Stafford Speedway’s Champions for Charities Raises Over $32,000 for Charity
Stafford Springs, CT — In its fourth year of existence, Stafford Motor Speedway’s Champions for Charities event was another success. 10 open wheel champion drivers rallied to raise over $32,000 for an assortment of charities. Over the course of four years of the event the Champions for Charities drivers have combined to raise over $177,000 for 27 different charities.
The Champions for Charities Senior Outlaw go-kart race was established in 2011 in a collaboration between Lisa Arute, Mark Arute, and Rich Pallai. The hope was to create an event in which drivers and fans could race for a cause and give back to the community. The format has remained unchanged over the four year existence of the event. Open wheel championship drivers are announced early in the year and each driver raises money for their respective charity with the driver raising the most money starting in pole position for the 15-lap Wild Think Kart Senior Outlaw go-kart feature race.
2014-kart-2“Wade and Sandi Gagner have been very instrumental in bringing the Champions for Charities Event to fruition.” said Lisa Arute, Stafford Speedway Executive VP / CFO. “When Stafford Management presented the concept to them, in the winter of 2011, they embraced it. Without their hard work and dedication to the Monday Night Wild Thing Kart Series at Stafford the event would not be possible. We look forward to continuing the event and want to thank the Kart Owners that have participated throughout the 4-years.”
The 2014 edition was won by Ron Midford, Jr., who was racing to raise money for the Troy Russell Benefit Fund. With his victory, Midford became the first two-time winner of the charity event; Midford has won the charity race twice while Keith Rocco and Richie Pallai, Jr. have each won the race once. The 2014 champions that participated included, David Arute, Ron Midford, Richie Pallai, Jr, Ryan Preece, Ted Christopher, Woody Pitkat, Randy Cabral, Doug Coby, Eric Berndt and Keith Rocco.
The 15-lap CARQUEST Champions for Charities event featured plenty of action with three and four-wide racing a common occurrence. The 2014 race came down to a duel between Midford and Christopher. Christopher took over the race lead midway through the 15-lap feature and he looked like he had the kart to beat. But Midford put on a furious charge over the final laps and was able to wrestle the lead away from Christopher on the second to last lap and held off a final charge from Christopher to take the checkered flag.
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