From Test to Top 5 Finish for Piekarski
Lee, NH (May 12, 2003): This past Friday, the PBJ Motorsports team, with driver BJ Piekarski, tested their new NASCAR Late Model at the Canaan Fair Speedway in Canaan, NH and then ventured to Lee USA Speedway in Lee, NH for their first night of competition on the famed 3/8-mile speedplant. The end result was a solid top five finish.

The day started with a trip north to the 1/3-mile Canaan Fair Speedway. The team arrived at 9:30 am to turn laps just to shake down the Howe Chassis and Butler & McMaster crate engine. The car handled very well with the set-up provided by veteran short track competitor Wayne Helliwell Sr. After Piekarski completed a two-hour session and minor adjustments were made, the team loaded up the hauler and headed south to Lee USA Speedway.

After purchasing the track tire, BJ went out for practice and was very happy with the competitive lap times and handling of the car. Before qualifying, tire pressures were adjusted, but the chassis set-up remained the same. BJ started fifth in a field of nine cars for the qualifying heat. Caution flew on lap 2 after BJ spun the car coming off turn four. After regrouping and receiving a bit of advice from Helliwell as to what the preferred line is around Lee, BJ bounced back and turned in a solid second place finish. His qualifying effort landed him 14th on the feature starting line-up.

With just a few practice laps and a heat race under his belt at Lee, Piekarski made the decision to start from the tail of the field to gain valuable seat time. A 19-car field took the initial green flag and BJ kept pace moving up through the pack steadily. On lap eleven, the caution flew and tightened the field back up. By lap 20, BJ worked his way to the eighth position and was patient to take positions as openings occurred. With just under ten laps to go, BJ had charged to fifth place when the caution flew again for a spinning car. It was a shootout to the checkers with Piekarski trying to grab one more spot from Scott Bonney who had won a week prior. Bonney held tight and BJ came away with a top five finish for the Dupont Performance Finishes/ Spies Hecker, Lovering Volvo, Collision Centers of NH, and Enterprise Rent-a-Car sponsored Late Model team.

Special thanks must be extended to Wayne Helliwell Sr. for his spotting and crew chief duties for the night. The team also would like to extend their appreciation to all Collision Center of NH employees for the crewing and support efforts in what turned out to be a very successful evening of racing.

Next on the calendar is a return to NASCAR’s Lee USA Speedway in Lee, New Hampshire. Friday, May 16th. For more information about PBJ Motorsports, log on to www.pbjmotorsports.com.

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