Rocco Scores in SK’s, Esposito First-Time Late Model Winner At Speedbowl
Waterford, CT — Keith Rocco won the 35-lap SK Modified feature at the Waterford Speedbowl Saturday evening.
Other Feature winners were Vin Esposito (Late Model), Al Stone III (Sportsman), Ken Cassidy Jr. (Mini Stock), and Jason Palmer (Legends).
Pole-sitter Wendell Dailey led the charge in the 35-lap SK Modified feature before nearly spinning and allowing Ed Reed Jr. and Keith Rocco to pass. Following a lap-twelve restart, second-place Reed violently slammed the turn-4 wall in a multi-car crash that involved several frontrunners including Doug Coby, Tyler Chadwick, and Ron Yuhas Jr. No injuries resulted from the red-flag incident, though the Reed mount was severely damaged. Rocco again assumed the lead battling with Jeff Paul, later fighting-back the charges of both defending champion Rob Janovic Jr. and Jeff Pearl to score his third victory of 2008.
“I was kind of disappointed after our heat, as the car wasn’t going that well,” stated Rocco, the national Whelen All American Series leader. “We got wrecked last week, and my crew spent a lot of nights in the shop putting it back together. I came in from the heat and they told me not to worry, that it’d be OK, and I should just get-in and drive. As usual, by the feature my guys had it right. Winning at the Speedbowl is really important to me, but this is as much about the crew as it is me. I’m too young to actually remember it, but my dad (Ronnie Rocco), won a lot of races here from what I’m told. He gets as excited as I do when I do well here – I just like racing at Waterford.”
In 30-lap Late Model action, Ed Reed Jr. and Richard Staskowski battled side-by-side for the lead until midway when exiting turn-four, Staskowski suddenly spun bringing out the caution. When the event resumed, Reed faded and was passed by Vin Esposito who went on to win his first-ever Late Model feature event. Completing the top-5 was Tom Metcalf, Bruce Thomas Jr., Tim Jordan, and Reed.
Esposito was both elated and relieved to get that “first win” under his belt.
“Tonight we hit the setup just right, I realized that after I won the heat,” he said. “We’ve been playing-around with the setup the past few weeks, and I knew from practice that we were on to something. The car has been going good lately, but tonight my guys hit it perfect. This is such a competitive division and there’s a huge amount of talent out there. I knew we’d get here eventually, it was just a matter of time and patience.”
“Grandpa Jim” Procaccini engaged in a furious battle with Brandon Plemons for the majority of the 20-lap Sportsman feature. It looked as if Procaccini was headed for his first victory of the season before a caution with only a handful of laps remaining bunched the field. On the restart, the duo once again went at it, until Procaccini spun, allowing Al Stone III to shoot from third to first. Stone went on to win his fourth feature of the season by a narrow margin over Ron Oldham Jr. Walt Hovey, Chuck Rogers, and Ed Lamb Jr. followed.
“I’m hoping that Jim (Procaccini) doesn’t think I got-into him,” stated Stone, the current point-leader. “It happened so quickly, and I hated to see it. Jim was running-well tonight, and probably would have won if not for that last restart. My thing is to run cleanly, but you have to take advantage of an opening if you get a break. I’d rather not win in a situation like this. We were running so tight tonight; whatever happened, it was just a racing-deal.”
Ken Cassidy Jr. took his second 20-lap Mini Stock of the season after a torrid battle with Randy Churchill Jr. Taking the lead from Nick Pappacoda on lap-5, Cassidy was soon chased by Churchill. Swapping the lead several times during the closing circuits, Cassidy finally gained the advantage at the stripe. Following Churchill was Phil Evans, Lou Bellisle, and Ray Christian III.
“We worked on the car all-week trying to get more chute-speed out of it, went-over the entire drive train,” said Cassidy, the defending champion. Prior to this, it had been great in the turns, but we were lacking in overall-speed. Tonight, the work paid-off. It wasn’t easy, as in this division, the cars are pretty-much evenly-matched. Actually, I thought Pappacoda was going to win, as he was running really well. I think his car developed a push after a few laps, and it allowed Randy and me to get-by him early”.
Jason Palmer executed a daring 3-wide move late in the race to record his second Saturday Legends feature of the year. Following closely was Art Moran Jr., Michael Gervais Jr., Shaun Buffington, and Adam Gada.
