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Photo Tom Morris Racing Photography
The 40th anniversary season of the NASCAR WMT started in the deep south. The 4th annual event at New Smyrna Speedway had a fair share of cautions but the green flag laps provided lead changes, different pit strategies and drivers coming from the back. The race ended with a big win for the upstate New York driver Patrick Emerling.
31 NASCAR Whelen Modifieds would take the green with a solid field of rookies and veterans. Increased purses and a huge point fund in 2025 should keep the car counts throughout season.
Motor issues earlier in the day could not stop Patrick from visiting victory lane in the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 at New Smyrna Speedway. In his victory lane interview he spoke about his confidence in the team, the car and himself. It was Patrick’s eight career win and his fourth with the #1 Fleetworks team.
Pre race favorites Justin Bonsignore and Ron Silk both had their hands full with flat tires and on track incidents. Justin, after falling back as far as 30th place, finished a solid 3rd. Ron Silk worked his way to the front after struggling early but tangled with Chris Hatton finishing 9th.
Luke Baldwin is the real deal, the young driver in the iconic 7NY made famous by his grandfather showed his 2024 SMART Tour championship was no fluke. After taking Hoosier pole he brought the field to green was a contender for the win coming home 4th at the finish.
Austin Beers showed he will be a force to be reckoned with a solid run and a 5th place finish.
Craig Lutz had a couple of chances late in the race to take the lead, but no one would touch Patrick Emerling.
Matt Hirschman’s day was up and down, he led laps waiting for a caution to change tires that came late too late and an oil leak lead to a black flag took away any chance to win.
The race went to overtime after a late race caution ending with a green white checkers. and a 206 laps.
16 cars finished on the lead lap.
Mark Stewart was the first car 1 lap down but with a destroyed race car after a hard turn four wreck.
Jacob Lutz showed speed all day but front end damage from an incident on the front stretch ended his day on lap 29. Jacob will be in position to win at some point of the season.
The NASCAR WMT will be off until the last weekend in March, up next the Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park Saturday March 30th. With the Richmond race moved to August the WMT has about 6 weeks off. This is the first race of three at Thompson that will have a $25,000 point fund for teams that have not competed at the track in the last three years.
Unofficial Finishing Order 2/8/2025
Start Car # Driver Sponsor Laps Diff
| 1 | 1 | Patrick Emerling | Fleetworks Inc | 206 | |
| 2 | 46 | Craig Lutz | Riverhead Building Supply | 206 | 0.380 |
| 3 | 51 | Justin Bonsignore | Phoenix Communications, Inc. | 206 | 0.659 |
| 4 | 7 | Luke Baldwin* | Baldwin Automotive | 206 | 0.740 |
| 5 | 64 | Austin Beers | G&G Electrical Supply/Dell Electric/Lumiere Electrical | 206 | 0.918 |
| 6 | 21 | Stephen Kopcik | Wanick Construction/Karchner/Franzosa Trucking | 206 | 1.017 |
| 7 | 58 | Eric Goodale | GAF Roofing | 206 | 1.284 |
| 8 | 8 | Ryan Newman | Bass Pro Shops/Cabelas/USNE/Eighty-two services/Anglers Choice | 206 | 1.577 |
| 9 | 16 | Ron Silk | Blue Mountain Machine/Future Homes | 206 | 1.718 |
| 10 | 24 | Andrew Krause | Supreme Manufacturing | 206 | 1.789 |
| 11 | 3 | Tyler Rypkema | USNE/Northeast Drilling | 206 | 2.004 |
| 12 | 25 | Brian Robie | Bar Harbor Bank and Trust | 206 | 2.072 |
| 13 | 56 | Trevor Catalano | USNE/Catalano Motorsports | 206 | 2.248 |
| 14 | 54 | Tommy Catalano | FX Caprara/USNE/Catalano Motorsports | 206 | 2.654 |
| 15 | 60 | Matt Hirschman | Pee Dee Motorsports | 206 | 2.818 |
| 16 | 20 | Max Zachem | USNE/Lu-Mac’s/Byrnes Agency | 206 | 2.965 |
| 17 | 81 | Mark Stewart* | Cromers Market/Keith Grimes Excavating/Hydroaction | 205 | 1 Lap |
| 18 | 84 | Tyler Catalano | USNE Power/Kennedy Realty | 205 | 1 Lap |
| 19 | 18 | Ken Heagy | Buoy One Seafood Market & Restaurant | 205 | 1 Lap |
| 20 | 36 | Dave Sapienza | Eastport Feeds | 204 | 2 Laps |
| 21 | 29 | Mike Marshall* | MLM Diagnostics/Jusczak Electric/Tisdell Transmissions | 203 | 3 Laps |
| 22 | 59 | Tyler Barry* | Pro Systems/BNP Machine | 202 | 4 Laps |
| 23 | 11 | Norman Newman* | Family Funland Amusement Park | 198 | 8 Laps |
| 24 | 26 | Gary McDonald | Lakeland Landscape Supply | 181 | 25 Laps |
| 25 | 09 | Chris Hatton* | Generac | 160 | 46 Laps |
| 26 | 55 | Jeremy Gerstner | TBE5/Crippling Hot Sauce/ Racecar Engineering | 124 | 82 Laps |
| 27 | 22 | Kyle Bonsignore | Chalew Performance/MTT/Munns Auto | 86 | 120 Laps |
| 28 | 40 | Frank Fleming | William E Smith Trucking/Taylor Auto Parts | 70 | 136 Laps |
| 29 | 44 | Chase Dowling | SS Paving/ Harshaw Paving | 70 | 136 Laps |
| 30 | 12 | Brian Sones* | Dennis Wenner | 57 | 149 Laps |
| 31 | 14 | Jacob Lutz | Advantage Trucks/Washtronic’s/Anastasi Trucking | 29 | 177 Laps |
