Pitkat Tunes Up for '07 Season With Unexpected Speedweeks

Bringing His Firesuit to Florida Pays Off For Young Racer

It started out as just another ordinary trip for young Woody Pitkat between his home in Stafford, Connecticut, to New Smyrna, Florida, for Speedweeks 2007.  Pitkat had been to New Smyrna for several editions of Speedweeks in the past, but all were to help out some friends who were running in the Modified and Super Late Model ranks. 

Pitkat had the same intentions for this year, when he and good friend and Whelen Modified Tour ace James Civali took off from the Nutmeg State en route to the historic nine nights of racing at New Smyrna.  With Civali running a Tour-Type Modified during Speedweeks, Pitkat was perfectly happy helping turn a few wrenches on his friends’ cars.

Woody had a fast #00 Florida/IMCA Mod during Speedweeks.  (Howie Hodge Photo)

But the one thing that would have made him even happier during Speedweeks, driving a car himself, actually came true.  On his way down to Florida, Pitkat got a call that put him behind the wheel of the #00 Florida/IMCA Modified car that he drove to eighth in points at week’s end.

“I was going down there just thinking that I was going to help some people and thrash all weekend.  Then on the way down there, my car owner ‘Yankee Chuck,’ as everybody called him, called and said hopefully I had my suit.  I was thinking he was just joking until we got there.  I went over to talk to him when I got there, and he was dead serious.”

Fortunately, Pitkat planned ahead and brought his firesuit and helmet to Florida.  When he got there, he was able to jump behind the wheel of a car that has had

some pretty impressive names in its seat in the past.  Pitkat may not have had much warning that he was going to be behind the wheel, but he instantly showed signs that he could get the job done in a completely different kind of racecar. 

”Steve Park and Teddy Christopher have both run this car before.  I felt towards the end, the last three or four nights, the car was capable of winning.  Back in the day, when Steve Park and Teddy were driving this car and winning, the car was the same as it is now.  The competition is so much tougher now in 10 year’s time, it’s like he’s stayed with the same car when everyone else got better and better.

“But we still did the best we could with what we had.  I know Chuck was tickled to death the nights that we finished third and sixth.  He thought it was really cool.  Knowing that those people won in the car, I wanted to do more for him.”

Pitkat is the 2006 NASCAR Weekly Series Division IV Regional Champion in an SK Modified, a less-powerful but more nimble racecar than the Florida/IMCA Modified he ran at New Smyrna.  His Speedweeks ride was a combination of several different cars that he had run in the past, so it was a good test of skill for the young driver.

“Before I even got in it, a lot of people were telling me that it was going to be big horsepower and no tire.  I was thinking that they run eight-inch tires, which is what I was used to running with a Late Model at Thompson, so I didn’t think that it was going to be that much to get adapted to.  It had a ton of power – 600 horsepower, just like a Modified Tour motor like I ran with the True Value Series at the end of last year. 

“The car actually was a handful.  You have to use the motor down the straightaways and then manhandle it through the turns, but the car wasn’t that bad.  We messed around with it, trying to free it up.  Then when it got too free, it became a handful like the True Value car.  That’s where the driver comes in and you have to show who can out-drive who.”

The Speedweeks experience was a good way to get the juices flowing for Pitkat, who will be out to defend his championship-winning effort in Modified and Late Model series throughout the Northeast in 2007.

Getting behind the wheel of a new car made Woody full of smiles in New Smyrna.  (Hodge Photo)

“It felt good just to get back behind the wheel again.  I went down there just thinking I was going down there, but it was a pretty cool surprise to be able to race, too.  It was to get going again on the track, and it made me want to come back home and keep working hard on my stuff to get it ready for the year.”

For more information on Woody Pitkat, contact Matt Kentfield at (704) 455-2051 and check out the official online home for the 2006 NASCAR Weekly Series Division IV Champion, www.woodypitkatracing.com