Tuesday night the Modifieds were back in action in the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway. TC and the Bear Motorsports team were hoping to get back on track after a night off and ride into Victory Lane. But they ended up derailed and need to regroup quickly.
Teddy was off the mark a bit in qualifying, posting the eighth fastest time of 17.809 seconds behind fast qualifier Charlie Pasteryak at 17.576 seconds. He barely made the redraw, but things quickly brightened as the last pill left in the bucket was the pole.
He jumped into the lead at the drop of the green flag with Pasteryak close behind. Donny Lia was on the move early from the sixth starting spot and on a lap six restart he climbed into second. Lia was anxious to take the lead and pressed Ted vigorously as Eric Beers waited patiently in third. On lap 8 Lia made a bonzai move on the inside entering turn three and collected the #14, sending him into the wall as the two were hooked together. Bear and the crew made quick repairs but the car was to be off the pace the remainder of the race.
Beers inherited the lead at that point over Buck Catalano and Pasteryak as TC did his best to gain as many positions as possible. Once again passing was at a premium and at the checkered flag Beers took his first win of the Series over Catalano, Pasteryak, J.R. Bertuccio and Mike Fitch. Teddy could manage no better than 22nd at the finish, putting him in a deep hole for the points championship. Billy Anderson won the night’s SK Bonus with a 17th place in the final rundown.
“We all know how hard it is to pass here,” stated TC. “I guess Lia got a little impatient and just drove over the rumble strips in turn three to get under me. We got hooked together and after that I was just along for the ride. Even though these are short races, you still have to show a little patience and pick your spots. Tonight Lia didn’t use his head and it ended up costing both of us a good finish. We’ve got a lot of points to make up but we’ll have the car fixed and be ready for tomorrow night. Winning races is what we need to do to catch up and we’re going to be on a mission from this point on.”
Finish: 1. Eric Beers 2. Buck Catalano 3. Charlie Pasteryak 4. J.R. Bertuccio 5. Mike Fitch 6. John Blewett 7. Donny Lia 8. Bo Gunning 9. John Bush 10. Kevin Goodale 11. Chuck Hossfeld 12. George Bock 13. Jimmy Winters 14. Chris Young 15. Justin Gaydosh 16. Jim Storace 17. Billy Anderson (SK Bonus) 18. John White 19. Terry Zacharias 20. Carl Erickson 21. Stash Butova 22. Ted Christopher 23. Andy Seuss 24. Jr. Swansbrough 25. Jeff Malave 26. Steve Malbach 27. Adam Horwith 28. George Kent
Current Points: 1. Eric Beers 430 2. Donny Lia 404 3. Charlie Pasteryak 400 4. Ted Christopher 378 5. J.R. Bertuccio 367 6. John Bush 366 7. Buck Catalano 362 8. George Kent 338 9. Kevin Goodale 338 10. John Blewett 336 11. Jeff Malave 330 12. Chris Young 328 13. Jim Storace 312 14. Mike Fitch 312 15. Bill Anderson (SK) 310 16. John White (SK) 308 17. Andy Seuss 300 18. George Bock 286 19. Justin Gaydosh 284 20. Jimmy Winters 280 21. Stash Botova (SK) 274 22. Adam Horwith 234 23. Bo Gunning 230
24. John Jensen 216 25. Steve Malbach 188 26. Steve Whitt 182 27. George Swansbrough 146 28. Chuck Hossfeld 124 29. Terry Zacharias (SK) 58 30. Carl Eriksson (SK) 56
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