By Brant Thurmond
The Touring Outlaw Modified Series (TOMS) were back in action Saturday night at Rocket Raceway Park, in Petty, Texas.
Coming off an up and down season opener at Southern Oklahoma Speedway back on March 21 and 22, Blackwell native Fred “Fast Freddy” Wojtek was hoping to build off a strong rebound finish in the feature race.
However, with around 18 of the 25 laps completed, Wojtek’s motor blew and ended his night with a 17th place finish.
“We had a rod that is hanging outside the pan,” Wojtek said. “Another crappy night, but I guess it could be worse. It’s going to be a little bit before we are going to be able to race with the TOMS guys. We are going to have to get us a motor a built or fixed or see what we got here.”
Wojtek started 12th in the feature and moved up to ninth, before falling back to around 10th when the motor blew.
“It’s just more bad luck,” Wojtek said. “I hate to say that all the time. I had no warning that it was going to blow.”
Saturday’s night at Rocket Raceway Park started out pretty good for Wojtek, who finished second in his heat race behind Jack Sartain.
“We had a pretty decent heat race,” Wojtek said. “The car was a little tight in the heat race. We didn’t do anything to it for the feature.”
The race Saturday night was the series’ first full event since the opening weekend in March.
The race on April 4, was called after the heat races with a make up date set for May 2, however that race was rained out as well.
Mother Nature has been victorious in the last five of seven races for the TOMS.
Wojtek raced one race outside of the TOMS on May 10, at Abilene Speedway where he raced an IMCA Modified.
Wojtek started 13th in the feature race and moved up 10 spots to finish in third place.
Having been a few weeks since he last raced, Wojtek said it took him a few laps to find his rhythm and battled tight conditions most of the night.
“The car was tight on the throttle,” Wojtek said. “I was fighting it a lot. Every once and a while, I could find a good groove and pass a few cars but just couldn’t stay consistent. The track was a little different than what we normally run. I think this is the third time we have been on this track, so I don’t have a lot of notes for it. Hopefully, when we come back next time, we will be a little better.”
The next scheduled race for the TOMS is Saturday, June 14, at Southern Oklahoma Speedway, in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
At the time of this article, it is unclear if Wojtek will be competing at the next race.