Waterbury's Tanner Woodard to race in South Carolina Jan. 7-9
Dec. 29, 2021 | Press Release/Waterbury Roundabout
Tanner Woodard in a Thunder Road Speedbowl 2020 file photo
Racing season isn’t over for Waterbury Center’s Tanner Woodard who heads to South Carolina for the 12th annual New Year’s Bash at Dillon Motor Speedway Jan. 7-9.
The 17-year-old and his Tanner Woodard Racing Team will make the trek south for his first appearance in the 100-lap, $2,500-to-win Street Stock Nationals, a flagship event at the 4/10-mile oval for the Dillon Motor Speedway, Mid-Atlantic Street Stock Series and Southeast stock car racing schedules.
The event will be live-streamed on Racing America on Speed51.TV and later broadcast as part of MAVTV’s “Short Track America” series, giving fans two chances to see Woodard’s J&S Sales and Service #68 in action.
It was the 2021 live stream from Dillon that first inspired Woodard to make the trip. “I’m excited to try a new track that I never have seen before,” Woodard said. “It’s a Street Stock National Race that will be televised live with lots of competition — potentially 60 or more cars trying to qualify for 32 starting spots. Last year there wasn’t much going on with the COVID-19 lockdown, so we watched the 11th annual New Year's Bash at Dillion, and we were hooked to find a car for this year’s race.”
Woodard, the son of four-time Thunder Road Flying Tiger champion Jason Woodard, has quickly become an accomplished racer in his own right. This year, he won the Flying Tiger Rookie of the Year Award at both Vermont’s Thunder Road and New Hampshire’s White Mountain Motorsports Park. Tanner also captured five feature wins between the two tracks.
Late in the season, the Woodard team purchased a championship-winning 8-cylinder Street Stock. In two starts with the car, Woodard finished third at Thunder Road’s Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Milk Bowl Friday, then took ninth at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park’s Sunoco World Series of Speedway Racing.
Alby Ovitt will serve as crew chief for Woodard’s maiden Dillon voyage. The veteran from Raymond, New Hampshire, is a many-time 8-cylinder Street Stock winner with four previous starts at Dillon. Ovitt is also a Late Model winner at White Mountain, which is where he and Woodard first connected while both were racing weekly this summer. It was Ovitt who recommended the Street Stock that Tanner Woodard Racing purchased and will be racing next month.
Other Woodard racing team members include Tanner’s parents, sister and fellow Flying Tiger racer Kelsea Woodard, Steve Guptil, Shane Cannon, and Eric Austin. With Woodard’s first laps at Dillon coming in the open practice on Friday, Jan. 7, Ovitt’s knowledge and his team’s help will be crucial.
“I’m very much looking forward to working with Tanner because he is a young, respectful, and very talented driver,” Ovitt said. “He listens very well and takes very good care of his equipment. It will be a different experience working with him from the pits rather than driving myself. However, I feel it will be beneficial to all of us far as results on race day.”
Woodard said he will be relying on his team and Ovitt. “My team has spent countless hours preparing the car and updating parts so I can have the best piece possible. Then we have Alby, who has lots of experience at Dillion and is extremely good at mentoring,” Woodard said. “The experience he brings to the table is so important for me to cut down my learning curve at a big race. I can’t wait to hit the track.”
Dillon Motor Speedway is one of the best-known short tracks in the country. It originally operated as a dirt oval from 1966 to 1980. After sitting dormant for 25 years, former NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Ron Barfield Jr. purchased the facility, paved it, and reopened it in 2007. Its schedule now includes regular visits from the CARS Late Model Stock Tour, SMART Modified Tour, USAC Eastern Midget Championship, and MASS Street Stocks.
“Racing at Dillion is very different,” Ovitt remarked. “The track is very tricky, the surface is abrasive, and it’s a long race with many different situations thrown your way throughout the day. I feel my experience having raced the New Year’s Bash previously will benefit Tanner and [his] team by quickening the track learning curve and race procedures, tire management, etc. on race day. Hopefully, all that results in a very competitive car and better results.”
The Street Stocks will have single-car time trials on Saturday, Jan. 8, to lock in the top-20 starters. On Sunday, Jan. 9, a 25-lap B-Feature will set the remainder of the field with the 100-lap main event to follow. The full schedule is online at dillonmotorspeedway.com.
Woodard said his main goal is to qualify. “Whatever happens after that is a bonus,” he said. “If we run well at Dillion, we plan to attend the 2nd Street Stock National race in March. I feel every different track I run at helps me tremendously as a driver because no two tracks are the same. It makes you dig deep as a team, figure it out as a team, and whatever obstacle you come up against, work even harder to deal with it.”