Stafford Motor Speedway Carquest Champions For Charities Driver Spotlight: Russ Wood
Stafford Springs, CT — Stafford Motor Speedway has again lined up an impressive field of current and former open wheel champions for its CARQUEST Champions For Charities Event as part of CARQUEST Super Saturday on June 30th. During the coming weeks, SMS will offer a profile on each of its championship winning drivers and the charity they will be racing for and this week’s CARQUEST Champions For Charities spotlights falls on 8-time ISMA Supermodified champion Russ Wood, who will be racing to support Racing Against Cancer.
“My relationship with Racing Against Cancer goes back to 6 or 7 years ago when my kids were racing karts at Sugar Hill,” said Wood. “We got started with Racing Against Cancer back then and we’ve been involved with them in a few things since then. My wife was the chairperson for a Relay for Life in our hometown, and she will be doing that again this year. We’re looking forward to raising money for cancer research and hopefully we can surpass our total that we raised last year.”
A big part of Wood’s fundraising efforts will be at Stafford Motor Speedway the day of the CARQUEST Champions For Charities event. The speedway will host A Prelude to CARQUEST Super Saturday; Foot Power in the A.M. and Horse Power in the P.M., a Racing Against Cancer Track Walk that will run from 9:30-11:30am on Saturday, June 30 prior to the feature events.
All funds raised from the track walk will be credited towards Wood’s fundraising total for the CARQUEST Champions For Charities event. Race fans can register for the track walk by picking up a brochure at the Stafford booth during the Frank Maratta Auto Show at the CT Convention Center from March 9-11, the Stafford Motor Speedway track office, at the Racing Against Cancer booth set up on the midway during the CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler Weekend on April 27-29, or online at www.racingagainstcancer.org. The minimum donation required is $25 and fans can also donate online through the RAC website if they cannot attend the track walk. Last year’s Racing Against Cancer track walk raised over $5,700 and the more money that Wood raises this year will start him closer to the front of the field for the 15-lap Champions For Charities feature event. Participants who register in advance for the Racing Against Cancer Track Walk will be able to receive a $5 discount on Adult General Admission tickets for the CARQUEST Super Saturday feature events.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to do a little better this year than we did last year,” said Wood. “We did pretty well, but we want to do better. The racing last year was pretty intense and all the karts seemed like they were pretty equal. Maybe I need to bring a bigger motor; we’ll have to talk with Mark [Arute] to see if maybe we can bring a bigger motor with us for the race this year.”
In addition to his CARQUEST Champions For Charities duties, Wood will be behind the wheel of his familiar #29 for the 50-lap ISMA Supermodifed event and will be looking to drive into CARQUEST Victory Lane for the second time at Stafford. Wood was the ISMA Supermodified feature winner in 2005, but he knows that he and the rest of the ISMA Supermodified field will have to beat Chris Perley, who has won 5 of the previous 8 CARQUEST Super Saturday events at Stafford. Wood set an ISMA record last season with his 8th drivers championship, breaking a tie that he had held with Perley for the most ISMA championships.
“Last year was great, it was a little different not winning the owner’s championship, but it was a great year for us, 8 is a pretty good mark,” said Wood. “I would have like to have won the owner’s championship because it’s not just me that won the driver’s championship, I had a great team behind me and they deserved to be recognized for their efforts. Right now we’re still refining our car, but we’re looking to have a great year. Although when we come to Stafford I think we’ll all be chasing the 11 [Perley]. They have the car, the motor, and they seem to have Stafford figured out pretty well. We’ll give it our best shot and hope we land in victory lane.”
Racing Against Cancer is a Federally Recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the raising of funds for cancer research, patient services, youth tobacco educational programs, and awareness. Racing Against Cancer was founded in 1996 and the program has generated over $700,000 for the fight against cancer. For more information, please visit www.RacingAgainstCancer.org.
CARQUEST Extreme Tuesday will take place on Saturday, June 30, 2012 and will feature the ISMA Super Modifieds, NEMA Midgets, and Pro-4 Modifieds in addition to the Senior Outlaw Wild Thing Karts. Tickets for CARQUEST Extreme Tuesday are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office and are priced at $33.00 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 $35.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.
For more information, or to order tickets to the 9th Annual CARQUEST Extreme Tuesday event, 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