Stafford Motor Speedway CARQUEST Champions for Charities Driver Spotlight: Richie Pallai, Jr.
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 spotlight falls on Richie Pallai, Jr., the 2009 Spring Sizzler SK Modified® Champion, who will be racing to help support The Danbury Animal Welfare Society.
The Danbury Animal Welfare Society is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization dedicated to improving the lives of animals in the community and beyond. They promote responsible pet guardianship and the humane treatment of animals, and work toward ending animal overpopulation through education and a variety of programs. Danbury Animal Welfare Society gives shelter and care for homeless companion animals while they wait for people like you to give them a loving, forever home. DAWS recently held their 5th Annual Making a Difference Ball, where Pallai got himself off to a good start by raising a total of $1,800. Pallai’s fundraising total currently has him out front in the race for pole position for the 15-lap CARQUEST Champions for Charities feature event.
“We have a great relationship with DAWS and attending their annual Ball was a pretty cool deal,” said Pallai. “We were able to raise $1,800, so that is a great start for us. Last year we raised $3,000, so we’re already more than halfway there to matching that total.”
In addition to his CARQUEST Champions For Charities duties, Pallai will be taking part in his third season on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour as well as driving selected SK Modified® races at Stafford for car owner Ted Christopher. Pallai is also looking at running some events at Riverhead Raceway as well as traveling to other area tracks for open modified shows that will see him run between 25-30 events this year. Pallai is especially looking forward to his third season of Whelen Modified Tour competition, as his team has two cars and a new motor program with Bob Bruneau.
“We have two cars that are both ready to go,” said Pallai. “Last year our biggest issues were the brakes and the motor. We found a lot of errors during the season as we tried to sort out our brake issues, and we feel like we found the problem and took care of it. We changed over to Bob Bruneau engines in the off-season, and we’re taking our big track car to Thompson in a couple of weeks to test, so we’re excited about the new season. With the SK car for Teddy, we don’t have any set schedule yet, but if things go well, we’ll probably do about 8 races in that car this year.”
Pallai is also looking forward to getting back onto the Stafford Mini-Mile behind the wheel of a Wild Thing Kart Senior Outlaw machine. After finishing 7th in last year’s CARQUEST Champions For Charities event, Pallai is looking to be the driver who passes under the checkered flag first.
“Last year we finished 6th or 7th and I was really upset with that,” said Pallai. “I know this race is for charity and it’s supposed to be a good time, but I really want to win the race this year. Last year we got up to the lead around lap-5, but we ended up falling too far back in the pack and couldn’t get caught back up. It seemed that the guys who were leading early last year ended up getting shuffled back late in the race, so I think this year I’ll try to wait a little bit on getting to the front to better prepare ourselves for the finish. Last year, I almost took out Randy Cabral, so we’ve been joking back and forth that he owes me one for this year, so maybe we’ll have to spin him out early and get that taken care of.”
The starting lineups for the CARQUEST Champions For Charities qualifying races will be determined by how much money each driver raises for their selected charity. The starting grid will be set with the drivers who have raised the most money starting up front. Fans are encouraged to get involved in the event by donating to their favorite driver or favorite charity. To make a donation to the The Danbury Animal Welfare Society on behalf of Richie Pallai, Jr., and for more information on the event, please refer to the CARQUEST Champions for Charities donation page located here. Stay tuned for more driver spotlights and exciting information regarding the CARQUEST Champions for Charities event.
CARQUEST Super Saturday 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 Super Saturday 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 Super Saturday 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