Ronnie Williams Inspired to SK Light Victory by his Grandfather Fred Peckham
Stafford Springs, CT — Most racers have a mentor who has helped them along in their racing careers and Stafford Speedway SK Light driver Ronnie Williams is no different. Williams’ grandfather is Fred Peckham, who was a former SK Modified® driver at Stafford. He has helped serve as not only a crew member but a mentor to Williams throughout his racing career. Peckham was recently diagnosed with acute leukemia, which has hospitalized him and kept him from coming to the track. Williams won the SK Light race last Friday night with some inspiration and guidance from his grandfather helping him to reach CARQUEST Victory Lane.
“I like to run the high side at Stafford and he always tells me to go low,” said Williams. “The night I won, I was thinking, ‘What would Gramps do?’, and I ended up making a crossover move to get low on the track to get by Chase [Dowling]. It was pretty special to be able to win that race for him. I called him at the end of the night to tell him we won and it made his night. I really wish he could have been there at the track with us. We brought him the trophy the next morning and showed him our in-car camera footage on the computer, so he got to watch the race and it put a pretty big smile on his face. I told him about what I was thinking in the car and how I backed off a little to make the move back down low and he told me that I did pretty good. He tells me where to go on the track and I’ve definitely learned a lot from him. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get around Chase, but once I got to the inside there wasn’t any way I wasn’t going to win that race. I had already finished second twice this year, and I wasn’t going to finish second again. I really wanted to win that race for Gramps.”
But Peckham’s influence isn’t limited to just on the track. Peckham is a big help to Williams and the #47 Advice One / NAPA Tolland team off the track as well.
“It’s impossible to do this without him,” said Williams. “He’s at the shop every single day working on the car for 6 or 7 hours a day. He’ll take the car apart and put it all back together. He is so committed I wouldn’t be able to do this without his help. When he had to go to the hospital on a Monday he already had the car ready to go for the next Friday night. He’s been helping me with my racing right from the start.”
The 2013 season for Williams has been a bit of a wreckers or checkers year through the first 7 races. Williams has one win, two seconds, and a third place finish, but his other three finishes have been 12th, 18th, and 19th. Williams currently sits in 7th place in the SK Light standings, but he says he and his team are not focused on points, but on getting back to CARQUEST victory lane.
“Things have been going pretty well for us this season,” said Williams. “We crashed the first week and we had another crash which was my fault, but the car is running well and it’s been good every week. I think we’ve had a good enough car to win every week and hopefully we can get some more wins this year. I’m not really racing for points right now, we just want to go for wins. Stash Butova has been a big help for us and he makes the right adjustments to the car every time. When I come in to the pits and tell him what the car is doing, the car is always perfect when I go back out.”
As Williams looks to put his #47 back into CARQUEST Victory Lane this season, he is thankful for the experience he gained during his rookie season and feels like it makes his job on the track easier this season.
“I definitely have a lot more confidence this year,” said Williams. “You’re going to bump into people and you’re going touch guys like I did last week going for the win and it’s not scary any more, it’s just contact and you move on. There’s a lot of top guys in the SK Light division right now and it’s good to have an extra year of experience under my belt.”
In addition to chasing down more feature victories this season, Williams will have his sights set on a top-5 finish this Friday night in order to collect a piece of the Xtra Mart Convenience Stores Xtra D Bonus money. Xtra Mart will pay a $500 bonus with each top-5 finisher this Friday night collecting $100.
“I wouldn’t mind that at all,” said Williams. “It’s a great program from Xtra Mart. Every week we try to have a good run, to be fast and go for the win, and to make it exciting for the fans. Hopefully we can do all that this Friday night and take home some bonus money.”
For more information, 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