Thompson, CT — Thompson International Speedway featured Twin 30 lap features for the Sunoco Modifieds on Thursday night. Woody Pitkat of Stafford, CT, made it two in a row in Sunoco Modified action in the night’s Modified the opener. In the second of the twins, Ryan Preece was declared the winner of a controversial feature event that saw Pitkat cross the checkers first. In a more conventional finish, it was Tommy O’Sullivan scoring the victory in the Late Models.
Troy Talman of Oxford, MA wired the field to secure the victory in Sunoco Lite Modified. Scott Sundeen continued his domination of the Limited Sportsman division with a win on Thursday night. John Lowinski-Loh, Jr. made it five consecutive wins in the TIS Modified division. Dave Trudeau of Mansfield, MA, earned top honors in the Mini Stocks. Bill Cummins of Clinton, MA, earned top honors in the Vintage Outlaw Modifieds.
The first of the twin 30s for the Sunoco Modifieds ran under the bright sunshine. Shining brightly was Woody Pitkat of Stafford, CT. Kerry Malone jumped out from his pole starting position to lead the opening laps. Keith Rocco made quick work of Ryan Preece for second position. The first caution of the event flew on lap three for a spin by Mathew Rzewnicki. On the ensuing restart, it was all Rocco. He took the top spot away from Malone. Woody Pitkat came along for the ride followed by Preece; relegating Malone back to fourth.
Continue reading ‘Pitkat & Preece Share Sunoco Mod Twin Victories; O’Sullivan, Talman, Lowinski-Loh, Jr., Sundeen, Michalski & Cummins Also Victorious’
Bedford MA – When Richards Parker Racing debuts at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway this Friday, one of the people most interested in the results will be half a world away. That would be team co-owner Mark Richards; make that U.S. Army specialist Mark Richards, who is currently stationed in Afghanistan.
Richards recently joined forces with driver Josh Parker to form Richards Parker Racing, LLC. Remarkably, Richards knows little about racing; in fact, he was not even interested in motorsports until a conversation with Parker while on leave in their home town of Cranston, RI earlier this year led to the formation of their race team.
Knowing that Parker is among the top drivers on iRacing.com, the world’s leading online motorsports service, Richards asked why he hadn’t translated his online racing success into “real” racing. Like tens of thousands of aspiring racer drivers before him, Parker explained he lacked the financial resources to make the step to stock car racing.
Continue reading ‘An Army of Two: Richards Parker Racing Making DARE Stock Debut This Friday at Stafford’
Stafford Springs, CT — For Stafford SK Light Modified driver Joey Ferrigno, the 2012 season has been a bit of starting all over again for the East Hartford native. After winning the DARE Stock championship in 2005 at Stafford, Ferrigno moved to the Limited Late Model division, where he raced for three seasons before taking a bit of a sabbatical from racing in the 2009-2011 seasons. Ferrigno kept busy driving the SMS pace car and he dabbled in some other forms of racing, but for the most part, the 2012 season has been truly a rookie experience.
“This is my first season racing something without fenders on it,” said Ferrigno. “I did some enduros, the 24 Hours of Lemons, and School Buses, so I wasn’t totally out of it, but getting into the modified is not like anything I’ve ever driven before. Everything I’ve driven before had no tire, no traction, and was going sideways through the corner. With the modified it’s all about finesse and if you break the car loose, you’re losing time. It’s a little bit different of a driving style than what I’ve driven in the past.”
But midway through the 2012 season, Ferrigno has gotten a good handle on what it takes to be successful in a modified as he sits 10th in the points standings, only 8 points behind fellow SK Light rookie Tyler Hines in 8th place. Ferrigno traces his good fortunes to his setup man, Paul French, who has been able to allow Ferrigno to concentrate solely on his duties behind the wheel.
Continue reading ‘Joey Ferrigno Enjoying Rookie Season in Stafford’s SK Light Modified Division’
Stafford Springs—In only his second season of modified competition at Stafford Motor Speedway, Tony Membrino, Jr. picked up his very first modified feature victory last Friday night, which vaulted him into third place in the points standings heading into this Friady nigtht’s 25-lap Xtra Mart Xtra D feature event. The feature win was Membrino’s fourth podium finish of the 2012 season, and it was his fourth consecutive finish inside the top-8. Membrino’s string of good finishes has seen him go from 6th place and 40 points out of the championship lead to his current position of third, 20 points behind Dylan Kopec. It has also given Membrino and his #44 Bay Crane Northeast team a renewed focus in the chase for the 2012 championship.
“The championship was one of our game plans from the get go,” said Membrino. “That was something we wanted to go after from the start of the season and when we got 3rd at the Sizzler, that was a good start. The first Friday night show we got trashed. I know it’s a long season, but we were kind of considering the option that the championship might not be possible after that. Then we started stringing along good finishes and picking up points here and there. Up until now points weren’t on my mind, but you look at it now and we’re back in the picture. My game plan is to go out and win races. I haven’t been able to string together a couple of wins in a single season, so that’s a big goal for me and I’m going to let the points fall where they may. In this division anything can happen and it usually happens really quick. A split second can change your whole outlook on the points, so I’m just going to focus on winning races and wherever we end up, top or bottom, we’re going to go for the gold.”
In the chase for the championship, Membrino has another second year driver in Kopec and a third year driver in Zach Aszklar ahead of him in the points standings. Given the fact that Membrino is the 2010 DARE Stock track champion at Stafford, he feels that his experience in winning that championship can give him a leg up on his closest competition for the SK Light track title this season.
Continue reading ‘Tony Membrino, Jr. Hoping First Career SK Light Victory Propels Him to Championship Contender Status at Stafford’
