November 26, Norwalk, CT---NASCAR, in a move to bring down owner costs on the Whelen Modified Tour has built a spec engine that was tested last Wednesday, November 21, at Concord Motorsport Park in North Carolina.

  Built and installed by technicians at NASCAR’s Tech Center in Concord, the new motor was tested by 2003 Whelen Modified Tour champion Todd Szegedy of Ridgefield, Ct. 

  Szegedy told the Hour’s Charlie Mitchell he has “no idea” why NASCAR selected him to do the testing. Szegedy drove two modifieds, one powered by the spec engine the other by the Ford motor used by Szegedy over the last two seasons. Mike Smeriglio of Greenwich, CT owns both cars used for the test. 

  “The times were identical”, Szegedy told Mitchell. “I was totally shocked.” There is a second test scheduled for this Friday (November 30) at Stafford Motor Speedway in CT. 

   The new spec engine has a bigger carburetor.  “Concord is a momentum track. Stafford is a power track. We’ll know a lot more after Stafford. I believe that will be the true test,” said Szegedy, who finished the season second in the points behind Donny Lia. 

  The test session at Stafford is not open to the public.

Deane Mercier worked in radio for 35 years as a DJ and talk show host. He is currently the Host Broadcaster for Stafford Motor Speedway and is a Motorsports correspondent for the Hour Newspaper (CT).  Deane may be contacted at DeaneMercier@aol.com.

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