Ryan Posocco Looks Forward to Defending Track Championship with “Drive for Five” in 2009
Stafford Springs, CT — Ryan Posocco and the #48 Davidson Company team owned by Marcia Kretschman enter the 2009 season at Stafford Motor Speedway at the top of the Late Model mountain. The 2008 season saw Posocco take his fourth career track championship in dominating fashion, taking 7 wins and 16 top-5 finishes in 17 starts. Posocco looks to continue the domination during the 2009 season as he will go for his fifth track championship, which would tie him with Bob Potter and put him one championship behind Ted Christopher for the most track championships in Stafford Motor Speedway history.
Posocco joined the Kretschman team prior to the 2008 season, and by that time, Posocco has already rung up the most Late Model feature wins in Stafford history along with three championships while the Kretschman team won the championship with Woody Pitkat in 2006 and finished second in points two other seasons. The combination looked good on paper, and both parties expected to run well, but Posocco says that they never imagined the level of success that they enjoyed last season.
“We both figured that we were going to run well, but we never figured we were going to be that good,” said Posocco. “We just had one of those years last year. We had a lot of luck and we had a lot of things that went in our favor. I can remember several races where I was running third and I ended up winning because the top-2 cars took each other out. We figured it was going to take a couple weeks into the season before we all got comfortable with each other, but Woody won the Sizzler and then we won the opening Friday race. By the time the summer came around, we were all comfortable working with each other and everything worked out well for us.”
As Posocco drives for his fifth championship, all signs point towards another top-notch season. Posocco will have Stafford’s winningest feature driver Ted Christopher as a part-time teammate and he will have his choice of the two cars in the Kretschman stable to use for his championship run.
But Posocco says that a repeat of his 2008 season will not be as easy as it may sound.
“We’re coming back with the same car, engine, and crew that we had last year,” said Posocco. “The car that I drove last season was a new car last year and the car that Woody drove has been rebuilt. We’ll work out both cars at the open practice and we’ll see what car we want to use for this year. I love the car that I drove last year but if the other car is better, than we’ll use that car. I think we are capable of doing what we did last year, but it will be pretty hard to match. There’s going to be a lot of good competition out there this year and we have some guys coming back into the division, I’m really looking forward to racing this year.”
As Posocco continues his Late Model career at Stafford, he re-writes the record book every time he wins a race. Posocco comes into the 2009 season with 35 career Late Model victories, which is 11 more wins than Jim Peterson. Posocco’s fourth championship last season broke a tie with Phil Rondeau for the most career championships in the Late Model division.
Posocco says that he has his sights set on continuing to do what he has done over the past 10 years in the Late Model division.
“We come into each week trying to win the race and if we can’t win then we’ re going to take what we can and get the best possible finish that night, and we plan on doing that again this season,” said Posocco. “We were the first to get to four championships in the Late Model division, so why not be the first to get to five championships this year? Winning never gets old, if it starts to get old, you shouldn’t be racing anymore. I’m almost halfway to matching Teddy’s [Christopher] total, so if we can keep on racing and winning, who knows, maybe one day we can have as many wins as Teddy does at Stafford.”
Posocco’s “Drive for Five” kicks off with the 38th Annual Tech-Net Spring Sizzler presented by CARQUEST on April 24-26. Tickets for “The Greatest Race in the History of Spring” are now on sale at the Stafford Motor Speedway box office. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, $38.00 for reserved seats, and free for children ages 5 & under. Tickets are good for admission to the Saturday April 25, and Sunday, April 26 portions of the Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, with the Friday, April 24 practice session open the public free of charge.
For more information, or to order Spring Sizzler tickets, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR