08/02/2004
Donny Lia
Continues Mod Hot Streak With a Second at Seekonk
#18 Team Moves Up Ten Points-Positions During
Last Three Modified Series Events
Huntington, NY --
With a march through the point standings from 16th to 6th
in the last three events, there is no question that Donny Lia and his
#18 Lia Motorsports team is the hottest group of racers in the NASCAR
Featherlite Modified Series right now.
Lia continued on with his hot streak in Saturday's 150-lap event at
the Seekonk Speedway (MA). Lia was the fastest qualifier for the
second time in the last three events and backed that up with his
second runner-up finish and third top-five finish in the last three
races.
The Long Islander turned a near record lap of just under 100-miles per
hour to win the pole position. He started the race fourth after the
redraw for starting positions.
"The pole surprised us quite a bit," said Lia. "I
don't know what to say except that I really have to hand it to my
guys. They are doing an unbelievable job on this racecar.
Every single week that we go to the track, I have a car that is great;
I'm just the lucky guy who gets to steer it. I know that's been
said a million times, but I'm serious. Every time that we go to
the track, this car is right on the money."
It was the first time Lia had ever seen the Seekonk track, much less
turn laps on the tight one-third mile oval. His learning curve
consisted only of a few dozen laps. In the beginning of the
race, he got caught in the outside groove and slipped back to the
seventh position. By lap 50, he was using that same outside
groove to start working his way towards the front.
He was able to pick off cars one
by one before settling into the tracks of the #4 of Chuck Hossfeld.
Lia set Hossfeld up to make a pass for the lead, but a late-race
caution period changed the strategy that Lia hoped to use to take over
the lead. With five laps left after the final restart, Lia tried
to get around Hossfeld a few more times, but was forced to settle for
the second position.
"I think that we had a good
shot at getting into the lead before the last caution came out,"
said Lia, "but that's the way it worked out.
That's racing. We'll take second place because that was
still an awesome finish. My car needed six to ten laps to come
in before I could really work the top line. It's so tough to get
underneath anyone here, so the car has to work well up high to do
well."
Overall, Lia was very happy with his maiden race at the
Massachusetts
speed plant.
"I would have never thought that I could come here having never
seen the racetrack and performed this well," said Lia.
"It's because of the work that this team does that we could do
that."
The race was not without any close calls for Lia. Early on,
several of the top guys in the running order got caught up in a
turn-three wreck. Point leaders Eddie Flemke and Tony Hirschman
were involved and spun around. Lia managed to get through the
wreck by a matter of inches without any damage to his car.
"It was really close and I thought that was going to be it,"
said Lia. "They were all wrecked in front of me and I got
hit from behind. Then all of a sudden, the #48 (Hirschman) slid
one way and the #79 (Flemke) slid another and there was a clear
racetrack in front of me. I was extremely lucky there."
Lia now sits only one position out of the top five in the Modified
Series point standings. His margin of 253 points to the leader
will be tough to make up in the remaining eight events, but
considering that his team moved up ten positions in the past three
races, anything is possible for the #18 LRI bunch.
"Our goal is still to win the championship," said Lia.
"If we keep running the way that we are, we can win it. It's
going to take a little bit of bad luck for the other guys, but we had
our share of bad luck at the beginning of the year when we got behind
in points. It will cycle through and if we stay out of trouble,
we'll be in good shape. We are shooting for the top and if we
fall short and end up in the top five of the points, that's still
awesome."
Lia will get his next chance to race with the Modified Series on
Saturday, August 7th, at his home track of Riverhead
Raceway (NY). Donny Lia and his Lia Motorsports Inc. team are
competing for the 2004 Championship in the NASCAR Featherlite Modified
Series this season. For
more information on the team, please contact Matthew Dillner at (704)
231-7613 and stay tuned for the redesign of
DonnyLia.com.
Source: Matthew Dillner/51 Sports/NASCAR
FMS PR/Donny Lia PR
Posted: August 2, 2004
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