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(Stafford Springs, CT)—When the Open Modified cars were last at Stafford Speedway for the NAPA Spring Sizzler®, hometown driver Woody Pitkat, who now calls Bellingham, MA home, looked like a contender until an on track issue after a restart sent him to the rear, eventually a mechanical issue eliminated him from the race and left him with a 24th place finish. Pitkat and the #88 Dunleavy’s Truck and Trailer Repair team will be looking to rebound from that misfortune and once again be among the contenders to win the Call Before You Dig 81 this Friday night, May 20 at Stafford.
“I’m excited to come back to Stafford as good as we were with a brand new car,” said Pitkat. “We learned a ton during the whole Sizzler® weekend and we ended up having a mechanical issue at the end of the race and you’d rather have something like that happen in a race other than “The Greatest Race in the History of Spring.” We had something in the rear end let go and that caused a vibration but we figured that out and got everything fixed and the rear end is more bulletproof now than it was. I was more disappointed after we made our pit stop that I got hit in the left front and the car wouldn’t turn so I had to stop on the track and get everything reset so we ended up going to the back of the field. We’re ready to get back at it and hopefully we can unload just as good as we were and we can make some small adjustments.”
Pitkat will be bringing the same #88 car to the CBYD 81 that he ran in the Sizzler®. Despite the car being brand new to the team and the team itself being new to working with each other, Pitkat showed plenty of speed before retiring from the race.
“I expected to be good just because of the fact that the team works so well together,” said Pitkat. “We’ve put this crew together over the past couple years with Eddie Harvey and Doug Dunleavy bought the team. I also brought some people over from the 6 car that I was driving for Stan Mertz and I figured everyone would work really well together. We tested the car a few days prior to the Sizzler® and the car had a lot of speed right from the get go so that gave us a lot of confidence going to Stafford and I can only assume we’re going to get better and better.”
One variable that Pitkat and the CBYD 81 field will have to contend with will be the fact that the temperature will be somewhere in the vicinity of 20 to 30 degrees warmer than it was in April for the Sizzler®. Pitkat is going to leave the setup decisions to his crew chief Cam McDermott but he expects to once again have a fast car and be a contender for the win.
“It’s going to be different with the temperature and then going from day to night,” said Pitkat. “At the Sizzler we started in the day and then the race ended up starting in the dark where this time around we’ll be starting and finishing in the dark. I’m not sure how much the temperature difference is going to affect the car, I’ll leave that to Cam [crew chief McDermott].”
One thing Pitkat is positive about is making his car better on the longer runs than he was at the Sizzler®, where he says his car suffered from being too good too early in the run.
“We had a good car at the Sizzler® but I think our issue was the car was too good a little too early,” said Pitkat. “I don’t know if we had a shot to beat Matt [Hirshcman] or Ryan [Preece] but we definitely had a good top-5 car and maybe even a top-3 car. We learned a lot about the car and we’ll be looking to contend for more wins.”
The 4th Annual CBYD 81 is scheduled for this Friday, May 20. Stafford’s SK Modified®, Late Model, SK Light, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions will join the Open Modifieds in feature action. Tickets for the CBYD 81 are available now online at StaffordSpeedway.com/tickets and tickets will also be available for purchase at the admission gates. Tickets for the CBYD 81 are $30.00 for adults, $10.00 for kids 6-14, and free for kids 5 & under. Reserved seating is priced at $35.00 for all ages and pit passes are $45.00 with a valid 2022 Stafford Competition License and $50.00 without a Stafford license. If you are unable to attend the event, tune into the live stream on FloRacing, the official streaming partner of Stafford Speedway.
For more information, visit www.staffordspeedway.com, checkout Stafford Speedway on Facebook or Twitter, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.
