Defending SK Modified® Champion Woody Pitkat Excited About Chances in NAPA Auto Parts SK 5k at Stafford Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — When it comes to extra distance racing at Stafford Motor Speedway, Woody Pitkat has been a driver at the forefront of success. Pitkat has taken home the checkered flag and the winner’s check twice before in the SK Modified® ranks, winning the SK 100 in 2007 and the SK 150 in 2008. Pitkat’s long distance success hasn’t been limited to just the SK Modified® division. He has also won a 100 and a 150 lap feature in the Late Model division. With such a history of success in extra distance events, he is looking forward to his prospects in the Inaugural NAPA Auto Parts SK 5k, which will be held on Friday, July 4th at Stafford and carries with it a purse of over $27,000 and a guaranteed minimum payday of $5,000 to the winner.
“I’m real excited about the race,” said Pitkat. “It’s looking like with the fan vote that it’s going to be a long distance race so I feel like that’s going to be a plus for me because I seem to do better on the longer distance races. We’re hoping we can get another good finish and hopefully come out of there with a win. That would definitely be a good race to win. Winning that race would be huge for everybody on the team. We’re all working really well together and everyone was super excited that we finished second last week. The way that Stafford is doing this race with letting the fans vote and get involved with the race, it would be a pretty cool race to put in your record book. It would definitely be a big momentum booster for us for the rest of the season.”
Pitkat is the defending SK Modified® track champion, but over the winter he switched teams to become the driver of the #50 Skowyra family owned team. A new team and driver combination can be a tough hurdle to overcome, but Pitkat and the Skowyra team seem to have things well in hand. Since the Pitkat/Skowyra combination debuted with an 11th place finish in the season opening NAPA Spring Sizzler, they have steadily improved each week. Pitkat has finished 8th, 5th, and then 2nd last week behind Chase Dowling as the 2014 season has progressed. After finishing second, that leaves only one final position for improvement and Pitkat is confident that he and the Skowyra team can achieve that final position and win their first race together.
“Like I said over the winter, I felt like with this team I could win a race faster than I did last year with the 27 team, which took us until September,” said Pitkat. “There’s no doubt in my mind why we shouldn’t be able to rip off a couple of wins with the car but the competition in the SK Modified® division at Stafford is pretty stiff and hard. Just to be able to win one race would be a huge accomplishment and my biggest goal is to get that first win for the team and then focus on week to week after that. But I feel like with the exception of the Sizzler, we’ve been pretty good and we’ve been in the top-10 consistently every week and we made a big, big step forward with our second place finish last week. We’ll keep on working on the car to make it better.”
The NAPA SK 5k carries with it the biggest purse in SK Modified® racing but the fan vote will leave the drivers in a bit of unknown territory. Fans can vote on the race distance, qualifying procedure, tire rule, and if the starting lineup will be determined by standard handicapping or an invert. Drivers will know the results of the qualifying, tire rule, and starting lineup options prior to the race, but they won’t know the race distance until just before they get set to climb into their cars and take to the track. The top-3 choices from the fan voting will be put into a hat and the polesitter for the race will pull one of those options from the hat to determine the race distance.
“We’ll probably just prepare the car like I did with the 27 team last year and make sure everything is bulletproof,” said Pitkat. “If something gets checked on the car, check it again and do a little extra to make sure the car is the best that it can be and nothing out of your hands will take you out of the race. I think we’ll take an extra day to go over the car and make sure we didn’t miss anything. From what it looks like on the website now, give or take you have to set the car up for a 100-lap race because if you plan for the 76 or 80-lap option, you’re going to be little short on fuel.”
The $5,000 to win SK 5K won’t be the only entertainment at Stafford during the night of July 4th. Stafford Speedway will host Mean Gene and the Flamethrowers, a concert style party rock band that is based out of Long Island, NY. Mean Gene and the Flamethrowers will play both prior to and after the conclusion of the NAPA SK 5K racing program. Along with the band, in true Fourth of July style, Stafford Speedway will have a barbeque taking place on the midway with some great food available to race fans. The midway will also be busy during the July 4th NAPA Auto Parts SK5k event with Big Daddy’s RC Racing on hand; NAPA Auto Parts will have an Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund booth setup to sell tee-shirts with all the proceeds being donated to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund; and the Hartford Wolfpack mascot Sonar will be in the house to greet fans.
Tickets for the July 4th NAPA SK 5K are available and on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $27.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for kids ages 6-14, and kids 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at $30.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Speedway offers free parking with free overnight parking for self-contained RV’s available.
For more information on the Inaugural NAPA SK 5K, or to order 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