Stafford Late Model Title Fight Again Coming Down to Hometown Drivers Ryan Posocco & Woody Pitkat
Stafford Springs, CT — Just as it was one year ago, the fight for the Stafford Speedway Late Model track championship is coming down to two hometown drivers, Ryan Posocco and Woody Pitkat. Posocco currently leads Pitkat by 32 points in the chase for the championship with 4 races left on the 2011 calendar. Last season, the championship was not decided until the final lap of the CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend race. At this time last season, Posocco led Pitkat by 38 points, but a crash by Posocco, combined with a win by Pitkat, tightened up the championship fight for the final 2 races of the season. The 2010 championship was decided by only 2 points, or one position on the track, in Posocco’s favor, and both drivers know that although time is running out, anything can happen.
“There’s 4 races to go and 200 points left,” said Posocco. “Anything can happen in those four races and it will probably come down to the Fall Final, pretty much the same situation as it was last season. All it takes is one bad night from us for Woody to make up the difference. We know we can’t sit back and relax because Woody has a good car and a good team, and they’re going to be going for wins, so we just have to do what we have to do.”
“We had two DQ’s and a DNF early in the season, so who would have thought that we’d even be this close right now,” said Pitkat. “After the first four races this season, we were something like 15th in the points standings and there were 18 races left in the season at that point and our goal was to try to win 10 of those races. We didn’t win 10, but we won the first two of those races and now we’re close. It’s going to be hard for us to win the championship, Ryan and the 48 team have won championships before and they know what to do, our strategy right now is to try to win every race and let the points fall wherever they fall.”
Since his early season troubles, Pitkat has not finished lower than 4th in the last 11 Late Model feature events. Pitkat has cut his deficit to the points leader from 84 points behind after the May 20th down to 32 points. Pitkat will need Posocco to have an issue in one of the final 4 races while Posocco is trying to maintain the consistency that has seen them finish in the top-10 in 14 of the first 15 races this season. Both drivers say they’re fighting some inconsistencies with their car’s handling and Pitkat is hopeful that the fall weather may play into his favor.
“We’re just trying to keep things the same as we always have,” said Posocco. “We come to the track every Friday looking to win the race, and if we can’t win then we try to get the best finish we can that night. One aspect is that we know what to expect being in this position, but we’re still working on our handling. A couple weeks ago when we won, the car was really good, maybe the best it has been all year long. But the 100 lapper and last Friday the car wasn’t as good as it was. But we have a good car and hopefully everything can stay together for us these last couple of races and hopefully we can come out on the good end of things.”
“We haven’t won as many races as we won last year, but we’ve been pretty good,” said Pitkat. “Our car hasn’t been consistent. When we won the 100-lapper, the car was great, but last Friday the car wasn’t that good, but I think that might have been because of all the rain during the week might have changed the track a little. But we’re heading into the cooler nights and that’s another thing that you have to catch up with on the car setup, so maybe we can gain some points on Ryan that way.”
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