Expecting a Post?

Unfortunately, I've been in the middle of one of the more... Conflicting weeks in my personal life. Without getting into too many details, I'm afraid that I'll be taking the rest of the week off and a few more weeks off as well if need be.

I'll be back up and running on a full schedule come the Spring Sizzler.

Thank you for your patience and consideration.

Some Saturday Stories

These are not being done late in the week, but more like the day after these were posted on the track's home page. So let's get right to it.

+ Anthony Sesley is joining the SK Modifieds for the 2011 season. Instead of a #11 on the car, it's going to be a #6.

+ Michael Bennett wants the Late Model championship. Last year, he finished fifth in the standings.

+ It's been a while since the Champions for Charities stories were posted. I look back and see that this week's profile is part five of twelve. In this part, the subject is Frank Ruocco.

It's... Storylines!

After a week without anything, we're doing these stories in Cliff Notes form.

+ The next season ticket deadline? March 15. After that, the prices are going to rise again.

+ The swap meets are coming on April 3 and 10. They're the first events on the 2011 schedule.

+ Here are driver stories on Shayne Prucker and Richie Pallai, Jr. The story on Pallai is an external link from the American College Hockey Association.

The Abridged Weekly Linkage

Okay, I'm on a tight schedule. Here's the week that was (last Friday's links) from Stafford.

+ Next part to the Champions for Charities series, about Todd Szegedy.
+ 6/19: Racing Against Cancer track walk.
+ Lincoln Technical Institute is now a sponsor of the June Modified Racing Series event.
+ Your "before the Sizzler" coverage begins as well.
+ Gunsmoke Stables is a new contingency sponsor for the SK Lights.
+ Stafford's online totals almost hit 700,000.

More News

Another week, and another set of news stories for you. Let's get to them.

+ There are going to be a ton of Subarus at Stafford in June. After spending the last five years at Wachusett Mountain, the Wicked Big Meet is coming to Connecticut. This is America's largest Subaru enthusiast festival.

+ Ryan Preece's career in a SK Modified continues in 2011 as he'll be running the full season in the division.

+ Bobby Santos, III wants to improve on last year's Spring Sizzler finish. It was a second-place run in 2010 - this year, he wants the win.

+ Speaking of Santos, part four of twelve about the Champions for Charities drivers is about Santos. His charity is the USAC Benevolent Fund.

Late Week Newslines

Let's get these news stories from the Stafford site out of the way before Friday gets here.

+ Starting with the sponsorship news, the Town Fair Tire 150 in August will remain the Town Fair Tire 150. The company renewed their sponsorship for the August race involving the Whelen Modified Tour.

+ Part three of twelve in the Champions for Charities spotlights came on Friday. This week's driver spotlight was about Donny Lia.

+ Welcome the newest SK Light rookie: Sara Locascio.

+ After four years in the SK Light division, Heather DesRochers is moving up to the SK Modifieds. Steve Greer has provided the engine.

Wednesday Night Linkage

Okay, family issues have kept me from doing this batch of linkage. So let's get that done now, okay?

+ First order of business - sponsorship news. TSI Harley-Davidson has renewed their sponsorship for the Memorial Day race (this year on 5/27). For the 21st time, the Whelen Modifieds will be racing in the TSI Harley-Davidson 125.

+ Eric Berndt will be racing on the Whelen Modified Tour on a full-time basis in 2011, teaming up with Bob Katon, Jr.

+ Earl Pelletier is going to team up with Steve Greer this upcoming season. He hopes having support will help him win a few races.

+ And finally, part two of twelve is up in regards to the Champions for Charities drivers. Driver number two being profiled is Ted Christopher. His charity is the Connecticut Brest Health Initiative.

Friday News and... Well, News

Another week, and another set of notes for you. These will be done the same day the links are put up on the site this time, as I refuse to wait until the last minute.

+ More semi-sponsorship news: Your safety trucks will once again be provided by Family Ford of Enfield.

+ The weekend of the 28-30 is the Frank Maratta Auto Show at the Connecticut Expo Center. Keith Rocco's SK Modified will be on display throughout the weekend. On Saturday night, there's going to be a Stafford Speedway autograph session featuring some of the drivers. The session will be from 6-7pm.

+ And this is also part one of what I believe is a 12-part feature on the Champions for Charities drivers. The first driver to be profiled is Keith Rocco. His charity is the Connecticut chapter of the Make-a-Wish foundation. His goal is to raise $8,500 and make one kid's wish come true.

Another News Link Post

After a week of minor chaos, I'm back with the news stories from last Friday. Yes. Things were that crazy. I apologize.

