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ZTO MOTORSPORTS NEWS West Park, NY- "Z-Man" Update With The ZTO Motorsports Teamby Steve Pados, GA Motorsports Media The past two weeks have been hectic for the ZTO Motorsports Team and their driver, 14 year old talent Zachary "Z-Man" O'Connell, as in between school related events, the heavy workload of Dad and Crew Chief Paul O'Connell, and the fact there just isn't enough time in a day, the Team has forged on leaving the Sprint Car temporarily in drydock and focusing on the Slingshot car exclusively. With the continuously rising fuel costs and the lack of time to prepare the Sprint Car for action, the team has decided to race one car for the time being and the "Z-Man" chose the Slingshot car to do his racing with. The decision took quite a strain off of Crew Chief Paul O'Connell as he has been actively seeking new team members since the start of the racing season with little or no success. The change of plans has lifted a burden from the team as they can now focus on one entity for the remaining months of the season with the hopes some of the minor problems with the Sprint Car will be sorted out. The last time out with the Sprinter, the "Z-Man" was experiencing some braking and fuel injection problems with the racer and Paul O'Connell decided it best to have a sprint driver with experience man the controls. Veteran wheel twister John Lieto took over the driving chores and managed a solid tenth place effort with the car despite the many issues with the car on it's initial voyage. The ZTO Motorsports Team took advantage of a weekend spent in Pennsylvania to test the racing surface at the nearby Snydersville Raceway. The "Z-Man" began his heat race in 7th starting place and quickly found his way to the front as he reached third place. Getting turned around which resulted in a caution, O'Connell had to begin from the rear and immediately picked up where he left off and found his way back to third when the checkered flag fell. A heavy downpour followed after all of the heats had been run and the racing was eventually cancelled, but not before it was determined the heats would be considered the feature events from the evening giving O'Connell a third place finish. The racing continued the next night at the Hamlin Speedway and the "Z-Man" fought an extreme push with the car but muscled out a 9th place finish in the feature event. The following Wednesday found the ZTO Motorsports Team at the Accord Speedway less than an hour from their West Park home. Finding the raceway quick all of the way around the high banked quarter miler, O'Connell raced to a strong 4th place finish on the opening night of the Midweek Madness offerings at the Accord facility. Saturday night action found the team back at the Hamlin Speedway and O'Connell was second in his heat race and began the feature event from third starting position. O'Connell managed to avoid an opening lap pile-up that took a few cars from the event and when the racing resumed O'Connell moved to second and for a time challenged the early leader of the event. Sitting comfortably in second place, O'Connell dove to the extreme bottom of the raceway on lap-12 and clipped one of the tiremarkers that resulted in a caution. O'Connell was sent to the back of the field for the tire incident. Throughout the remaining laps of the race O'Connell picked up a few spots before the race was eventually curfewed and finalized and O'Connell was credited with a 19th place finish at the conclusion of the event. Last night at the Accord Speedway, O'Connell raced to a fourth place finish in the 15-lap feature event. While starting in second place and coming down for the start, the two lead cars made contact and bumped off each other, O'Connell fought to maintain control and gathered-up the car and by lap-2 made an attempt to pass for the lead but was pinched off in turn two. Losing precious ground, O'Connell found himself sliding back two positions from the encounter. Fighting back, while trying to make a pass for third place, O'Connell found himself facing the traffic and bringing out the lone caution flag in the feature event. Again O'Connell had to fight back from the rear of the field. Finding some racing room on the outside, O'Connell quickly made his way back to fourth place and was once again challenging for third place when he found himself pinched up in the boilerplate off turn two and made heavy contact. O'Connell, quickly realizing his car had sustained front end damage, drove the wounded racer for the last couple of laps cautiously but managed to hang on for fourth place in the final rundown of the event won by the "Montgomery Missile" Anthony Perrego. The "Z-Man" graduated on the 25th of June and as only a true racer would, raced at Accord the same evening instead of attending some of the closing day ceremonies at his school. The "Z-Man" continues to excel in the classroom to go along with his increasing on track skills. He has maintained Honor Roll status for every semester and has now completed the 8th grade at the Highland Middle School, situated in Highland, New York. The Honor Roll status is part of an agreement worked out by his parents for the capacity to drive the in-house race cars. Zach will end his 5th year in the school band this year as he plays the jazz trumpet. Zach is heavily involved with the school newspaper, "The Blue Review" as an at-large reporter and has done an extensive amount of work with the school yearbook. He is also a member of the Ski Club and the Mile Club. Zach also competes in the Port Ewen Athletic Basketball Association. When not playing sports or completing his homework, the "Z-Man" likes to take the drive down to the S&S Speedways to continuously hone his skills in racing, as he finds the more laps he runs indoors, the more adept he is becoming on the racetrack during the summer. ZTO Motorsports would like to thank the great supporting cast of sponsors who have come on board with the relatively new racing team. The list includes, Apple Greens Golf Course, Lowes Home Improvement of Kingston, D&D NAPA of Highland, Stock Car Fantasy, John J Pezzo, CPA, P&Z Rental Management Inc, Northern Dutchess Archery, Hig-Fab, Fast Dirt Racing Promotions, Port Ewen Athletic Association, and GA Motorsports Media. For more information and further updates regarding the "Z-Man" Zach O'Connell and the ZTO Motorsports team, log onto their website at: www.zacharyoconnell.com |
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