Robert Alderton from CARQUEST Belts & Hose to Serve as CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend Grand Marshal at Stafford Speedway

Stafford Springs, CT — Robert “Michigan Bob” Alderton, Regional Manager for CARQUEST Belts & Hose, has been named as the Grand Marshal of Stafford Motor Speedway’s 38th annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend. As Regional Manager for CARQUEST Belts and Hose, Alderton is responsible for the entire Northeast from the Dakotas to Maine and as far south as St. Louis, covering 12 CARQUEST Distribution Centers. Alderton will give the command to send the Whelen Modified Tour on its way with the most famous words in motorsports and he will also indulge his inner motorcycle enthusiast by being part of the pre-race pace laps by riding a 2010 Harley-Davidson courtesy of TSI Harley-Davidson.

“It was very surprising that I got the call to do this for a second time,” said Alderton. “It’s a huge honor for me and I’m looking forward to seeing the Whelen Modified Tour cars race again.”

CARQUEST Belts and Hose has been the presenting sponsor of the CARQUEST Belts & Hose Pit Parties for each of the past 5 seasons and their participation has helped carry on a 20 plus year tradition of Stafford Speedway hosting Pit Parties. The CARQUEST Belts and Hose Pit Party will be part of the celebration of 25 years together in racing between CARQUEST Auto Parts and Stafford Motor Speedway.

“We’ve been involved with the Spring and Fall events at Stafford for the past 5 years and it’s always a great race event with a great bunch of people,” said Alderton. “Jeff Brekke, Steve Nichols, and myself had a meeting with Rich Pallai several years ago and we saw some of the pictures of Stafford in Rich’s office and we got to talking about how we could become involved in the program. Rich suggested that we could do something with the Pit Parties in the spring and the fall, which has been a win, win situation for us. Racing fans are very brand loyal customers, and our involvement with the Pit Parties is a unique way for us to reach CARQUEST customers and promote the CARQUEST Belts and Hose name.”

This year’s CARQUEST Belts and Hose Pit Party will offer a special bonus. The first 700 fans that enter through the CARQUEST Belts and Hose Pit Party gates will receive a reusable bag compliments of CARQUEST Auto Parts. Fans can also stop by the #39 Bosch Spark Plugs car of Richie Pallai, Jr. to receive a complimentary CARQUEST Belts & Hose tee-shirt. The CARQUEST Belts and Hose Pit Party will give fans the opportunity to meet the drivers and cars of Stafford’s five NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions as well as the drivers and cars of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

The 38th annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend gets underway Friday, October 1st with a practice session for Stafford’s weekly divisions. The general admission grandstands will be open to the public at no charge for the practice session. Action continues on Saturday, October 2nd with Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the Whelen Modified Tour cars, along with heat and consolation races for Stafford’s five NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions. Following the heat and consolation events will be the final 2010 feature events for Stafford’s SK Light, Limited Late Model, and DARE Stock divisions, including the All-Star Paradiso-Muska Shoot-Out event for the DARE Stocks. On Sunday, October 3rd, the CARQUEST Belts & Hose Pit Party takes center stage beginning at 11:00am as all the racecars, drivers, and teams gather on Stafford Motor Speedway’s infield to meet and greet fans. The pit party concludes at noon and the first race of the day will be the 30-lap Late Model feature at 1:00pm. The SK Modified® feature will follow the Late Model feature and “Michigan Bob” Alderton will send the Whelen Modified Tour field on its way for the CARQUEST 150 at approximately 3:15pm.

Tickets for the 38th annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets will also be available for purchase the day of the event at the admission gates. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating is priced at $38.00 for all ages. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with weekend overnight parking available at no extra cost.

For more information, 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