Bridgeport Modified Pit Notes – Godown Sr. Storms to First Bridgeport Win of Season

Mike Franz led the field to green only to see Ryan Godown slide into the lead from his 4^th starting position on lap 2.  Godown proceeded to move through lapped traffic with ease for the first 25 green-flat laps and opened a nearly 5 second lead on Ryan Watt until the first caution of the race came out on lap 25 for a fire in Sammy Martz Jr’s car.  The restart made little difference as Godown separated from Ryan Watt for the final 5 laps by 2 seconds and stormed into victory lane for his first Bridgeport win of 2022.

Pit Notes

What a difference a week makes.  It didn’t take long for Ryan Godown go from wreckers to checkers.  By lap 2 of this week’s feature Godown was back in front of the pack at Bridgeport and cruised into victory lane for his first win of the 2022.  During the season opener Godown was collected in an 8-car wreck coming out of turn 2 before lap1 was recorded and resulted in heavy damage to his car. 

Postrace Godown commented “Leading up to this week’s race we had a lot of stuff going on in the shop all week long getting the car we wrecked last week back together.  I got to thank Jimmy Wizmer for helping fix the frame and my crew for getting car back where it needs to be.  We have been working hard on setups and we knew that we hit on something last week for the feature but obviously with the tangle last week never found out how good we were.  We woke the car up even better then what we had last year.  We are still using the same 2021 car we used last year.  The new car is sitting in the shop and will come out when the weather calms down toward the middle of the year.”  

“Last week we just got caught up in one of those wrong spot wrong time deals.  Everyone was coming out of the turn at different speeds off the banking and I couldn’t see the wreck until it was right in front of me.  We were really close to almost missing it altogether but we got shoved back into the wreck at the last minute.”

“You are going to have one or two bad nights a year.  Last year our worst night all year was an 8^th.  This year we already have a 24^th place finish on opening night.  The 24^th wasn’t planned but that’s what’s going to happen sometimes.  We already put ourselves behind this year but there is no quit in this team.  We planned on going to Big Diamond’s opener but stayed home to have an extra night to go over the car and make sure we didn’t miss anything from the wreck and the car was back at 100%.  We know we have a good car going forward.  We have been winning some big money shows which we put all our winnings right back into the car.”

“Our win this week was week was a product of my crew and their no quit commitment.  They rebuilt the car this week from the ground up.  My guys believe in me and work their hearts out and give me all their time to get car where it needed to be.  Yeah, winning makes me happy but seeing the smiles of my crew back in the pits makes it even sweeter.”

Godown continued “We were OK in the heat.  Really don’t know how much better my car could get in the feature. It was pretty darn good and couldn’t ask for a better car.”

Last week Ryan Watt was also involved in the backstretch 8-car tangle and ended up on his lid in only 3^rd time out in his new Troyer.  After a long week of work repairing his car; Watt rebounded with a solid 2nd place finish behind Godown in the feature.

Postrace Watt reflected “We were really happy with a 2^nd place finish this week and now can make adjustments for next week.  The car was good in the heat but just before going out for the feature we discovered we had oil all over the pedals and found the steering box was broken.  We had just enough time to change it and get out for the feature without losing our 3^rd starting spot.  This was our 1^st full race on this Troyer and our setup was too tight tonight.”

Watt continued “After our tangle and flip at the Bridgeport points opener last week; we had a long week to get the car ready.  We were very lucky to not have any hard hit to the frame and only destroy the body mounts, panels, roof and bolt-ons. On Sunday we called Troyer and by Tuesday we were making the trip to Rochester to pickup the parts from Troyer.  The guys put the car together on Wednesday night and had the car Lettered on Thursday.  Logan and I raced at Big Diamond on Friday.  Saturday morning, we scaled the car and found the rear was knocked out of alignment so we got that straight before leaving for Bridgeport.  All in all, I was really pleased with our 2^nd place results after our wreck last week.”

Richie Pratt finished 3^rd from his 10 starting position and continued his string of 5 top ten or better finishes so far this year.  Postrace Richie stated “We had a good run tonight.  We got tight in the very end but overall ran well all night.  We have been strong everywhere we have gone so far this year.  The crew has worked extremely hard learning the new technologies with the coil cars and it is already paying off with consistent fast cars every night.  It has been great to be back with the 51 team and racing every week.”

