Keith Rocco Wraps Up Second Stafford SK Modified® Track Championship with Record Setting Victory
Stafford Springs, CT — Keith Rocco and the #88 Wheeler’s Automotive stamped their names into the Stafford record books as track champions this season by laying claim to the record for most SK Modified® victories in a single season. Rocco entered the final race of the 2010 season tied with Ted Christopher for the most SK Modified® feature victories in a single season at 9. Rocco’s CARQUEST Fall Final victory supplanted Christopher’s name in the record books and left the Wallingford native to celebrate his second career Stafford track championship in grand style.
“I know we had tied it and we had one more shot to beat it,” said Rocco. “It’s something that you don’t do too often winning ten races in a season, so that’s another notch in the belt. Teddy has grandstands named after him here, so to beat one of his records, you know you’re doing something.”
While Rocco had clinched the track championship two races ago, he was still pursuing the SK Modified® record for wins in a season. And after several trips to pit road under caution as a result of hitting the wall at the start of the race, it appeared that Rocco’s chance at claiming the record had come and gone.
“I bounced the car off the fence on the first lap and we came in and made a few changes and went back out,” said Rocco. “We came back in and put the original new tire back on, we just changed the rim, and we went right back to the front. It just seems like this car and this team is unstoppable, especially today they showed their colors. For all I know, it might have been better off to bounce it off the fence and having to come in to change the wheel because they just kept wrecking stuff at the front. The car was just awesome. We drove to the front once, got put to the back for being an accident car, no problem, came in, changed a tire, went back to the front again and you just couldn’t stop us.”
For much of the 2010 season, Rocco and the Wheeler’s Auto team were an unstoppable force. Rocco ended his championship season right where he began it, in CARQUEST Victory Lane. In between his Tech-Net Spring Sizzler and CARQUEST Fall Final wins, Rocco notched 8 more wins, including a stretch of 6 wins in 7 races, and he was on the podium for another three races. Rocco’s worst finish of the year was a 15th place finish on August 6th, the only blemish in a dominating performance that saw him lead the points standings from start to finish.
“I was joking around with my guys the other day while we were scaling the car and I said to my brother that we came in with a bang and that we had to go out with a bang,” said Rocco. “It was awesome to win the [first and last] races of the year.”
Rocco becomes the sixth different driver to have won multiple SK Modified® track championships at Stafford joining Jerry Pearl, Mike Christopher, Bob Potter, Ted Christopher, and Bo Gunning. Rocco’s 10 wins this year also vaulted him from 11th place to 6th place on the All-Time Stafford SK Modified® feature winners list, one win behind Steve Chowansky and Bob Potter.
Rocco will officially be crowned the 2010 SK Modified® track champion at the 41st Annual Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards Ceremony on Friday, November 19, 2010 at the La Renaissance Banquet Facility in East Windsor.
For more information, please 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