Keith Rocco, Joel Monahan, Jay Goff, Robert Bloxsom, III, & Jeremy Lavoie Win CBYD 811 Challenge Bonus at Stafford Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — For the fourth consecutive season, Call Before You Dig has partnered with Stafford Speedway to present the CBYD 811 Challenge as a unique way to raise awareness about CBYD’s 811 number to call before beginning an excavation project. The CBYD 811 Challenge is open to drivers in each of Stafford’s five NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions and awards five drivers an $811 bonus at the conclusion of the August 5th feature events utilizing a special points system. This year’s $4,055 in bonus money from CBYD brings the 4-year total for the program to over $16,000 distributed to Stafford drivers.
The five drivers that came closest to 811 points without going over were Keith Rocco from the SK Modified® division, Joel Monahan from the Late Model division, Jay Goff from the SK Light division, and Robert Bloxsom, III and Jeremy Lavoie from the Limited Late Model division.
Rocco is a 2-time SK Modified® track champion at Stafford and he currently sits third in the 2016 SK Modified® standings, 52 points behind Rowan Pennink. The 2016 season has yet to see Rocco drive into NAPA Victory Lane with his #88 Wheelers Auto Chevrolet but he has two second place finishes and three third place finishes among his 5 top-5 and 9 top-10 finishes this season. Rocco, who won the 2010 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship, is also currently second in the 2016 NWAAS standings, only 3 points out of the lead.
“It’s really nice of Call Before You Dig to offer a program like that for the racers with a big bonus,” said Rocco. “Every little bit helps and we’ll definitely be putting this back into the race car. It seems like we’re getting closer to a win, we just haven’t been able to get one yet. But we’re definitely on the right track getting back on the podium every week.”
Joel Monahan is the leading rookie in Stafford’s Late Model division this season with 2 top-5 and 11 top-10 finishes behind the wheel of his #03 Monahan Trucking Chevrolet. Monahan recorded a season-best finish of second last week, his very first trip to the Stafford podium. Along with Michael Wray and Late Model points leader Tom Fearn, Monahan is one of three drivers to have recorded a top-10 finish in each Late Model feature held this season.
“I had heard about the 811 Challenge over the P.A. when the announcers talked about it, but I didn’t realize how close we were to being a winner,” said Monahan. “One of my friends told me after last Friday night how much money we had won and I thought he was joking with me. It’s really awesome that Call Before You Dig offers this program for the drivers, there’s not a lot of tracks do something like this. We definitely appreciate the bonus and we’re hoping that we’ll have more time racing up front after finishing second behind Tom Fearn last week. It felt good to run with him last week, he’s been the man to beat this season and we’re learning something new every week so hopefully we can be up front on a more consistent basis.”
Stafford Speedway veteran Jay Goff is enjoying one of his finest seasons in the SK Light division. In 11 starts this season, Goff has recorded 10 top-8 finishes and he currently sits third in the points standings with his #07 Goff Motorsports Chevrolet. Goff’s season-best finish of third came back on May 27th and he is coming off a fourth place finish last Friday night. Goff is hopeful that he can get back to NAPA Victory Lane before the end of the season and he plans on using the $811 bonus from CBYD to help him get there.
“I’m obviously honored to be one of the winners of the CBYD 811 Challenge,” said Goff. “It’s a great program for all the competitors and it’s a very generous program to be a part of. This is our biggest payday of the season and it’s a huge bump in our budget that will provide us with an extra set of tires. I think we’ve been pretty consistent this season and our goal is to get on the podium a few more times this year. I’m having a lot of fun this year and as always the fans have been great. Our drive every week is to win but there seems to be a few cars that are faster than we are and we can’t keep them behind us, but we’d certainly love to get another win.”
For Jeremy Lavoie, the CBYD 811 Challenge has been a heartbreaking scenario for the past three years with the driver of the #6 Sil/Carr Corporation Chevrolet either just going over the 811 point threshold or not having enough points to even be a contender. After scoring 5 wins in Stafford’s DARE Stock division between 2012 and 2013, Lavoie is still in search of his first Limited Late Model victory. He finished second behind Paul Arute back on June 24th and he is hopeful that he can use the $811 bonus to help him drive his car into NAPA Victory Lane.
“I hadn’t really thought about the 811 Challenge much this year and then last week I heard the announcers talking about how the challenge was coming to a close so I wondered how close I was and I was shocked when I saw how close we were in the standings,” said Lavoie. “In previous years I’ve either been way over or not close enough and I thought with a couple DNF’s and some parts failures this season that we weren’t going to be close enough again, but I was surprised when I checked the standings and I’m very excited about being one of the winners. I really can’t thank CBYD and their 811 number enough for all they do for us at the track. This is going to be a big boost for us. We’ve got a couple top-3’s this season and we were really close to winning a couple weeks ago and we strive for a win every Friday night.”
Robert Bloxsom, III is currently in his second full season of Limited Late Model competition with his #33 Bob’s Painting Chevrolet. Bloxsom recorded his first career win earlier this season on June 10 and he is one of only 2 drivers to have recorded a top-10 finish in each of the first 11 feature events thus far. Bloxsom’s season stats through 11 races are 1 win, 3 top-5 and 11 top-10 finishes.
August 11th or 8/11, will serve as a natural reminder for residents to call 811 prior to any digging project to have underground utility lines marked to avoid unintentionally hitting them. Call Before You Dig is a non-profit organization comprised of all public utility companies and municipalities within Connecticut. CBYD is a free service that provides homeowners and professional excavators with a toll-free call by dialing 8-1-1 for locating and marking underground facilities by its members. Calling CBYD before you dig is the law in Connecticut. When calling 811, the federally-mandated national “Call Before You Dig” number, homeowners are connected to the local CBYD call center in Hamden, CT which notifies the appropriate utility companies of their intent to dig. Professional locators are then sent to the requested digging site to mark the approximate locations of underground lines with flags or spray paint. Call Before You Dig, Inc. requires a call 2 full working days before the planned project start date.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web atwww.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR