(Stafford Springs, CT)—For Ryan Preece and the #16 Diversified Metals
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour team, the 2012 season couldn’t have gotten off
to a much better start than it has. In the first three races of the 2012
season, Preece and his team have won the pole position for all three events,
giving them four consecutive pole positions dating back to the final race of
2011, and they have led 361 of the 534 laps that have been completed thus
far. With Preece securing his first victory since joining the #16 team for
the last race of the 2011 season last week at Monadnock, he is looking to
continue his hot streak when the Whelen Modified Tour returns to Stafford
next Friday night for the 22nd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125.
“We’ve run pretty good, it’s a good season right now, but there’s plenty of
races left,” said Preece. “I honestly couldn’t say why we’re running so
well. Sly [Szaban] knows what he’s doing, and whatever he is doing is
working for me and it’s definitely going the way we dreamed so far. You don
’t really get this very often, so we’re kind of riding the wave right now
and see how long it lasts. 4 poles in a row is an accomplishment in itself,
I just read where Mario Fiore was saying that only two other people have
done that, Mike Stefanik and Mike McLaughlin, so that’s pretty cool.”
Preece enters the TSI Harley-Davidson 125 sitting third in the NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour points standings, only 4 points behind defending champion
Ronnie Silk and three points behind CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler winner
Doug Coby. With how well the team has run in the first three races of the
2012 season, combined with Preece’s experience and track knowledge at
Stafford, confidence is running high for next Friday night’s TSI
Harley-Davidson 125.
“I feel that every track we go to, we go to do as well as we can,” said
Preece. “Did we expect to go to Stafford and Monadnock and win the pole,
no, but right after practice we knew we had a car capable of doing it. I
know the team is more capable of winning poles and races, I think that’s
already been showed, all we have to do is be in the right places and keep
doing what we’ve been doing and we should be pretty good for the rest of the
season. Everyone gets along really well on the team, and when you go to the
races, you want to have fun. That’s what we’re doing, we’re having a good
time and things seem to be going our way right now. Obviously at some point
we have to come down from cloud nine, but right now we’re trying to stay up
there.”
In each of the last two years on the Whelen Modified Tour, the winner of the
TSI Harley-Davison 125 has gone on to win the championship that year. In
addition to Ronnie Silk last year and Bobby Santos, III in 2010, Donny Lia
in 2007 and Tony Hirschman in 2004 have also won the TSI Harley-Davidson 125
and the championship in the same year. While Preece would like to join that
list of drivers, he cautions it is still too early in the season to begin
thinking about points.
“It’s way too early, I won’t even start looking at points until October,”
said Preece. “To be where we are this early in the season after what
happened to us at Thompson, it feels pretty good, but there’s still a lot of
racing between now and the end of the year and a lot of things can happen.
We’ll see how it goes and hopefully things will go our way.”
Tickets for the 22nd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125 are available and on
sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $33.00 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
seating will be priced at $35.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include
10% CT Admission Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free
parking with overnight parking available.
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