Ryan Posocco Records Milestone 40th Career Late Model Victory at Stafford Motor Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — Ryan Posocco recorded a milestone last Friday night at Stafford Motor Speedway when he took the checkered flag in the 30-lap Late Model feature. The win was the 40th Late Model feature victory of Posocco’s career at SMS and put him 14 wins ahead of Jim Peterson for the most Late Model feature wins in Stafford history. Posocco’s first win in the Late Model division came during the 1998 season, his second season in the division, and he remembers his first win just as well as he remembers his most recent win.
“I remember that first win very well,” said Posocco. “There was a late restart and I had Gary Pelletier behind me. He knew I was new in the division and I think he thought he’d try to take advantage of that because he was pushing me real hard and I was laying into the brakes. I was so worried that I was going to get black flagged for jumping the restart, but I got a good restart and I held him off for the win.”
Posocco’s 40th career victory last Friday night gives him 40 wins in 246 career Late Model starts at Stafford since his rookie season in 1997. That equates to a winning percentage of 16.2%, or win in every 6.2 Late Model feature events that Posocco has taken part in. Posocco has won at least one Late Model race every year since the 2002 season and he says it is all a dream come true.
“Growing up in the turn 4 grandstands, I always wanted to race at Stafford and win a race,” said Posocco. “From day 1 I’ve always wanted to drive a Late Model. Once I got that first win, I wanted to win a championship, and we’ve won 4 championships, so I’ve been very fortunate. It’s a testament to all the crew guys and sponsors that I’ve worked with over the years that have helped get me to this point.”
The road to win number 40 has been a bit of a bumpy ride during the 2010 season for Posocco and the Marci Kretschman owned #48 Davidson Company team. Posocco says that the team was chasing after the car since the Spring Sizzler, where he got into the turn 2 wall.
“The car was great at the Sizzler and then we hit the wall with the left rear first and then the left front and we struggled to get a handle on the car,” said Posocco. “We went all through the car and replaced some parts and fixed the car and it was still a little off. We took the car to Bob Fill a couple weeks ago and he went through the car and found a couple of minor things and since then we’ve finished second and first. We feel like we have the car back to where it needs to be and hopefully we can run up front with Woody [Pitkat] and Dillon [Moltz] and those guys and be battling for wins for the rest of the season.”
Prior to the 2008 season, Posocco drove his own car and he recorded 28 victories and three championships in his own equipment. Since he joined the Marci Kretschman owned team in 2008, Posocco has recorded 12 wins and one track championship and counting. Posocco has his sights set on reaching another win total and much more with an owner and team that he once considered a rival.
“It’s been a pretty good relationship since I started driving for Marci and Pat,” said Posocco. “I remember when I first started driving their car, we didn’t know what to expect because we had been heated rivals for so long before that. But we’ve become real good friends both on and away from the race track and as long as they want to have me as the driver, then I’ll drive their car. I have 7 DARE Stock wins and now 40 Late Model wins, so I’dlike to one day get to 50 wins at Stafford, that’s a real nice number. But I don’t want to stop at just 50, as long as I’m having fun and winning races, I want to continue racing.”
As Posocco and the Kretschman team look to keep on adding to their win total in the Late Model division, the duo is also chasing after their second track championship in three seasons of racing together.
“We’re not really looking at the points right now,” said Posocco. “Right now, we’re focused on winning races. We were happy to finally get a win
last Friday night and we want to keep on winning. We know we’re a little behind right now with our slow start to the season, but if the guys in front of us have some bad luck, we can get right back into it. There is a lot of racing left to go this year and anything can happen.”
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.