(Stafford Springs, CT)—After finishing first and third in the SK Light
Modified points standings last season at Stafford, young guns Matt Galko and
Joey Cipriano have picked up where they left off last year. Both drivers
have a win and a second place finish in the first 2 races of the 2011 season
and head into the May 13th NASCAR Whelen All-American Series program at
Stafford tied for the championship lead.
“So far it’s been a really good season for us,” said defending track
champion Galko. “We’ve picked up right where we left off last season. We
haven’t had any bad luck so far, knock on wood. We’re running the same
stuff we ran last year, we’re trying some new setups and we’ve had a lot of
fun so far racing hard.”
“I think the biggest thing for us this year is we have a straight car,” said
Cipriano. “Last year we flipped the car and it was bent a bit, so in the
winter we cut the car up and we re-clipped the car. We weren’t quite sure
how the car was going to run, but it’s been a total team effort.”
With both drivers earning first and second place finishes this season, both
Galko and Cipriano have enjoyed the benefits of the Stafford contingency
program. For the SK Lights, The Davidson Company pays $75 to the winner,
$50 to the second place finsiher, and $25 to the third place finsiher. New
England Racing Fuel provides a $25 gas credit to each of the top-3
finishers, and Gunsmoke Stables is providing a $100 bonus to feature winners
that will rollover week to week if there are repeat winners until there is a
first time winner.
“The contingency money has been a big help to us,” said Galko. “The Sunoco
bonus really helps us out with paying for \ gas each week and every dollar
that we can save really helps us out.”
“The contingency money helps us out a lot,” said Cipriano. “Like a lot of
teams, we don’t have a lot of money to spend so every extra dollar that we
earn is a huge help. The Sunoco bonus helps us with our gas money, The
Davidson Company money has been a big help, and Steve Greer with Gunsmoke
Stables has been a huge help.”
While both drivers know that the 2011 season is still in the early days,
they are both aware of where they are in the standings and would like to
finish the season in the same spot that they are in now.
“It’s still early in the year, but we saw last year that it’s never too
early to start thinking about points,” said Galko. “I’m not points racing
right now, we’re going for race wins, but it’s always in the back of our
minds. We won the championship last year and we’d like to defend our title
and win the championship again this year. My main goal is to win more races
than we won last year and I’d like to be in the top-3 of the Division 3
standings. The top-3 drivers get invited to the NASCAR Banquet at the Hall
of Fame and last year we missed it by 2 points.”
“Our goal is to keep doing what we’ve been doing so far this year,” said
Cipriano. “We need to continue putting in hard work at the garage during
the week because I think preparation is where you can win or lose races. It
’s too early in the year to be thinking about points, but we’re happy to be
where we are so far this year. Last week, we really struggled with the car,
we couldn’t get the tires to size up and the car wasn’t handling. We threw
something at the car for the feature and it worked out for us, so I can’t
thank all my guys on the team for the hard work they put into the car.”
If Galko and Cipriano can maintain their finishing record and build upon
their 2010 results, it may just be one of the young guns celebrating a
championship at season’s end again.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com