PITTSFIELD, MA – Ever since Paul Gilardi put his backup car into commission three weeks ago, he’s been searching for the right feel. Well, in the second Modified feature Saturday night, he found it, leading 14 laps and bringing the #87x home with a well-deserved fourth place finish.
The veteran from Pittsfield, MA finished 14th in the first of two features to start the night, but knew the car was still missing something.
“We just missed the setup in the first race,” Gilardi said. “I had plans to just take a lap in the second feature and pull in because we weren’t that good. But my guys suggested we try some different things to see if it helped the car, so we did.”
Those changes brought the car alive for the regularly-scheduled portion of the evening. Gilardi walked away from the field in his heat race and started on the pole for the main event.
“The car was good from the drop of the green flag,” he said. “We tried some things that we normally wouldn’t. We had nothing to lose and my guys worked their butts off to get the car ready. Boy was it good.”
Gilardi lead to just shy of the halfway point, holding a constant margin over second place, and eventual winner Kolby Schroder. That was until a caution on lap 14 bunched up the field.
“I didn’t get a good enough restart and let him stay side-by-side with me as we entered turn one,” Gilardi said. “If the caution hadn’t come out, I think we could have held on for the win, but you never know with this racing thing. We’ll just use this as momentum boost going into next week.”
The next event for the Superior Seamless Gutters team will be this Saturday at Lebanon Valley as Benjamin Moore Paints and Ameripride Linen present ‘Halloween In August’ night at the Speedway. All kids in costume get in free and there will be trick or treating on the frontstretch. Gates open at 5pm.