Todd Douillard Ready to Chase SPAFCO Rookie Honors in Stafford’s SK Light Modified Division in 2013
Stafford Springs, CT — When the green flag falls on the 2013 SK Light season at Stafford Motor Speedway, Palmer, MA native Todd Douillard will begin his quest to win SPAFCO Rookie of the Year honors. While Douillard will be a rookie in every sense of the word as a driver, he will have plenty of help to guide him through his rookie campaign. Douillard’s uncle, Fred Silliker, formerly owned modifieds at Riverside Park and Douillard has served as a crew member for the #16 Flamingo Motorsports NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour team with Mike Stefanik and Ryan Preece as its drivers. Thanks to his connection to Flamingo, Douillard was able to purchase a car and he will have the same crew help that Ryan Preece has for WMT events.
“I think I’m more excited for the season than nervous,” said Douillard. “The car is going to be good with the team that we have, so everything is going to come down to me. Sly Szaban is the crew chief and we’re going to pretty much have the Flamingo crew working on the car on Friday nights. The car that we bought is actually an old Flamingo car that Mike Stefanik ran at Lime Rock and Ryan Preece drove in an MRS race at Thompson. Stafford is my favorite track, it’s the nicest track around, and we’ve been working on the car a lot. I can’t wait for the season to get started.”
Douillard enters the 2013 season as a true modified rookie. Douillard has driven in the Wild Thing Kart Series Medium division, but the 2013 season will mark his very first time behind the wheel of a modified. Despite that fact, Douillard has his sights set on winning SPAFCO Rookie of the Year honors, and he will have an SK Modified® champion in Preece right next to him in the paddock area should he need any advice.
“I’ve driven a modified on the track and off of the track for the pit party, but this will be my first time in a race situation,” said Douillard. “Winning the SPAFCO Rookie of the Year is going to be our main focus. We’re not really going points racing, we’re looking to gain experience and trying to win a race. The guys at the shop are always giving me advice, mostly to keep the tires on the car because it’s $1,000 to fix if we wreck. We’re going to have Ryan take the car out at the first practice before I get in it just to make sure everything is ok. We’ll be parked next to Ryan all year long, so I can always ask him for advice or if we need to, we might even have him take the car out for a practice session during the year. We’ll do whatever we have to do in order to get better and I don’t think my lack of experience will be much of a problem with the background that the team has. I think this will be more of a learning year for me and those first couple of practice sessions are going to be real important for me. We have some great support from Flamingo Motorsports and Ceric Fabrication and we’re looking for additional sponsors for this year.”
Although Douillard has limited racing experience to his background, he certainly has a flair for the dramatic.
“I drove one season in the Medium division of Wild Thing Karts, and we didn’t win a race, but I flipped the kart twice,” said Douillard. “The second time I flipped, I was able to drive back up to second, but we came up just short of winning.”
Last year’s SK Light season at Stafford saw 10 different feature winners, with 3 rookie winners among 8 first-time winners. With a championship winning crew behind him, as well as a championship winning driver to get advice from, Douillard hopes that he can continue the trend and be a rookie winner during the 2013 season.
The 2013 SK Light season will kick off with the 42nd Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler on April 26-28. Tickets for the “Greatest Race in the History of Spring” may be ordered by calling the Speedway 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 is $42.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax.
For more information on the 42nd 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