(Stafford Springs, CT)—As part of the 8th Annual CARQUEST Extreme Tuesday
event at Stafford Motor Speedway, CARQUEST and Stafford teamed up to create
a charity race, CARQUEST Champions For Charities. The result was a smashing
success as over $44,000 was raised for the various charities that were
represented by 14 open wheel champion drivers. CARQUEST and Stafford
contributed $3,000 to the total with the other $41,000 plus raised through
donations that were made by drivers, team members, fans, and businesses.
“We were thrilled with the response we saw for this event,” said CARQUEST VP
of Marketing Rich Pallai. “Everyone really got behind it and to raise over
$44,000 for charity was a great accomplishment. We’re looking forward to
the 2012 edition of CARQUEST Champions For Charities and we intend to build
upon the success of this year’s event.”
Special invitations were extended to 14 open wheel champions for the race
and each driver selected a charity that they would be representing. Leading
the way in the charity race was 2006 Stafford SK Modified® champion Frank
Ruocco, who raised $18,885 for the Lustgargen Foundation to fight Pancreatic
Cancer. Russ Wood was second with $5,795 raised for Racing Against Cancer,
Keith Rocco raised $4,230 for the Connecticut Wishes on Wheels Program,
Woody Pitkat raised $2,728 for Victory Junction Gang Camp, Richie Pallai,
Jr. raised $2,425 for the Danbury Animal Welfare Socitety, Mike Stefanik
raised $2,150 for the National MS Society, Stan Mertz raised $1,730 for the
Connecticut Chapter of Autism Speaks, Todd Szegedy raised $1,178 for the
Foundation For Life, Bobby Santos, III raised $1,067 for the USAC Benevolent
Fund to benefit Eric Saunders, Ted Christopher raised $1,016 for the
Connecticut Breast Health Initiative, Randy Cabral raised $937 for the
Spalding Foundation, Bob Potter raised $881 for Compassion for Cats of New
London County, Chris Perley raised $550 for the North Shore Arthritis Walk
in honor of Katie Blouin, and Jon McKennedy raised $485 for the Relay For
Life of Pelham, NH.
The 15-lap CARQUEST Champions For Charities event featured each open wheel
champion driver behind the wheel of a Wild Thing Kart Senior Outlaw machine,
which races on Stafford’s Mini-Mile on Monday nights. The race was a thrill
a second with a new leader virtually every lap in the first 10 laps before a
caution came out for debris on the track. Defending NASCAR Whelen
All-American Series National Champion Keith Rocco took the checkered flag
after a thrilling duel over the final laps with 2-time Modified Racing
Series champion Jon McKennedy.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com