{"id":17919,"date":"2015-02-13T04:30:42","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T09:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=17919"},"modified":"2015-02-13T01:32:52","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T06:32:52","slug":"kevin-gambacorta-looking-first-late-model-victory-championship-stafford-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/kevin-gambacorta-looking-first-late-model-victory-championship-stafford-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Gambacorta Looking for First Late Model Victory and Championship at Stafford Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gdfhdfh\"<\/a>(Stafford Springs, CT)—With the dawn of the 2015 season at Stafford Motor Speedway drawing ever closer, one driver who can\u2019t wait to get back on the track is Late Model driver Kevin Gambacorta. Gambacorta, of Ellington, has won races and championships in Stafford Speedway\u2019s DARE Stock and Limited Late Model divisions, but he is still in search of his first victory in the Late Model ranks. As Gambacorta prepares for what will be his fourth full season of Late Model competition, he feels like he is primed to collect that first victory.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

During the off-season, Stafford Speedway implemented a new rule for rear springs that limits them to a maximum of 400 lbs in rate. While many Late Model teams will have to change their springs and come up with new car setups, Gambacorta won\u2019t have to make any changes as he has been running springs that meet the new rule requirements for his three seasons of Late Model competition and he feels like that could give him a leg up at the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been close and we came pretty close a couple of times last year,\u201d said Gambacorta. \u201cWe were pretty good last year and I think especially early in the season will be a good opportunity for us to get that first Late Model win since we won\u2019t be changing our springs like a lot of other guys will be. Compared to what some guys were running on their cars, some of the stuff I have on my car I think guys were running back in the \u201870s and \u201880s, but those parts work for me and I understand them. I\u2019m hoping that we\u2019ll be a step ahead of the game while everyone is figuring out what they have and what they have to do to their cars while we know what we have, but I\u2019m also sure there will be guys who will be fast no matter what right off the bat. I think we have everything we need to win, we just need to have a little luck on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Gambacorta is still in search of his first Late Model victory, he is also in search of another championship at Stafford, which would be his fourth track title. Gambacorta won the very first DARE Stock championship in 2004 and he followed that up with two more championships in the Limited Late Model ranks, winning titles in 2006 and 2011. Since making his Late Model debut in 2012, Gambacorta has improved his points position every year, going from 9th to 4th to a tie for second last season.
\n\u201cThis will be my fourth season of Late Models and we\u2019ve improved every year,\u201d said Gambacorta. \u201cI was 9th my first year, then we were 4th and we finished tied for 2nd last year, so there\u2019s only one more spot left to go. I feel like we\u2019re good enough to win the championship, all we need is a little luck and have some things go our way. My biggest goal is to be the first driver to win a championship in each of Stafford\u2019s full fendered divisions. That would be pretty cool to be the only driver to do that. If we can have a year like we had last year and win some races, we finished second last year so I don\u2019t see why we couldn\u2019t win it all this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Gambacorta gets ready to tackle the 2015 season, he is in search of sponsorship to help him get his car up front on a regular basis. While Gambacorta has had to pay for much of his racing out of his own pocket, he has had to adapt a frugal approach to making every dollar count.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love to be able to find some sponsorship help,\u201d said Gambacorta. \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of help over the years from Rafferty Fine Grading and most of what I\u2019ve spent on the car over the years has come out of my own pocket, so I\u2019ve learned there\u2019s certain parts that you need to spend money on and there\u2019s parts you don\u2019t need to spend on. I was almost ready to sit out this season with the birth of our son Kody. We didn\u2019t have any major wrecks last year and we were able to use our winnings week to week to either buy a couple of tires, or put fuel in the car, and that\u2019s how we were able to keep going. If we got some sponsorship help, that would be huge for us. We\u2019re also looking for a spotter this season. We\u2019ve had Randy Smith helping us out the past few seasons and he has other commitments that will prevent him from spotting for me again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gambacorta\u2019s first opportunity to collect his maiden Late Model feature win will kick off with the running of the 44th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler on April 24-26. Tickets for the \u201cGreatest Race in the History of Spring\u201d are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $38.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating is priced at $42.00 for all ages. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available. All tickets are good for both Saturday and Sunday admission. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Stafford Springs, CT)—With the dawn of the 2015 season at Stafford Motor Speedway drawing ever closer, one driver who can\u2019t wait to get back on the track is Late Model driver Kevin Gambacorta. Gambacorta, of Ellington, has won races and championships in Stafford Speedway\u2019s DARE Stock and Limited Late Model divisions, but he is still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[196,197],"tags":[15677],"class_list":["post-17919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford-springs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17921,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17919\/revisions\/17921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}