+ I'll start with the sponsorship news for you. CARQuest Auto Parts is coming back for year 26. They will once again be the elite corporate sponsor of all things Stafford. The 26 straight years between the two gives them one of the longest partnerships in motorsports.

+ Brett Gonyaw took a one year break from racing at Stafford, working as a crew member for a pair of SK Modified teams. In 2011, he will be back behind the wheel of an SK Modified, as he drives the #21 that was driven by Josh Sylvester in 2010.

+ Back last month, I had mentioned how multiple drivers from the Senior Outlaw division of the Wild Thing Kart Series were making the jump to the SK Light division. One of those drivers is Jesse Ruocco, son of SK Modified driver Frank Ruocco.

Another Award for Rocco

Don't have much to say here, but just wanted to let you know that Keith Rocco will be recieving the Bill Lee Male Athlete of the Year award at the Gold Key Dinner in Southington on April 17. He's the first racing-related recipient of the award since its inception in 1973.

The press release via the Stafford site is here.

A Few Friday Notes...

Well, the first full week of 2011 is nearly over. With a new calendar year comes a new bunch of headlines.

+ The final power rating list is out. Power ratings, for those who don't follow it, is a system to determine just who is the best driver during any given season. The ratings are determined in the final manner: Only top ten finishes count. For each win a driver earns, they get 100 points. (If a driver finishes seventh in a feature, they will earn 70 points.) Those points that they accumulated over the course of the season are divided by the total number of features in a division, giving them their power rating. If a driver raced in two divisions, they will be on the list twice (example: Woody Pitkat raced in both the Late Models and SK Modifieds; he gets on the list for his SK power rating and his Late Model power rating). The best driver this season was Keith Rocco, with a 78 rating.

+ Tony Membrino, Jr wants to race in the SK Light division, but he needs sponsors to help move the plan forward. If he gets sponsors, expect a #44 in the division this upcoming season.

+ There are big plans in the work for Steve Greer. Not only is he going with CD Chassis equipment, but he is also going to be teaming up with Earl Pelletier and Joey Cipriano.

+ Next month, there is an indoor midget race happening in Providence next month. They call it the Coffee Cup - which is appropriate, considering the event is in the Dunkin Donuts Center. A few Stafford drivers will make the trip to Rhode Island to race in the event. Ted Christopher and Woody Pitkat are expected to be part of the field.

Champions for Charities Drivers

The timeline was simple: Tuesday, a banner on the main page of Stafford's site said that the drivers who were going to participate in the Champions for Charities were going to be revealed the following day. And on Wednesday, the drivers were revealed.

To be eligible for consideration, there were only two stipulations you had to meet: You had to drive some type of open-wheel race car, and you had to have been a champion of an open-wheeled division.

The term "if you build it, they will come" applies here, as a dozen champions accepted invitations and will convene at the mini mile during CARQuest Extreme Tuesday. The list of twelve drivers includes both asphalt and dirt champions. Not all of them have selected their charities, but it should be determined in the coming days and weeks.

Your press release for this event is here, and your entry list is here.

Let's Do the Time Warp Again

Looks like someone didn't want to leave the past via the look at Stafford's homepage today.

By the looks of things, someone went a little too far into the past.

Yes, that's a series of screenshots, courtesy of me, showing track news from December 30... 2008. And it's not just the stories. It goes all the way from the top of the page, with the SK Modified and Late Model champions, as well as the coming attractions.

I would assume that something like this is a mistake. It's not major news, but in the offseason, a little pre-2011 chuckle couldn't hurt.

Pre-2011 News

Hope you guys had a very Merry Christmas. 2011 is coming up quick, and there's news to share.

+ RallyCross is coming to Stafford. The parking lot is going will be quite busy on January 15 and 16 as the Engraving Awards and Gifts RallyCross and the Eastern States RallyCross Challenge Championship takes place.

+ In the "drivers moving up" department, Cory Casagrande is moving up from DARE Stocks to Limited Late Models, while Dylan Kopec will be racing in the SK Lights after winning the Senior Outlaw championship in the Wild Thing Kart Series last year. Kopec is not the only driver from the division to jump up to Friday nights, as there are three other drivers from the Senior Outlaws who are also joining him.

+ The third page I linked to in the last story includes more about the Champions for Charities event. The names of those who are going to be racing Senior Outlaws at the CARQuest Extreme Tuesday event will be announced sometime during the first week of January.

Champions for Charities

If you remember me talking about the schedule a few weeks back, I had mentioned something about a Champions for Charities event that was going to take place during the CARQuest Extreme Tuesday program.

Stafford put up the details of the event on the site today. I've linked to it here.

