The Whelen Modified Tour opened their season in grand fashion this weekend at Thompson International Speedway (TIS). The annual Icebreaker event started with some real ice and ended with a hotly contested finish. Winter is over and our teams got back to work.

When I arrived at Thompson Saturday morning the weather was the prime topic of discussion. The air was cold and the precipitation even seemed colder as light rain changed to freezing rain, flurries and back to rain several times. During times that the rain and ice waned, the TIS staff worked feverishly to dry the racing surface.

At one point the track crew was nearly finished with track drying operations when Mother Nature reared back and doused us with more rain and ice. The folks at TIS were determined to get the Icebreaker in this weekend past. Management printed up three optional schedules to inform competitors what would happen based on when the weather might clear out.

As the skies began to clear it appeared that the choice for the revised schedule would probably be either option B or option C. This would put the WMT competitors on the track to start qualifying sometime between 8pm and 10pm. Tour officials worked with the Speedway folks to delay time trials until Sunday at noon. It was a good decision because in addition to the evening’s conditions becoming excessively cool, it allowed our teams and officials to get some shuteye.

During practice Saturday, several competitors crashed in turn one. Tom Bolles was the first to collect the wall and he hit very hard. Renee Dupuis found nearly the same spot and Matt Hirschman, who tried his best to avoid Renee, wound up plowing straight into the #90. Chris Pasteryak was the final competitor to test the strength of the turn one concrete, late in the practice session.

All four cars appeared to have locked up their right front wheels as their tires slid across the track surface. The low temperatures and green condition of the track probably contributed to the cause of these incidents. I am just glad that all of the drivers concerned were able to walk away without serious injury.

As Saturday’s festivities came to a close, members of the Modified Auxiliary got together to scout out a possible new site for their annual picnic. The site we were led to is conveniently located less than five minutes from the track. This location beautiful and has a number of family related amenities for which the Auxiliary had been looking. Stay tuned to the Message Forum to find out when the next Auxiliary meeting will be held to discuss the exciting details about this and other issues.

Sunday morning the media was treated to breakfast at the Thompson Clubhouse. The gathering was well attended and Don Hawk got to tell us about all of the great things coming up for the Tour down the road. The Jennerstown (June 17) and Holland (July 29) race dates were confirmed and Mr. Hawk informed us that we might learn of an additional date or dates very shortly.

The most interesting thing to come out of this meeting to me was the announcement that the WMT will be a part of the 2007 through 2011 NASCAR television package. Nothing is cast in concrete yet but it looks like we will have at least some television coverage beginning next season. Hopefully we will have further information on this shortly so that teams can sell sponsorship based on this coverage.

A big thank you to Phil Kurze from Whelen Engineering. Phil was obviously behind a gift package that was bestowed upon all of us media vermin in attendance. Despite how excited we both were about the beginning of the Modified season: we had to talk bobsleds.

I was delighted to sit with Fred Neergaard and Kristen Costa from New Hampshire International Speedway through the media breakfast. Fred is the Public Relations Director for NHIS and he proudly informed me that Kristen had recently been promoted to a full-time position at the Magic Mile as Public Relations Manager. Kristen was in integral part the team that won the 2005 Newky for Best Public Relations Staff in January.

I headed off to the press box to watch time trials and one thing became apparent. NASCAR Officials were having trouble with their radios. According to Race Director, Joe Larsen, the radios had been sent out to be serviced during the off-season. Our officials soldiered through the difficulty and those who weren’t listening to the communications challenges with which they were dealing probably didn’t notice as the program proceeded nearly flawlessly.

The thing that stirred my excitement most since the practice session at Thompson two weeks ago is the wave of rookie competitors that have joined us on our beloved Tour this season. Although some of these drivers will not compete for the entire WMT season, it is great to see new people and new excitement in our division. Look for an upcoming article about this rookie class next week.

