It's Szegedy Saturday in the park

LAKEVILLE, Conn. (WWLP) - A winner finds redemption. A new championship leader energes. A driver gets a warning from the state police. The outcome of Saturday's NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour 66/99 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut had almost as many twists and turns as the 1.5 mile road course itself.

Todd Szegedy of Ridgefield, Connecticut put his #2 Ford on the pole like he did last year, but the deja vu ended there. Szegedy came back to win the race for his 3rd tour victory this season. Last year at LRP Todd led all but 4 laps eventually finishing 2nd as he was snakebitten at the end by Westfield native Dale Quarterley who had fresher tires from a later race pit stop.

The trip to victory lane included moments of drama and anxiety. The winner ended off the course twice and Szegedy told his team on their radio after the race that the engine was skipping over the last 3 laps and he feared the car was running out of fuel. Wilbraham native Mike Stefanik came in 2nd while Long Islander Justin Bonsignore drove from the 14th starting spot to a 3rd place finish. Both dumped a portion of their post race celebration champagne over Szegedy's head.

Ron Silk came to Lime Rock with a 60 point lead in the championship standings but left in 2nd position 12 points behind Szegedy. Silk started from the outside pole and drove in the top 5 for the first two thirds of the event. But a pileup in the ess's following a lap 46 restart left Silk's #6 battered with broken brakes. Some of the radio chatter after the crash attributed it to a mix of cars starting with new rubber and old tires. Silk held on for a 15th place finish, 1 lap down. He is running for his 1st mod tour crown while Todd Szegedy was the 2003 champ. While far from a road course ringer,

Fans are allowed to stroll through Lime Rock Park's pit area or paddock. That prompted the Connecticut State Police to warn Bobby Santos about his speed in the paddock area. Santos needed to go to his hauler in the waning minutes of morning practice. His speed in the Mystic Missile #4 got the attention of one of the Connecticut State Police troopers at LRP who after practice gave Santos a courteous reminder to slow down. Santos listened politely and it all ended there. Both Mike Stefanik and Ron Silk opted not to practice on Saturday morning.

Last year's race winner Dale Quarterley stayed home in North Carolina but still functioned as a consultant. Doug Coby now drives the #52 that Dale took to victory lane in the inaugural mod tour show at LRP. Coby sought Quarterley's advice, admitting he is "very inexperienced here." Coby told 22News, "I talked to him (Quarterley) for a good hour during the week just to get some advice. It's hard for me to understand exactly everything he's talking about because he has so much road course experience and he talks about lots of little technical things that I think I'm just not even aware of that are going on with the car, But he did help me. I got 2 pages worth of notes from when he talked to me during the week. It's just a matter of trying to apply it out there."

After driving off the course through Big Bend early on, Coby led 3 laps before eventually crashing out of the contest on lap 54 in West Bend on the back of the course. Coby was credited with 18th place. While far from a road course ringer, Szegedy does have experience at LRP from other racing series prior to his NASCAR career.

With the only road course run behind them mod tour teams will now have to quickly focus their attention to next Saturday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. Ryan Newman will be back with pre-race publicity of "We don't need to cheat to win." Newman is not a factor in the points so championship chasers will have just Stafford and Thompson after Loudon to capture the prize.