Ryan Preece came from behind Tuesday night, winning the 35-lap Tour Modified event at the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna.
It was far from easy for Preece, who started eighth thanks to the pre-race invert.
No matter. Preece moved to the front quickly, his charge being highlighted by a three-wide pass of both Timmy Solomito and Chuck Hossfeld to move to the second position. He passed Tommy Catalano to take the lead on lap 15 and didn’t look back, leading the rest of the way.
It was all about friends this week for Preece, and the win was clearly significant in that regard.
“What’s really special about this is that it’s all my friends,” Preece said in Victory Lane. “We’re all buddies from home, they come down, and it’s a yearly thing.”
One of Preece’s first supporters, Mike Paquette, was the maker of Preece’s winning ride, adding yet another layer of sweetness to the victory.
“Mike Paquette gave me an opportunity in 2010 with Bob Hitchcock,” said Preece. “That’s really what got my career going, so to be able to debut this car as a tour car and be as good as it is, I’m really pumped.”
The night went better for Preece than did Monday’s Tour Modified opener that saw Preece get stuck in gear at the very beginning of the race. Preece finished a disappointing 13th in that one but showed speed when trying to rally through the field. That speed translated to a victory the very next evening.
A massive pileup on a restart with 14 laps to go took out six cars, including last night’s runner up who was later disqualified, Patrick Emerling.
Behind Preece was Jimmy Blewett in second, earning his first podium finish of the 2019 World Series of Asphalt.
“We need to find a little more balance,” said Blewett. “Since we unloaded last Thursday, we’ve just been working on that fine-tune… Maybe overdid it a little too much.”
Last night’s winner Doug Coby finished third, making a late charge after spending much of the race in the back half of the top-10.
“We just missed a little bit tonight,” said Coby. “We made some adjustments based on how I thought the car was last night. We figured in a 35-lapper, we’d have to pass some cars… We made a few changes. Didn’t quit work, so we gotta go back to the drawing board.”
Tomorrow night, the Tour Modifieds take to the track for one of its two biggest races of the week, the John Blewett III Memorial 76, before finishing the week with a 35-lapper on Thursday and the finale on Friday night, the Richie Evans Memorial 100.
The full results of tonight’s race can be found below:
- Ryan Preece
- Jimmy Blewett
- Doug Coby
- Chuck Hossfeld
- Tommy Catalano
- Amy Catalano
- Anthony Nocella
- Calvin Carroll
- Jeff Goodale
- Dave Sapienza
- Chris Ridsdale
- Nikki Carroll
- Andy Jankowiak
- Dylan Steuer
- Jeremy Gerstner
- Timmy Solomito
- Patrick Emerling
- Matt Hirschman
- Jeffrey Gallup
- Mike Willis Jr.
- Al Amarino
- Tom Tonn
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