Four Races in Five Days Ahead for Lia and His Teams
If racing is a job to Donny Lia, then he’s getting ready to clock in for some serious overtime this week. After running one of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s biggest races of the season last weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway, Lia is set to take on four races in five days later this week.
The setting for this summer road trip is New England. The tracks are Seekonk Speedway (MA), Stafford Motor Speedway (CT) and Beech Ridge Motor Speedway (ME).
“It’s going to be a long little trip,” said Lia. “It’s going to be the most races that I’ve ran in one week. It should be fun. I’m going Wednesday to Seekonk, Friday to Stafford, Saturday to Beech Ridge and back to Stafford for a make-up SK race on Sunday.”
Lia will run his own #18 Modified in the $10,000-to-win Modified Madness race at Seekonk and the Whelen Tour event at Beech Ridge. He likes both tracks. He earned the pole at each track and finished second in the Tour races at each place last summer.
“We finished second and won the poles at Beech Ridge and Seekonk. I might have had something to win at Seekonk if its wasn’t for a late yellow. Those are two good racetracks for me I guess. I’m looking forward to going back to both of them.”
The open show at Seekonk promises to attract some of the best names in Modified racing. Ted Christopher, Mike Stefanik, Kirk Alexander and many others are expecting to join Lia in the hunt for the victory. Lia thinks that he’ll have a good shot at getting around the tight 1/3 mile oval quickly.
“There’s a lot of grip there and you can really do some racing. I’ve passed a bunch of guys on the outside there and
had some fun. It’s a fun track and I’m looking forward to racing there.”
Lia’s visit to Seekonk also serves as a tune-up to the July 30th Mod Tour event there.
“Hopefully, we can get a good idea of what the track will be like there for the Tour race.”
There are no points to worry about at Seekonk for Lia. He’s just after one thing there.
“When I’m on the racetrack, it doesn’t really matter if I’m running for points or an open show. You might make a few moves that you wouldn’t make running for points, but for the most part I’m always out there to win.”
Friday and Sunday, Lia will drive the #47 Wisk/Snuggle SK Modified at Stafford. He finished eighth with the car last weekend there and has tried to put some early season bad luck behind him and the team.
“We have a little momentum. We’re improving and I think that we are coming together. We’ve made a lot of changes to the racecar and are working hard at it. How we ran this past week isn’t a good reflection of the car we had.”
When it’s all said and done though, Lia only has one goal for the weekend of racing.
“Hopefully, we can get as good of finishes as we can all weekend,” Lia said.
Donny does pretty well in open shows. He won the North vs. South Shootout last season.
The #47 Wisk/Snuggle SK Modified will be Donny's ride in two races this week.