Jerry Marquis took down the Icebreaker pole with a lap of 19.132 seconds. Forty-five drivers attempted to qualify and ten of the thirty-two who earned their way into the field through time trials were rookies. Two of those rookies earned top-ten and four earned top-fifteen starting spots. The redraw was unusual as only six redrew and two drivers, Donny Lia and Jimmy Blewett, swapped starting positions.

Marquis blasted off to the lead with Steve Whitt in hot pursuit. Things seemed to shake out quickly and it looked like we would get a good long green flag segment in until lap nine. Kevin Goodale spun between turns one and two collecting seven cars including John Blewett, III and Glen Tyler. Tyler and Blewett were finished for the day and the rest of the cars drove away.

We went back to green with Marquis again assuming the lead although being contested quite feverishly by Whitt. Todd Szegedy spun on lap twenty-three but was able to continue without bringing out a caution. Szegedy fell off of the lead lap.

Eddie Flemke, Jr. was black flagged twice and reported to the pits twice to try to stop a leak that plagued the #10 car. I spoke to Eddie after the race. He informed me that his car had been leaking gasoline out of the dipstick fitting.

On lap forty-seven, Marquis, who had finally put a couple of car lengths on the tenacious Steve Whitt, suddenly crashed hard into the wall between turns one and two. It was a vicious looking collision and copious amounts of fluids streamed across the track as the Mystic Missile sat destroyed in turn two. Fortunately Jerry was able to walk away.

The accident resulted in an extended red flag period to clean up the fluids. It seemed as though it took several hundred pounds of oil dry to finally mop up the mess. It appeared to those of us on press row that either something broke or that the #4 had cut down a tire. Jerry told me later that his throttle had stuck.

Steve Whitt assumed the lead on the restart but was headed after seven circuits there by Donny Lia. Whitt’s car slowed a bit and then fell off of the pace. The #06 team was bitten by something that had troubled them through practice on Saturday, ignition gremlins.

Lia led the race until he pitted during a caution period, which started on lap seventy-six for a spin by Renee Dupuis. Donny and eventual winner Mike Stefanik were among the competitors that chose to pit on lap seventy-nine. Chuck Hossfeld assumed the lead at that point.

Hossfeld led Jamie Tomaino, Tony Hirschman, Jim Storace and Ken Barry down to take the green flag on lap eighty-four. Hirschman made quick work getting around Tomaino and dashed up to try to get around Hossfeld. The caution flew again on lap ninety-three when Jimmy Blewett spun the #12 between turns three and four creating a cloud of tire smoke that reduced visibility. Fortunately there were no collisions as a result.

The same can’t be said for the next caution as on lap one hundred about a dozen cars slammed together coming out of turn four. Shortly thereafter our Live Updates went off line. I was disappointed that we weren’t able to bring out all of the great racing that happened during the final fifty laps.

Stefanik got by Hossfeld on lap one twenty-seven and that was that right? Wrong. Stefanik, Lia, Christopher, Ruggiero and Civali all had tires that were thirty laps fresher than those on the #79. It looked like Chuck was out of luck and he was going to get freight trained.

Hossfeld battled back to grab the runner up spot and nearly won. Along the way there was dicing for most of the top-five spots all of the way to the finish! Chuck credited an adjustment to the line he was driving with brining his tires back to life.

On lap one hundred four Renee Dupuis suffered a race ending single car crash in turn one. Twelve laps later, Jamie Tomaino spun in turn one and was able to drive away but not before rookie Ron Yuhas spun trying to avoid Jamie and ended up against the turn one wall.

With six laps remaining, Donny Lia suddenly slowed and he pulled his #18 behind the wall. Donny had a great run and looked as though he might have been able to challenge for the win. As it turns out, Lia ran his ride out of fuel.

