Bullring Bash founder Josh Vanada. \u201cI\u2019ve known Stan for a long time, and his team has always been one of the top Modified teams anywhere they\u2019ve raced. Having Stan and Woody as our first publicly committed competitors just shows the quality of competition we expect at our events this season!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on Stan Mertz Racing, visit http:\/\/www.stanmertzracing.com<\/a>. To keep up with the Bullring Bash Quarter Mile Challenge, teams and fans can visit http:\/\/www.bullringbash.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attleboro, MA (December 20, 2018) \u2014 Stan Mertz Racing has announced that it will participate in multiple Bullring Bash Quarter Mile Challenge events in 2019 with its familiar #6 Modified. Two-time MRS champion and 2015 Thompson Speedway Sunoco Modified champion Woody Pitkat will continue his relationship with the team for the sixth straight year, and the […]<\/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":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-new-england","category-thompson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24413","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=24413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24414,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24413\/revisions\/24414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}