The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly for the PBJ Motorsports Team
Lee, NH (June 1, 2003): The PBJ Motorsports team with driver B.J. Piekarski returned to NASCAR’s Lee USA Speedway this past Friday night. The car had a completed paint scheme with sponsor decals and a shine to compete in the best of car shows. But, the question was how well would the car handle on the track. In the previous outing, Piekarski turned in a top five finish in his first competitive race in a Late Model at Lee.

The Lee management team was on the ball Friday night, which allowed for four practice sessions. The car wasn’t handling quite as well as the last visit, but team consultant Wayne Helliwell Sr. went to work making adjustments through tire pressures. Confident that the car was coming around, Piekarski rolled out eighth for his heat race. On the initial green, Piekarski quickly dropped to the preferred inside grove behind #25 Scott Bonney. The duo picked up a couple of positions and were chasing down the leaders. In the closing laps, B.J. made it to fifth place, but was nudged on the last lap by #02 Joey Porciello and settled for a sixth place finish.

Once qualifying heats were over, Piekarski was designated to start tenth on the feature grid of 17 cars. The outside groove was not where the car was sticking in the heat race, so the team made a few more adjustments. Confident that the car could run up front, Piekarski knew he was going to have to be patient in order to be in the running at the end.

The Dupont Performance Finishes/Spies Hecker, Lovering Volvo, Collision Centers of NH, and Enterprise Rent-a-Car sponsored Late Model survived a five car wreck after completing just a single lap. B.J. held steady in the 8th place position, but still in the outside groove unable to make the car really stick to move to the front. On lap 8, the #82 Bobby Baillargeon and B.J. locked fenders with B.J. getting the worst impact of the incident with a flat tire and barely missing a confrontation with the wall coming off turn four. The team went to work and got B.J. back on the track without losing a lap.

When the green flag flew again, B.J. had some ground to make up running in 15th position. Charging up to the 9th position, the car seemed to be coming around. Caution flew again on lap 11 for the spinning #19 Bob Webber Jr. On the ensuing restart, things got ugly. A spin at the front of the pack going into turn three blocked the track and collected most of the field including B.J. The car was brought off the track on the hook and was assessed to see if the car would be competitive. Unfortunately, the car sustained heavy damage and the night came to a close for the PBJ Motorsports team.

The professionals at the Collision Centers of New Hampshire will go to work preparing the car for the next outing at Lee USA Speedway. For more information about PBJ Motorsports, log on to www.pbjmotorsports.com.

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