Action resumes mid-week at the Speedbowl with Wild N’ Wacky Wednesday. For more information please log-on to www.speedbowl.com
SK MODIFIED (35); 1.Keith Rocco, 2. Rob Janovic Jr., 3. Jeff Pearl, 4. Dennis Gada, 5. Jeff Paul, 6. Wendell Dailey, 7. Jay Miller, 8. Frank Mucciacciaro Jr., 9. Bob Georgiades, 10. Mike Sweeney, 11. Bill Benoit, 12. Rich Hammann, 13. Matt Gallo, 14. Ron Yuhas Jr., 15. Ed Reed Jr., 16. Doug Coby, 17. Tyler Chadwick, 18. Todd Ceravolo, 19. Pete Pavone Jr., 20. Don Fowler, 21. Justin Gaydosh.
LATE MODEL (30); 1. Vin Esposito, 2. Tom Metcalf, 3. Bruce Thomas Jr., 4. Tim Jordan, 5. Ed Reed Jr., 6. Jeff Smith, 7. Rich Staskowski, 8. Jeff Pearl, 9. Anthony Macrino, 10. Mark Hudson, 11. Robert LeBlanc Jr., 12. Larry Goss, 13. Rick Nelson, 14. Dan Holben, 15. Ron Yuhas Jr., 16. Robert Andreozzi.
SPORTSMAN (20); 1. Al Stone III, 2. Ronnie Oldham Jr., 3. Walt Hovey Jr., 4. Chuck Rogers, 5. Ed Lamb Jr., 6. Brandon Plemons, 7. John Puglisi, 8. Kevin Burr, 9. Darrell Carlson, 10. Josh Galvin, 11. “Grandpa Jim” Procaccini, 12. Nate Appell, 13. Mark Cooper, 14. Joe Nogiec, 15. Jack Aquilina, 16. Matt Burr.
MINI STOCK (20); 1. Ken Cassidy Jr., 2. Randy Churchill Jr., 3. Phil Evans, 4. Lou Bellisle, 5. Ray Christian III, 6. Jack Aquilina, 7. Jeff Mehlenbacher, 8. Ben Bargnesi, 9. Christina Cunliffe, 10. Mark Panaroni, 11. Kyle James, 12. Ian Brew, 13. Chris Williams, 14. Nick Pappacoda, 15. Jeff Miller, 16. Jeff “Soup” Civardi, 17. Jackie Wolfram, 18, Mark Caise, 19. Glenn Colvin, 20. Sean Caron, 21. Charles Canfield.
LEGENDS (20); 1. Jay Palmer, 2. Art Moran Jr., 3. Michael Gervais Jr., 4. Shaun Buffington, 5. Adam Gada, 6. Ryan Morgan, 7. Carl Blandina, 8. Dan Bisignano, 9. Art Moran Jr., 10. Charles Buxton, 11. Joe Gada, 12. Silas Hiscock Sr., 13. Joe Cipriano, 14. John Weaver, 15. Peter Portante, 16. Kyle Rogers, 17. Dan McGouren, 18. William Hiscock, 19. Carl Bohn, 20. John Hugate, 21. Justin Rau, 22. Ricky White III, 23. Mike Blaskey, 24. Mark Esposito, 25. Joe Fresco, 26. Silas Hiscock Jr.
CURRENT POINT STANDINGS (TOP-10);
(SK MODIFIED); Dennis Gada (514), Keith Rocco (478), Jeff Paul (450), Ron Janovic Jr. (448), Ron Yuhas Jr. (424), Tyler Chadwick (410), Jay Miller (408), Justin Gaydosh (394), Jeff Pearl (394), Doug Coby (298).
(LATE MODEL); Bruce Thomas Jr. (572), Ron Yuhas Jr. (534), Tim Jordan (518), Ed Reed Jr. (504), Vin Esposito (446), Rich Staskowski (406), Robert LeBlanc Jr. (348), Tom Metcalf (338), Larry Goss (324), Dan Holben (250).
(SPORTSMAN); Al Stone III (556), Ron Oldham Jr. (494), Walt Hovey Jr. (484), “Grandpa Jim” Procaccini (420), Mark Cooper (414), Josh Galvin (396), John Puglisi (396), Ed Lamb Jr. (382), Brandon Plemons (382), Jack Aquilina (378).
(MINI STOCK); Randy Churchill Jr. (572), Ken Cassidy Jr. (568), Lou Bellisle (502), Ray Christian III (452), Jack Aquilina (426), Mark Panaroni (424), Phil Evans (424), Ben Bargnesi (404), Ian Brew (402), Chris Williams (378).
(SAT. LEGENDS); Jason Palmer (278), Shaun Buffington (278), Michael Gervais Jr. (262), Adam Gada (228), Ryan Morgan (218), Art Moran Jr. (210), Mark Esposito (196), Carl Blandina (182), Joe Gada (140), Max Zachem (134).
Sources:Dave Dykes/Waterford Speedbowl PR