The setup at Seekonk is crucial and you either get it right or not. The track changes a lot at night and even if you do good during the day, the night time difference can hurt the best of competitors.
“We are like missing the boat here on the setups at night time,” said Grigas. “It seems like every year that I come here, I do well in the heat race when it is light out. When it gets dark out, the car changes a little bit and I cannot get a handle on the setup for nighttime and the car just goes away.”
Missing the setup means a driver can go fast from running with leaders to the back of the pack at the blink of an eye and all one can do is hope for a caution.
“It kills me because the first couple of laps I was running even. I was riding around and saying to myself ‘beautiful’. I might as well run around behind Matty (Hirschman). And then the car started to get tighter and tighter. Then I was just riding around saying. ‘it is what it is.’ I was hoping that a caution would come out.”
Winning or losing a race can sometimes be to a team like a day trip to a casino and its turn of events. Grigas as a driver who wants to win the game expressed his feelings similarly.
“Racing sometimes is just a crap shoot. Some people have good days, some people go on a streak and seem to do well. And some people have bad days. Then there are some people that time will only tell. I want to get there.”
The Open Wheel race draws mod drivers from all series from True Value, ROC, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and local track divisions.
“This race was like a Whelen tour race when it come to the drivers,” said Grigas about the race. “Most of the True Value guys, just like the Whelen don’t want to beat up their equipment. Everybody gives and takes. Tonight nobody wanted to wreck because it was an open show. Who ever had the better car won.”
Grigas has not raced at Seekonk Speedway a lot but like any new track he just goes out there and races to the best of his ability.
“I caught on to racing here really quickly. I come here only once a year for this
race. I won the heat race and I thought ‘Oh beautiful’. I definitely tried. I drove
as hard as I could in the heat race to get a good starting spot. Just so we
didn’t have to beat the car up. Then it seems like every year I just do the same
thing. It is discouraging.”
The #09 team came across the start finish line in ninth managing to salvage
a top-10 spot. They will take the lessons learned and the experience and
maybe lady luck will be on their side next year.
But Grigas’ racing for the week wasn’t over with the event at Seekonk.
The very next day he headed over to Thompson International Speedway
where he was looking to be able to better his top-10 from Seekonk with a
win, but Lady Luck changed that plan for him on lap 2 of event.
“We qualified really well at Thompson, we were up in the third spot.” Added
Grigas. “But unfortunately the top-two cars got together on lap two and ended up wrecking about 15 cars, with me included. There was a lot of damage, but we were able to get the car back together and get some few laps in so that we could finish 18th. It definitely wasn’t what we were hoping for, but we will just try and get it next time."