On the final lap Mike Stefanik, Chuck Hossfeld and Reggie Ruggiero stormed into turn four and nearly collected each other. They all straightened themselves out and crossed the finish line. It was very possible that the late afternoon sun had a lot to do with that last lap near catastrophe for the leaders. Last year’s Icebreaker winner, Ted Christopher crossed the line fourth followed by 2005 WMT champion Tony Hirschman.

It was great to see Reggie up near the front battling to the finish. Ruggiero, behind the wheel of Dick Barney’s #41 was strong throughout the day. The Reg brought it home third.

David Hill told me at the World Series that he thought his team was ready to contend for the Tour championship. He felt that if he could nail down the right wheelman that everything would fall into place. With Chuck Hossfeld secured as their driver, the Hillbilly gang sure looked to be in championship form Sunday.

The victory increases Stefanik’s tally to a Tour leading sixty-seven career wins. Mike’s last WMT win also came at Thompson driving for the same team at the 2004 World Series. Mike Stefanik might just be the man to beat for the Tour championship this season.

I believe that Mike has won the championship in each of the last four seasons where he raced in every event. After winning back to back championships in the Beal & Bacon x6 in “97 & ’98, Mike went Craftsman Truck racing. When he returned in 2001 he won the next two championships behind the wheel of Art Barry’s #21. Since then Mike had been focusing his attention to the Busch East Series. Could this be the season Stefanik grabs Modified title number seven and ties his old hero Richie Evans with nine touring titles?

The rookies made a good showing of it at the Icebreaker. Although none of them wound up in the top-five, four of these freshman drivers finished in the next six spots. James Civali, Mike Andrews, Jon McKennedy and Ronnie Silk finished sixth, seventh, tenth and eleventh respectively.

With all of that youth and exuberance there was a little apprehension from some of the veteran competitors about how wild it might get out there. The rookies all seemed to stay focused on finishing. Eric Berndt and Danny Sammons looked good out there and appeared to be victims collected in the big accident on lap one hundred. Matt Hirschman’s engine expired forcing him out. Drivers that have been around for a few years were the ones that seemed to make the rookie mistakes.

With forty-six cars showing up to try to race, one might forget to look around and see who is missing. On my way home Sunday night I kicked myself for not saying hi to Gregg Shivers. Then I remembered that the #23 wasn’t there this weekend. Larry Shivers, Sr. told me in an email on Monday that the team was hoping to get their engine back shortly. Who else was missing? I don’t know where Kevin Konopka was nor do I know the futures of 2005 ROTY, Tyler Haydt or Roush “Driver X” participant, Nevin George who might be looking for rides.

One person I did want to mention, who was at the Icebreaker this weekend, is Rick Fuller. I did not get to talk to Rick. However, Rick will compete in all of the WMT races this season behind the wheel of the Brady Bunch #00 with support from Rick’s long time sponsor Polar Beverages. Fuller was running well but like several others, was eliminated by the lap one hundred “big one”.

The “Atta Boy” award goes to Wade Cole. Wade brought his Cole Family #33 home twelfth. That was a great accomplishment after starting shotgun on the field.

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Test Session

One thing of which many of the competitors of our beloved Tour could probably take better advantage is the NHIS test session. The NASCAR test session at Loudon will be held on Monday, June 26th. Although we had a good showing from the Modified contingent at NHIS last season for this event, in the past, Modified teams have shied away from participation in this session.

We generally only get one real practice session when we go to Loudon for the New England 100. What can be gleaned from that might be determined by how much time Mother Nature allows us to have for practice. There is no post qualifying or “happy hour” practice scheduled for our race in July. Those who participate in this test stand the best chance of performing well at the two races at the Magic Mile this season.

For those teams that are campaigning rookie drivers, this session is critical. Participation in this session, for those drivers who haven’t raced at Loudon in the past, this session might be a prerequisite for participation in the NHIS race weekends. Registration forms for the test session are available at the WMT trailer. Our patronage of this test session shows our appreciation to the Bahre family for all they have done and continue to do for our beloved Tour.