STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. — Open Modified cars returned to Stafford Motor Speedway for the Lincoln Tech Open 80 on Friday night.
Woody Pitkat took control of the race early and then took advantage of a later pit stop than most of the lead cars and charged back to the front to win the event for the third consecutive season.
The Lincoln Tech 80 took the green flag with Ronnie Williams leading the pack from pole position. Teddy Hodgdon settled into second with George Bessette Jr., Kyle Ellwood and Pitkat making up the top five.
The caution flag came out with one lap complete for a multi-car incident on the backstretch that involved the cars of Tommy Barrett Jr., Kevin Iannarelli, R.J. Marcotte and Ed Flemke Jr.
Williams took the lead back under green with Hodgdon all over his back bumper in second. Bessette was third with Ellwood fourth and Pitkat fifth. The caution came back out with five laps complete for debris on the track in turn one.
Williams and Hodgdon ran wheel-to-wheel for a lap before Williams got clear into the lead. Bessette took second from Hodgdon on lap eight with Pitkat now wheel-to-wheel with Hodgdon for third with Ellwood in fifth.
Pitkat took third on lap nine and he went by Bessette to take second place on lap 10. Ellwood went by Bessette to move into fourth place on lap 15 while Williams was still holding the race lead with Pitkat right behind him in second.
Pitkat completed his charge to the front of the field on lap 24 by getting around Williams. Hodgdon was still third with Ellwood in fourth and Michael Christopher, Jr. was on the move and up to fifth behind Ellwood. Jacob Perry was sixth followed by Bessette, Chris Pasteryak, Joey Cipriano and Les Hinckley. The caution flag came out with 34 laps complete for spins in turn two by J.R. Bertuccio and Nick Halkowicz.
Under the caution, Williams, Ellwood, Bessette, Cipriano, and several other cars came to pit road for two tires and adjustments to their cars. The pit road takers shuffled the order for the restart with Pitkat in the lead, Hodgdon second, Christopher third, Perry fourth, Pasteryak fifth and Hinckley in sixth.
Pitkat was the leader back under green with Christopher moving up to second. Hodgdon was third with Perry fourth and Beers took fifth from Pasteryak on lap 41. Perry was starting to apply heavy pressure to Hodgdon for third place but Hodgdon was able to maintain third for the time being.
The caution came back out with 57 laps complete for a spin in turn four by Tyler Barry. Under the caution period, the cars of Pitkat, Christopher, Beers, Hodgdon, Cipriano, Pasteryak, Hinckley, Eric Goodale, Perry, and several others all came to pit road. This put Williams back into the lead with Bessette, Ellwood and Noah Korner up front for the restart.
Pitkat was the first car off of pit road and he would restart in fifth behind Korner with Cipriano restarting from sixth.
The restart saw contact mid-pack that involved the cars of Goodale, Beers, Hodgdon, Bessette, and several others to bring the yellow flag right back out.
Williams and Ellwood went wheel-to-wheel on the restart with Pitkat right behind them in third. Korner was fourth in line with Christopher fifth. Williams got clear of Ellwood on lap 60 and Pitkat moved into second to drop Ellwood back to third. Pitkat took the lead from Williams on lap 61 while Christopher took third from Ellwood on lap 62.
With 65 laps complete the running order was Pitkat, Williams, Christopher, Ellwood, Pasteryak, Cipriano, Anthony Bello, Perry, Hinckley and Goodale.
Christopher took second from Williams on lap 66 while Bello cracked his way into the top five on lap 67. Christopher was able to close to within several car lengths of Pitkat, but he couldn’t get close enough to make a bid for the lead as Pitkat won the Lincoln Tech 80 for the third consecutive year.
Williams finished third with Ellwood and Perry rounding out the top five.
Steven Chapman won the SK Modified feature, while the late model feature was won by Darrell Keane.
Amanda West scored the SK Light Modified feature. Kevin Cormier won in limited late model competition while the street stock feature was won by Tyler Trott.