Michael Scorzelli Finding Success in Rookie Season at Stafford Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — A rookie season can be a daunting task for any racing driver. Such has been the case for Stafford Late Model driver Michael Scorzelli and his #18 Syracuse Utilities Chevrolet. He not only had a new division to learn but he had a new track to learn after coming to Stafford from Thompson Speedway. Scorzelli had a bit of a rough beginning to his rookie campaign, posting a best finish of 13th over the first six races of the season. Over the next 6 races he has enjoyed an uptick in his performances by posting four top-10 finishes. Scorzelli nearly won the Late Model race last Friday night and he heads into the Aug. 9 CBYD 811 Challenge Night with two consecutive top-5 finishes.
“I think the biggest challenge for me this year has been learning how to drive the track,” said Scorzelli. “The track is very tough to get a handle on and the competition is tough. There’s 21 guys in the division that are all pretty darn fast. We have Bob Fill helping us out and that has helped us pick up on the learning curve. I’ve been working with him for four or five years now and ever since we hooked up with him we’ve getting better wherever we go. He definitely knows what he is doing. My wife Michalina, who is my crew chief, has figured out the stagger we want, the air pressures we want, and where the sway bar needs to be. My son-in-law Jeremy built the motor and it’s been more than I expected, so we’re happy with that. He’s put together some big blocks and hobby stock motors and he wanted to step it up and see what he could do here. These are all things we came into this year not having a clue on where to start and it took a little while to get figured out.”
Prior to the start of the season, Scorzelli had simple goals of learning the track and to give a good account of himself on the track. His recent finishes have helped eclipse those goals and Scorzelli now has a new goal of maintaining his newfound speed on the racetrack.
“We want to continue trending like we have, get a few more podium finishes, and maintain a spot in the top-10 in the points standings,” said Scorzelli. “That would be all I could ask for. I think we’ve done better than I expected to do. I kind of realized when you’re racing against Woody Pitkat, Tom Fearn, Jim Mavlouganes, Jim Peterson, and Adam Gray, these are guys who have been racing at Stafford for a long time and they know how to get around the track. To do as well as we’ve done in our first year with a couple of top-5’s, I think we’re doing pretty well. It kind of makes me wish we had been able to start to the season off like we’ve been running the last couple of weeks. We were told by Bob Fill and a bunch of other people that Stafford was tough and it would probably take about a year to figure it out. To get it before the year is out, we’re all pretty happy.”
With Scorzelli coming close to winning last week, it has whetted his appetite for putting his #18 into CARQUEST Victory Lane before the year is out. While Scorzelli knows that will be a tall task in his rookie season, he is still optimistic that a victory is possible even with the strong level of competition at Stafford.
“Anything is possible,” said Scorzelli. “After last Friday night we stayed in front of [Mavlouganes] and we kept up with [Gray] so anything is possible. I would love to win a race, but it’s not something we’re expecting. We’re running well enough where it’s possible but a lot of things have to go right for us and we have to have some luck too. This Late Model division is some of the best racing I’ve ever been a part of and I have the utmost respect for everyone out there on the track.”
As Scorzelli continues to build experience in the Late Model division, he and his crew continue to make improvements on the car. They are excited about their prospects for the remainder of the season, including the 60-lap Late Model Double Distance feature on August 16th.
“We’re looking forward to the 60-lapper and we’re looking forward to Friday night as well,” said Scorzelli. “We’ve made a few changes with the car and hopefully they go in the right direction. We changed some gears and we put some new valve springs in it, so hopefully we’re a little better. We’ve learned we can run up front and have success, now we want to keep on doing it.”
Stafford has had five different rookie winners thus far in 2013 with Chase Dowling and Troy Talman in the SK Lights, DARE Stock graduates Austin Bessette and Albert Saunders in the Limited Late Model division, and Ryan Fearn in the DARE Stock division. Scorzelli hopes to add his name to that list of rookie winners this season and if he can’t then he will have a great baseline to work with in 2014.
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