New Car & Engine Combination Has Dan Avery Looking for Victory Lane Trip in 2012 at Stafford Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — For SK Modified® driver Dan Avery, the 2012 season at Stafford Motor Speedway offers plenty of promise. After racing the last two years in Ted Christopher owned equipment, Avery and his partner Tony Genua has purchased a new car and engine for the 2012 season. Avery is looking to pick up his first SK Modified® victory since he won back-to-back events in the very first season of SK Modified® competition in 1982.
“I’m pretty psyched and the guys on the team are pretty psyched for the season,” said Avery. “Towards the end of the season last year, we were really close to winning. There’s nothing like having new equipment, a new car and a new engine. I think that this new car will help us to gain that one tenth of a second that were lacking last year and make that gap up to the field. But I can’t say enough about Teddy [Christopher] and his guys with all the effort they put into the car for us the last two years. Teddy is a great guy, a great friend, and he really does a lot of behind the scenes stuff that no one ever sees or hears about.”
In addition to racer spirit, Avery has a great deal of motivation to return to victory lane this season. Last season, Avery donated a portion of his winnings to the Channel 3 Kids Camp, and while nothing has been confirmed for this season yet, talks are ongoing for Avery to continue to make donations to the Kids Camp.
“Last year, we had a lot of race by race deals with sponsors and we donated a portion of the money from each night to the Channel 3 Kids Camp,” said Avery. “It was really like a 2 for 1 deal in that we got exposure for the Kids Camp to some different sponsors who might not know about the camp, and we exposed Stafford and our SK Modified® car to some people who didn’t know anything about it. We don’t have any concrete plans yet, but we’re in discussions with the camp about donating again this year.”
In each of the last two seasons, Avery has finished the season in 7th place in the SK Modified® points standings. Avery’s best finish at Stafford in his return to SK Modified® racing has been a pair of third place finishes last season, but he has all the confidence in the world that he and his #10 Horsepower Hill Farms team can improve their best finish into a trip to the top step of the podium this year.
“Not to sound cocky, but we expect to win a race this year,” said Avery. “I think we’ll be pretty disappointed if we don’t get a win. We put together a car totally from scratch with all new parts and pieces and we think that this new car is our best shot to take a step up and get into the winner’s circle this year. We have a CD chassis and we went with a Pettit built spec engine, which we feel like is the wave of the future for the SK Modified® division. The spec engine is a good cost saving measure that doesn’t sacrifice performance, so we felt like that was the logical choice to make.”
While most drivers have their goals focused on the championship at the beginning of the season, Avery says that the one goal his team has is to get into victory lane.
“At the beginning of the year, everyone wants to win the championship,” said Avery. “Realistically, our main goal is to get our first win. Once we get that first win, we want to get a second win. If we can get ourselves a couple of wins this year, we’ll let the points fall wherever they may. It’s going to be a key thing for us to have that open practice the week before the Sizzler. Any time you have a new car, there seems to be a few small glitches and bugs to work out of the car. But we have the same chassis and engine builders that we’ve run the past 2 years, so we feel like we’ll be pretty good. I have a great team with Tony, Scott, Paul, Dan, Kyle, Garrett, and Mark, and Horsepower Hill Farms and Picci Racing give us some great support, so we’re looking forward to getting on the track this season.”
The 2012 SK Modified® season gets underway with the 41st Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler on April 27-29. Tickets for the CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler are available and on sale now through the SMS Box Office. Tickets are priced at $38.50 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 will be priced at $42.00 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 on the 41st Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, 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