Preece Going for Three in a Row at Riverhead
Ryan Preece comes into the Green Earth Technologies 200 as one of the favorites to win at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway this Saturday. He’s won the last two NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events at the Long Island bullring, as well as four NASCAR Whelen All-American Series events there this season. Now he’s going for three straight Tour wins at Riverhead, a feat that has been done only once before by Mike Ewanitsko when he won three races in a row during the 1997-98 seasons.
“That’s pretty insane,” said Preece when he heard he could become just the second driver to win three straight at Riverhead. “I know that Mike pretty much ran Riverhead, so to possibly tie him, that would be an honor and great for what we need this season.”
A good run on Saturday is needed for Preece who had a rocky month of August on the Tour. He spun out at Stafford (Conn.) Speedway on Aug. 2nd on the final lap because of a flat right-rear tire and finished 16th as a result. Then at Thompson (Conn.) Speedway on Aug. 15th he spun once, and then crashed on the final lap relegating him to a 13th place finish. He had a much better run at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway where he finished fourth, but the team was penalized six points for failing post race technical inspection.
“We’ve had a tough few races,” said Preece, “with the NASCAR tech thing, the flat tire, and nothing going our way in Thompson. But we’ve been a winning car pretty much everywhere we’ve gone.”
Preece seems to be at home at the short tracks with four of his wins coming on the bullrings. He is tied for third on the active wins list at Riverhead with Ted Christopher. Out of all active drivers only Mike Stefanik and Donny Lia have more. In addition to his three Riverhead wins he’s also won at Monadnock (N.H.) Speedway.
“Sometimes I wish I could excel at Stafford or Thompson but it just isn’t that way,” said Preece. “But maybe it’s the driving style I have of a loose racecar and it works at the short track. I’ve been very fortunate to win at Bowman-Gray and Monadnock and Riverhead.”
While Preece looks for his third straight Riverhead win, there are 29 other drivers on the entry list who are looking to keep him out of victory lane, and quite a few of them call Riverhead their home track.
Justin Bonsignore of Holtsville, N.Y. won the 2011 Riverhead track championship in the NWAAS Modified division, as well as the 2011 Tour event at Riverhead. Riverhead is also his home racetrack. Bonsignore came close to getting his second victory at Riverhead in this race one year ago when he finished second to Preece.
“We’ve been close,” said Bonsignore. “Last year we were catching him near the end before we got shuffled out on a late restart and then came back to finish second. This year we raced our way up from a not so great starting spot and then Ryan got a flat on a restart and collected Ronnie Silk and I.”
As many have said in the past, winning at Riverhead takes a lot of luck, and Bonsignore agrees.
“If we get luck I think we can beat him,” said Bonsignore. “We’ve proved over the years that we are strong there and I’m excited to go back.”
Bonsignore feels there is a little bit of an extra incentive to win at Riverhead than anywhere else.
“There’s a little bit more of an incentive to win being that it’s your home track and in front of friends and family,” said Bonsignore. “But we are such a good team that we can win anywhere. We need to win everywhere, not just Riverhead.”
Eric Goodale of Riverhead has come close on multiple occasions to finally getting his first career Tour victory, especially at Riverhead. He led a career-high 35 laps in this race in 2012 before fading to seventh, and he rallied from the rear of the field in June to finish second to Preece.
“I always love racing in front of my friends and family,” said Goodale. “This is a race where they can come see it themselves and it gives me the stage to prove what my team is capable of doing. But I don’t hold it higher than any other race because I feel we can win at all the tracks.”
Goodale said that he believes the key to beating Preece on Saturday night is qualifying ahead of him.
“He knows exactly what it is that he wants in his car to be able to drive the inside or the outside,” said Goodale. “My idea to beat him is qualify ahead of him and stay in front the whole race. Ryan doesn’t make many mistakes so you can’t rely on a mistake to get by.”
It will be tough to beat Preece on Saturday night as he has proven to show strength on quarter-miles and his race team, Flamingo Motorsports, is so stable.
“I’ve gone twice with Flamingo and won twice,” said Preece. “Hopefully we can do that again this weekend and put on a show. I’d like to think I’m the badass at quarter-miles, but anybody who knows me knows I’m not a badass.”
Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam