Rookie Bobby Grigas started the Connecticut Classic 150 race in 10th position. By lap 122, Grigas had survived all of the wrecks and had worked his way up to third place in the race. But the over-aggressiveness of some of the Tour drivers had Bobby back-peddling and he ended up finishing the race in 19th position.
“They were just beating and banging on me,” said Grigas. “They were using me as a pinball. And then I finally let the #77 [Zach Sylvester] go by and then I was going to just drop in line and just drive out the rest of the race. He was beating me up bad to. They have fresh motors in their car and the motor that I have has 1,500 laps on it. So it is tired.”
After Sylvester passed Grigas, he shut him out on the outside of the track. Grigas backed up several places from third place, where he was running at the time.
“When I was able to drop to the bottom, they started to hammer on me and tried to get me loose. I did not spin at all. I was almost backwards half of the time. When I got the car straight, they would continue. It’s kind of bad. I am not going to get upset and stomp my feet, that’s racing, but it is discouraging. You spend all that money to come here. This is supposed to be a professional tour and then when they do things like that it just does not make you feel good about the Tour.
“I kept my nose clean the whole race and I was just really looking for a top five. I was not looking to win. They were just beating me and beating me. I may just remember when they are in a position like that and I am not going to be so nice.”
Even though Bobby Grigas was victim of other driver’s aggression, he drove a good clean race. He was hit and bumped several times and his car slide sideways a lot through the race. Grigas though, was able to save the car and prevent several accidents and damage to his and other cars. The ability to drive the car out of the spins and maintain his cool while doing is a sign that the rookie is maturing his skills as he learns to compete with the big guns.
“I want to get respect from the drivers and officials and I have not touched a single person, bumped or roughed anybody up. And they are just treating me as a rookie.
“They did that to me in the True Value Tour and I put that to a halt and they never messed with me again, So you know what? I don’t want to be like that, but this is two races in a row that they have done the same thing to me. At Wall they did the same thing to me.”
