Donny Lia will play the role of a pioneer this weekend as he gets ready for one of the largest events of his racing season. The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour are getting together at Martinsville Speedway (VA) to run the Whelen Made in America 300. It will be the first race in Martinsville’s 50-plus year history that a race event will be run under the lights. It will also be the first official head-to-head battle between NASCAR’s two Mod Tours.
“This is going to be NASCAR’s version of the North vs. South Shootout,” said Lia. “It’s going to be cool. I’ve never raced under the lights like this. The way that they are lighting it up; it’s going to be like daylight.”
Lia has a little background on racing against, and beating, the Southern drivers. He won last season’s North vs. South Shootout (an unsanctioned Modified event) at Concord Motorsport Park (NC), as well as February’s Richie Evans Memorial 100 at New Smyrna Speedway (FL) during Florida Speedweeks.
“I’m excited about racing against the Southern Tour drivers
again. It’s going to be a big field with a high car count. It’s going to be fun. The last chance race is going to be fun to watch. Hopefully, we’ll be watching it and not in it. Anything can happen though.”
The Modified Tour hasn’t raced at the half-mile Martinsville track in three seasons, but Lia already has some experience at the track. He made his first Tour start there in 2001 and qualified sixth.
“I’ve got two starts there already,” said Lia. “It’s a nice little racetrack. It’s a lot like Riverhead really, just bigger. Basically, there are four corners and two ‘dragstrip’ straightaways.
“The last time we were there, they had ground the top groove and there was a lot of bite up there. The bottom wasn’t a good. That led to some good side-by-side racing just like at Thompson. The track was nothing like Thompson, but there was the same basic idea of racing. The bottom wasn’t as good, but it was a shorter way around. It might be completely different now.
Donny races with Jerry Marquis at Waterford. (Howie Hodge)
Lia heads to Martinsville on the heels of a third-place finish last weekend at Waterford Speedbowl (CT).
“That gives us a little bit of momentum,” said Lia. “More important than that, we’ve figured out some things with the car to make it better. I’m more comfortable in it now and I think that we’ll have a good racecar for the rest of the year.”
Three of the Tour’s biggest races of the season are scheduled for back-to-back-to-back weekends in September. After Martinsville, the Tour heads to Thompson International Speedway for the historic Sunoco 300. Then it’s time for the Tour’s second trip of the season to New Hampshire International Speedway.
And of this will take place in the midst of a very tight battle for the championship. There are only 137 points separating the top five in the standings. Lia sits fifth right now, but that could all change very quickly.
“As long as we can hang in there and not have terrible luck, we can be right in there. It’s going to be tough because the guys who we are racing against have so much experience, but we’ll give it our all and hope for the best.”
“It’s not a good time to tear equipment up right now. The races are so close together and these next few races can make or break your year. If you get good solid finishes out of them, you’ll be good.”
But a solid finish isn’t what Lia is looking to get out of Martinsville.
“Right now, I want to just win races. I want to win the Martinsville race. That would be a huge victory.”
Donny gets ready to roll in his #18 Tour Modified to start out the night at Stafford.
