Pitkat Gets Stafford Title Hopes Back On Track
Woody Bounces Back and Takes Two Strong Runs at Stafford
Leading up to Friday night’s features at Stafford Motor Speedway (CT), young Woody Pitkat felt like the cartoon character that always has a dark rain cloud over his head no matter where he goes. Just when things look to go well, something derails that plan.
In the first SK Modified feature of the year, Pitkat crossed beneath the checkered flag first, only to have the win taken away after a post-race protest by another competitor. He had a good run in the first Late Model race of the year that same day, but last week Pitkat suffered a flat tire early in the race, relegating him to a disappointing finish.
With all the bad luck seemingly out of the way, Pitkat was able to clear that rain cloud over his head on Friday night to score two strong finishes at Stafford, a third in the SK Modified 40-lap feature and a sixth-place result in the 30-lap Late Model event.
“It was a good all-around finish to get things going again,” said Pitkat. “Considering what happened the week before with the disappointing finish, it was two good run for us.”
In the first SK race of the year, Pitkat had the dominant car, but the win was ripped from his grasp post-race. He then had to start at the rear of the field the next week and battled back for a 10th-place finish with his Davidson Company/TSI Harley-Davidson #52. Finally, after two up-and-down weeks
to start off the SK season at Stafford, all the right things came together for Pitkat on Friday night, when he put on a memorable show to get the podium finish.
Woody turned things around with a strong run with his #52 SK Modified at Stafford Friday night. (Jim DuPont photos)
“I jumped out to the lead early, but then Keith (Rocco) went by me. He was really good; I don’t think anybody had anything for him. It was early in the race, so I was just going to wait and see if he got tight late in the race and try to take advantage of him. I was just content with second.
“We had a couple of cautions, and then I got to racing with Teddy (Christopher). I was on the outside of him for like 12 or 13 laps. I had people calling me and people I didn’t even know coming up to me in the pits saying that was the best SK race they’ve seen in years. A couple of guys told me that when Teddy and I were side by side for so long, it was like when Junior takes the lead at a Cup race, especially when I finally cleared Teddy. The people were going crazy.”
Once Pitkat cleared Christopher, he set his sights on the leaders.
“That was about the most fun I’ve done in a while, but obviously as we were racing side by side, Keith was pulling away. I got back in line and tried to chase him down. He was getting tight at the end of the race, but with three to go someone spun for the fourth time in the race and I was running second. On the restart, Willie (Hardie) got by me on the inside and he started battling pretty hard with Keith.
“I was in a good position if something happened between those guys, but my car was so tight I couldn’t catch them.”
Pitkat sealed the successful spring evening at Stafford with a sixth-place finish with his Pat and Marcia Kretschman-owned Late Model, the same car that he won the track championship with last year. With a strong finish Friday, Pitkat has aligned himself for another title run already in this early season.
Woody's #48 was quick in the 30-lap Late Model feature as well.
“I told the guys that because we won the championship last year, it was going to be even harder to do it again this year. We’re not going to come out here and dominate like we did last year. Everyone’s going to be gunning for us. If we can salvage a top-10 out of a race where we don’t have a good car and get the motor issue that we’ve been having resolved, we’ll be fine. That was only the third race of the season, so we’ve got a long season ahead of us to get to where we want to be.”
Pitkat will return to action in both the SK Modified and Late Model events as part of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series at Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday, May 18th.