  Mike Franz finished 4^th after starting on the pole in the feature and had his #2 entry hooked up from the heat races to the feature.  During the winter Franz upgraded his 2008 Bicknell to a 2022 Bicknell with a new Master Machine 358 spec.

Mike commented “Well, we have all new equipment this year and it helps a lot.  I knew the car had speed after practice day.  It helps having the same good stuff like everyone else and now we just need to get the driver better.  The car was just as good last week, but we broke the water pump and radiator in hot laps.  Now we just have to stay consistent next week so we can make adjustments and get better. Can’t do this without my crew guys Rich, Timmy and Kyle.”

 Matt Stangle finished 5^th from his 16^th starting position.  Matt drew some attention last season with improved consistency all season long and a 3^rd place finish in the Speed Showcase 200 at Port Royal.  He has picked up right were he left off last season with a 3^rd and 5^th place finish and strong back to front runs whenever he needs one.

Matt reflected “Car was good and had a good race but track was tricky.  Sprint cars definitely changed up the track.  We missed the setup a little bit for the feature but were still able to have a decent run and come away with a top 5.”

Billy Pauch Jr. finished a strong 6^th from his 22^nd starting position.  Billy Jr. had an electrical problem in the heat race place him in 22^nd starting position in the feature. Billy Jr. continued his strong start to his Bridgeport 2022 season by adding his 6^th place finish to last week’s 2^nd place finish.  Billy has moved into the top spot in the points standing since the current points leader Billy Pauch Sr. was not present.

Jimmy Gallagher finished 8^th in only his second outing in his 2022 Bicknell.  Last week Jimmy had a strong run in his heat race only to have brake problems sideline him for the night.

Jimmy noted “We had some “new car” issues last week that cost us continuing for the night.  But in the end we may have been lucky after all; with the 8-car wreck in the feature.  We were already home and in the shop when the feature and 8-car wreck happened last week.”

“This week we had a good car in the heat race and choose the wrong lane for the final restart giving Buffalino the top.  I won’t do that again; the veteran gave me a lesson I will remember.  We made some changes for the feature thinking that the track would be untouched since they were pushing the show due to weather. After we got into staging we realized we were getting a whole new surface and our setup was off but it was too late to change anything.  The car was great for the first 20 laps; but then we developed a push with 10 to go. We only had one restart on lap 25 and the car did not rotate well and we fell from 5^th to 8^th.  We got our first top ten of the year and a handful of lessons learned in our 2^nd year in modified.  The car itself was great in only my second outing in our 22 Bicknell.”  

Jimmy continued “Doug Rose did everything in his power tonight to provide us track to race on and he was against weather and shortages of just about everything.   We plan to continue supporting Bridgeport weekly and build our program to compete against some of the best teams in the country at our hometown track.”

This week WB James got a flat left front tire on lap 5 which he finished the feature with in 14th place. Last week a rock or piece of debris tore through the window screen and hit him in the helmet but he was able to continue and also finished in 14^th.  WB noted “This has been an unusual start to our season with getting clocked by a rock or debris the first week and racing the final 25 laps with a flat left front this week.  Really looking forward to just racing next week without any extracurricular activities during the race.”

Sammy Martz Jr. was on a top ten run in only his second time in modified when he apparently lost a motor which resulted in a fire that ended his night early on lap 25.

Tommy Beamer and Jordan Watson were also involved in the “Big One” last week but were able to return to racing this week.  Beamer finished 13^th while Watson missed his heat due to electrical problems but made the call for the feature and finished 15^th after starting dead last in 23^rd starting position.

DANNY’S PIZZA PIZZAZZ MODIFIEDS:

1. Ryan Godown, 2. Ryan Watt, 3. Richie Pratt Jr., 4. Mike Franz, 5. Matt Stangle, 6. Billy Pauch Jr., 7. Sam Martz Sr., 8. Jim Gallagher Jr., 9. Clay Butler, 10. Ryan Krachun, 11. Joseph Watson, 12. Neal Williams, 13. Tommy Beamer, 14. W.B. James, 15. Jordan Watson, 16. Wayne Weaver, 17. Matt Peck, 18. Roger Manning, 19. Ron Roberts, 20. Sam Martz Jr., 21. Dominick Buffalino, 22. Alex Yankowski, 23. Davey Sammons

Next up at Bridgeport Motorsports Park is the Invasion of the Posse with a doubleheader of the 410 sprints and 602 crates.  Racing starts with 410 warmups at 6:15 with heats to follow.