Bobby Grigas III Ready to Start His TVMRS Rookie Campaign

Bobby Grigas III will be entering a whole new world when the True Value Modified Racing Series kicks off their 2006 season on April 15th at Monadnock Speedway (NH). Grigas will be trading a fendered Late Model for a sleek TVMRS Modified. His first start won’t be coming on familiar ground either. He’ll be making his first start at the tight quarter-mile oval in any kind of racecar.

Grigas is not stressed out about the new experience, though. He’s really looking forward to starting his education in the series and posting a good finish in his #09 Triple G Scaffolding Modified.

“I’m just a touch nervous, but mostly I’m psyched for the race,” said Grigas. “I’m looking forward to meeting all of the different drivers and learn who I can race with and who I should try to stay away from. I’ll be trying to get a feel for racing a Modified on a tight short track. I’ve only raced a Modified at New Smyrna and Thompson and both of those tracks are a lot faster. This will be a new experience.”

Grigas won’t just be learning how his competition races, he’ll be meeting many of his fellow racers for the first time.

“I don’t know a lot of those guys yet,” said the 24-yar-old driver. “I’m so new to racing and learning people. I know Kirk Alexander because he’s the two-time True Value Modified Racing Series champion; I met Jimmy Kuhn at Racearama and Andy Seuss at Speedweeks in Florida.”

Grigas wants to race clean at Monadnock and make a favorable impression on the rest of the field.

“I definitely want to earn their respect, especially from the front runners. I don’t want to go out there and make any enemies.”

Grigas is already impressed with what he sees with the TVMRS.

“I know that [Series founder and fellow driver] Jack Bateman has done some great things with the tour since starting it up from scratch,” said Grigas. “He puts on some really good shows. I’ve only seen two races and they were both very good. So I’m very psyched to be a part of it.”

Grigas already has some laps under his belt in 2006. His team towed South for Florida Speedweeks at New Smyrna Speedway, but got caught in a wreck early in the week. It might have looked to observers that the #09 was bent beyond repair, but the Triple G team brought it home and rebuilt it. They won Best in Show honors at Racearama with the car and have tested it at Thompson International Speedway (CT) with positive results since then.

But just because the team has shown that they can work well in a pinch, doesn’t mean that Grigas wants to repeat that experience. But he’s not going to be overly conservative either.

“I didn’t have the best of luck in Florida,” said Grigas. “I’m hoping not to wreck at Monadnock, that would be a bad thing. I’m setting a high goal of a top-10 finish. I think that would be a good place to start the year.

“As much as I try to say that I just want to take my time and get a feel for things, that usually doesn’t happen. I’ll be patient, but I’m still trying to get up there into the top five. I want to do well throughout the year. I’d like to finish in the top 10 of the points and bring home the Rookie of the Year title.”