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“A Sure Thing, or a Roll of the Dice?”

Car owners, Steve Shaw and Tom Silsby discuss the set up for the potent S & S Motorsports supermodified driven by Troy Regier. It all comes down to the Vegas race as a “Winner Take All” situation for the SMRA Championship.

Dinuba’s Troy Regier Wins Eighth Career

Supermodified Racing Championship!

By Rhonda Costa

S&S Motorsports Public Relations

 

LAS VEGAS -- Troy Regier of Dinuba overcame a 38-point deficit heading into the Supermodified Racing Association’s final race of 2008 at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday to win his eighth career supermodified championship by just five points.

Regier drives for S&S Motorsports, based in Carson City, Nev., owned by Tom Silsby and Steve Shaw.

A regular at Madera Speedway, Regier has said many times he races to win, or why bother. He said early on in the evening he wanted to win the main event, and if he was able to overcome the point differential, that would be a bonus.

“This championship means more to me than any of the others I have,” Regier said. “To know we did it straight up and not try to play any games. We run as hard as we can and to have this (championship) come in our favor, makes all the hard work worthwhile.

“I have to thank Tom (Silsby) and Steve (Shaw) for giving me the car I want. They have worked hard all year long.”

Regier held second place to Jeff Russell of Boise, Idaho. Russell has won three main events in the SMRA, Regier had won four until Saturday. Russell had recorded one DNF on the season; Regier, two. By qualifying in the top-6, Regier gained 10 points on Russell who qualified ninth. Russell did win his heat race; Regier finished third in heat two, which was a 2-point advantage for Russell.

Drivers also earn passing points in the main event, which worked to Regier’s advantage as he began in the 10^th position, and Russell in the third. Regier began picking cars off as soon as he could to move to the front of the field. When the first caution flew for Rich Castor Jr. of Bennett, Colo. on lap 6, Regier was up fourth. On the restart, he was right on Russell, who continued to run in third, making the pass and taking Kurt Wartman of Boise two laps later for the second spot.

On lap 16, race leader Justin Belfiore of Ipswitch, Mass., who when he came upon a slower car to lap it, hesitated just enough Regier made an inside pass on him to go three wide into turn 2 and come out with the lead.

Regier skillfully used lapped traffic the rest of the race to keep his distance from the young hot-shoe of Bryan Warf of Boise, who was running and finished second to Regier; Russell finished in third -- gaining no passing points. Rounding out the field were Eric Silsby of Minden, A.J. Russell of Charlotte, N.C., Haygood, Dale Lamborn on Carson City, Pat Whittet of Boise, Amy Silsby of Minden, Matt Gilbert of Firestone, Calif., Wartman, Harold Evans of Middleton, Colo., Jim Birges of Fresno, Calif., Belfiore, Bobby Dalton of San Martin, Calif., and Castor Jr. Birges also won the 6-lap, 6-car trophy dash.

“I was going more for the win,” Regier admitted after the race, “but if at all possible, getting the championship was on the back of my mind. What helped was Jeff’s qualifying and my qualifying and passing points. Getting those passing points gave me the opportunity. And the car handled perfectly.

“I have such a feeling of elation of winning this year’s championship,” Regier said. “And to do it from behind was awesome. My team never quits.”

“A good car this good doesn’t come that often, but Troy sure drives the hell out of it and that’s why he’s won five out of nine main events this year,” said Tom Silsby. “He would have probably won more had we not had those two DNF’s.”

“It was a good season for us even with those two freak breakdowns, two things that don’t normally break,” Shaw said. “We struggled to get those wins and like I’ve said before about Troy, he is one of the most amazing and talented drivers. He can do things with a racecar that seem impossible. And it’s always in his mind to win.”

“I’ve got to thank my sponsors as well as the team,” Regier said. “They are Sierra Racing Products, Donn Simons and Artistic Fence, NAPA Auto Parts (Capital City Auto Parts), Paughco and Regier Farms.”

Regier’s championships with S&S Motorsports are in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008.

For information or to sponsor S&S Motorsports, visit www.sandsmotorsportsracing.com, or call Shaw at (775) 722-2388.