Rick Charette Returning to Late Model Division at Stafford for CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend
Stafford Springs, CT — Rick Charette will return to Stafford behind the wheel of a Late Model for this weekend’s CARQUEST Fall Final. Charette will be behind the wheel of the #27 car owned by Jim “Smokey” Brice, which is the same car that Keith Rocco has driven to 3 Late Model victories this season. Brice purchased the car from Daren Clark and Charette and Brice will use this weekend’s CARQUEST Fall Final as a shake-down session in preparation for a full schedule of Late Model racing at Stafford for the 2012 season.
“It was a real quick decision, Smokey called me up on Monday and asked me to drive the car,” said Charette. “I sold most of my equipment but I’ve kept the stuff I needed to go back racing. With the combination of Smokey with the car and me with spare parts and equipment, we’re going to put a package together to shake down at the Fall Final in preparation for the 2012 season. We have most of what we need for next season ready to go, so we won’t have to spend a ton of money getting ready for next season. Daren had been helping Smokey out this year with his DARE Stock and Limited Late Model cars, and that’s how Smokey came to buy the car from Daren. It’s definitely a better car that what I had before and I’m pretty excited about getting back on the track.”
Charette was the Late Model Rookie of the Year during the 2004 season at Stafford, and in 6 full seasons of Late Model racing, his best season was in 2006 when he finished 11th in the points standings. Although Charette’s best career Late Model finish was a second place in July 2008, he won’t be trying to better that finish this weekend and will wait for the 2012 season to try to capture his first career Late Model victory.
“I know we’re going to start in the back and our goal is to just shake the car down for next season,” said Charette. “If we can make some passes on the track clean without getting into anyone, then we’ll do that. There’s a lot of guys fighting for spots in the points and we don’t want to get in anyone’s way or ruin anyone’s day. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been in a car, but it’s going to be nice to see if we can find those extra couple of tenths a second that I was chasing after with my own car. The fastest lap I ever did with my car was a 21.8 and you need to be around 21.5 or 21.4 to be really fast and it’s going to be fun to see if we can find that time. It’s a darn good car and it’s darn good equipment, so we’re looking forward to getting on the track and seeing what we can do.”
The 39th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend kicks off on Friday, Sept. 30 with pit gates opening at 12:00pm with a practice session running from 2:00pm to 6:30pm for Stafford’s weekly divisions. The General Admission grandstands will be open to the public at no charge for the practice session. The G.A. Grandstands will open at 2pm.
Action continues on Saturday, Oct. 1 with Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the Whelen Modified Tour cars at 2:15pm, followed by heat and consolation races for Stafford’s weekly divisions. Saturday’s events wrap up with feature events for Stafford’s SK Light Modified, Limited Late Model, and DARE Stock divisions. Closing out the Saturday feature events will be the Paradiso-Muska DARE Stock Shoot-Out, a special 8-lap shoot-out all-star race for this season’s DARE Stock feature winners and several wild card entrants.
The CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend continues on Sunday, Oct. 2 with the famous Stafford CARQUEST Belts & Hose Pit Party kicking off the day’s activities from 11:00am to 12:00pm, with the final SK Modified® and Late Model feature events of 2011 being accompanied by the Whelen Modified Tour 150-lap CARQUEST Fall Final.
Tickets for the CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend are available and on sale now at the Stafford Motor Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for adult General Admission, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 & under are free. Reserved seating is $38.00 for all ages. All tickets cover both Saturday and Sunday admission to the Fall Final. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available. Tickets can be ordered by calling the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783.
For more information, or to order tickets, 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