Here's what the event consists of:

During that night's schedule of events, 12-15 open-wheel champions (who were invited) will take to the track. They will pick a charity to represent and will start donating money to that charity of their choice. Stafford and CARQuest will give each driver/charity $3,000.

Each champion will be driving a Senior Outlaw from the Wild Thing Kart Series. On June 28, the drivers will qualify for the event with two eight-lap heats. This is where the donation factor comes into play. Because the more money a driver gets via donations, the better their chances are that they'll start on the pole for the heats. The two drivers who raise the most for their charities will be the two pole sitters.

After both heat races have finished, there will be a 15-lap feature. All races are done on the mini mile. The winner of the feature gets what the article calls a "champion's gift pack". There is a prize for the driver who raises the most money during the designated "fundraising period". That driver recieves also recieves a "racer's gift pack".

More information about this event will come in 2011.

I have nothing bad to say about any and all of this. Every year, there's always something different going on as part of the Extreme Tuesday event, and the 2011 edition should be pretty fun to go see.

Pre-Christmas News Megapost

This could possibly be the last post I make before Christmas, so let's make it a megapost. There's a lot to cover in this, so let's get right to it.

+ The big headline from last week: The banquet for the Whelen All-American Series, taking place last Friday night at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte. Keith Rocco was the star of the show, as he was honored for his record achievement; collecting a maximum 810 points to clinch the national championship.

+ This logo, over to the right here? Well, it's going to be used in the 2011 season as NASCAR celebrates 30 seasons of the Whelen All-American Series. Sorry for taking it off the website. Thought a visual would be helpful. I'll also paste the link here as well. Did you know that nine tracks have been partnered with NASCAR for all 30 years? According to the press release, Stafford is one of those tracks.

+ Award money has also been revealed from this past season as well. $30,575 was earned from contingency sponsors (finishing in the top-3 in features; etc) and Reliable Welding and Speed for the Rookies of the Year. Another $35,500 was paid out for post-season awards.

+ And closing this out on a jolly note, Santa is coming to town. Santa is Glenn Johnson, owner of Morrison and Johnson Automotive. I love the pictures of the sleigh.

With that, I'm going to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. Stay safe. Stay dry. And if there's news before the new year, I'll be posting it.

SMS Linkage Day

So... Yeah. Those banquets for the touring series/NWAMS coming this week? Stafford's got a press release on them. Won't link to that, because it's the same thing I linked to a few days ago when I did the blog entry dedicated to NASCAR Home Tracks. (There's also a press release up for the NWAMS, which I also have linked.)

Although there are more press releases on the site as well. So let's get into those, shall we?

+ One last tidbit of information in regards to the banquet and all events in the week leading up to it: There was a karting challenge between the drivers attending and some of the media. The event took place in North Carolina on Wednesday. There's video and a picture of the action in the article. Bobby Santos won the event. Ryan Truex (K&N Pro Series East) was second. Keith Rocco was third. The picture in the link was courtesy of Getty Images. Wherever that album is, I can't find it.

+ Don't think that the banquet is the only newsworthy thing going on this week. There's also a story about Victoria Bergenty.

NASCAR Home Tracks Linkage Day

You might have seen the little story on the main page of Stafford's site for a good portion of the fall - former NASCAR champions were in photo shoots with some of the champions in 2010, mainly in touring divisions. The Twitter page for the NASCAR Home Tracks (@NASCARHomeTrack) teased the release of the story on 12/6. They cut it close. Today, it's out.

Looks pretty good, too. Click here. You have the photo taken at Stafford with Bobby Santos and Bobby Allison, and the photo of Keith Rocco and Richard Petty taken at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. I believe the latter (not the actual photo in the link, but another photo) was shown on Stafford's home page as well. I might be mistaken.

Speaking of Rocco, NASCAR's Home Tracks site also has a wrap-up of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, concluding the 2010 season. (No, the series isn't wrapping up. Just the season.) Just kind of goes over what we already know. There's also information up for the NWAMS banquet, taking place on 12/10 at 7pm EST. There's scheduled to be a webcast up on the NASCAR Home Tracks page.

Sponsorship Renewal News

The beginnings of the 2011 sponsorship renewals take place, as New England Racing Fuel has reupped their sponsorship for all contingency programs. They were one of the first companies to join the program, along with CARQuest back in 1999. 2011 will be year number 13 for the business.

Your Late Awards Post

A little more than a week ago, Stafford held its annual champions banquet at LaRenaissance in East Windsor. About 500 people showed for the event.

The champions were formally crowned, and other awards were given out. I apologize for not going into full detail on this one, but the story on the awards will tell you who won what - as far as anything not previously announced goes.