Column By: BRITTANY NUTILE / RPW – THOMPSON, CT – Ryan Preece won the Sunoco Modified division feature Thursday night at the Thompson Speedway.
He comes back to Connecticut tonight to compete in the Sunoco Mod and the NWMT Thompson 125 race. He was itching to get back in to a modified and what better way to come back to his home state and win the Sunoco Modified race. He finished final practice 1st, his heat race finished 2nd, and started 8th for the race.
Max Mclaughlin turned heads in a good way tonight. He finished final practice 2nd, finished his heat race 4th, and started the race in 9th position. He has never run a modified-on asphalt before but, modified racing runs in his family. Max’s dad Mike “magic shoes” Mclaughlin ran the Whelen modified tour series for 10 years and won a championship, he was a very good modified driver. Coming into the Sunoco mod race, Max had never driven a modified and didn’t know how to shift the car being from a dirt background. Max led 13 laps but, Ryan out drove Max being an experience modified driver.
“These cars are really cool, I’m a big fan of them already. Never drove one before today, so that’s a lot of learn, I didn’t even know how to shift them. We definitely have the speed and a good car. Dad knows his way around here and got some tips from both him and Keith Rocco. The racecar is on our side, I don’t have the experience like the rest of the guys out here. Its really cool to see how fast we are right out of the gate; it says a lot about Keith’s cars and a lot about what he does out of his shop. Hopefully we keep that speed in the racecar, race good in the pack, and make it to the front”. Max said in an interview after practice and talked about how it feels to be in a modified and what tips he got from his dad and Keith.
Max finished the race 2nd and turned a lot of heads and after the race people were talking about him and how well he did. He is a very talented young man; he definitely got his talent from his dad and it showed in the race. He said that he watched a lot of tape from Thompson Speedway and knew he had a lot of speed in the car just has to do his part.
