WATERFORD — All throughout 2015, New London Waterford Speedbowl SK Modified driver Diego Monahan has been successful taking one race at a time.
So what will happen on a night where there are two races scheduled?
Monahan says his game plan for the Laps for Lupus Twin SK 30s Saturday at the Speedbowl will be the same as it always is.
“We’re going to go all out and take chances to win the first race,” Monahan said. “When you have someone like Keith Rocco behind you playing catch-up — and he’s really playing catch-up — I figure I need to win almost every race to win the title. So we’re going all out in Race 1 and we’ll worry about the second race after the first race is over.”
Monahan will start the night with an 8 point lead over Rocco in the standings. Tyler Chadwick is 14 points behind, Rob Janovic Jr. is 19 points off the lead and Ted Christopher is 28 points behind with four races left, making for the closest Modified points battle in recent Speedbowl history.
The Modified will be joined Saturday by the second and final appearance of the Year by the Northeast Midget Association (NEMA) and the NEMA Lights.
The X-Cars and Super X-Cars of Thursday Night Thunder will have 40-lap features.
The main focus, however, will be on the Modifieds and a point battle that could go down to the wire.
“I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing,” Monahan said. “And if a title is in the cards, we’ll win it. As long as we finish races and go hard for every lap, I think we’ve got the best shot of anyone.”
Monahan knows, however, he’ll have to deal with Rocco, the three-time Modified champ, who was a winner in last week’s 35-lap feature. He seems to be recovered from a badly-sprained right wrist that slowed him down in the middle of the season.
“I like to race as often as I can, so two races in one night is a great opportunity,” Rocco said. “Most people try to survive in the first race and make sure they have a car for the second race. But I’m not really sure what my strategy is. At the end of the night, it will be either my might or Diego’s night. It will be good for one of us.”
Monahan, going for his first SK title, is hoping the good night will belong to him.
“To be in this position this late in the season is something I’ve never gone through before,” Monahan said, “so I want to go as fast as I can. And that means driving hard and driving aggressively. We talk about it in the shop every day and my crew is on board with it. We’re not going to sit back.
“If we can stay within a spot or two with Rocco in every race, we should be in good shape. And I think we can do it because we have equal cars.”
There are two sides, however, to an aggressive style, and the other side could be at the end of a wrecker.
“If something bad happens to me in the first race, I’m in trouble, but I don’t believe in jinxing myself,” Monahan said. “If we can come out of Saturday night with the point lead, I think we’ll have a showdown for the final weekend.”
And he might have to fine-tune his strategy even more — one lap at a time.
The NEMA Midgets and NEMA Lights will be competing in the Jim O’Brien Memorial races.
Last week at Monadnock. Joey “The Jersey Jet” Payne became the ninth winner in 12 races in the NEMA main event while Megan Cugini won her first NEMA Light race of the year.
As they get ready for Saturday’s 25-lap features, John Zych has a 66 point lead over defending champ Randy Cabral in the NEMA standings. Seth Carlson, who won on Aug. 8 at the Speedbowl, 114 points out of the lead.
Anthony Payne leads the Lights standings by 73 points..
The X-Cars and Super-X cars have wrapped up their regular season. Dave Gargaro Jr. was a winner in the X-cars and Brian Norman won the Super-X Car feature.