After a day of practice and rain and drizzle for qualifying, the set-up of the car was an educated guess. The decision was made to run a slick tire for qualifying as the rain had subsided. Piekarski turned the second fastest lap of the qualifying session. The pole went to Scott Bleiweiss of Upton, MA.

When it came time for the 20-lap feature event around the 1.8-mile road course, the weather had changed dramatically with the sun shining across the entire circuit. The American Sedan division roared to the green flag and Piekarski was eyeing the leader. But, on lap 2 Ray Blethen of Bow, NH spun directly in front of Piekarski and collected the Lovering Volvo sponsored machine. Piekarski recovered quickly and had just slight damage to the fender. Back in pursuit with a great deal of ground to make up from now the fifth position, Piekarski started to chase down regional and national championship contenders Jason Smith and Bleiweiss.

Piekarski wasn’t daunted by the early race incident and pointed his Enterprise Rent-A-Car Mustang in the direction of the leaders. On lap 10, Piekarski had drawn in on the lead pack. By lap 15, a pass was made on Bleiweiss in treacherous turn 3 on the outside for the lead, narrowly missing the tire retaining wall. The pair battled nose to tail until Bleiweiss was able to make a move back into the lead through the chicane. At the checkers, Bleiweiss edged out the Collision Centers of New Hampshire Mustang of Piekarski who came home second.

The team cheered the weekend as a success for the first outing of the season and with all the weather changes factored into the equation. Piekarski and the entire PBJ Motorsports team is on schedule to tackle the 3/8-mile Lee USA Speedway in Lee, NH in the coming weeks. Piekarski will compete in the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series in the premiere Late Model division.