{"id":19255,"date":"2015-07-03T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T10:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=19255"},"modified":"2015-07-03T02:58:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T06:58:33","slug":"matt-galko-looking-for-first-sk-modified-win-at-stafford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/matt-galko-looking-for-first-sk-modified-win-at-stafford\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Galko Looking for First SK Modified\u00ae Win at Stafford"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"etrdhfg\"<\/a>(Stafford Springs, CT)—For Meriden native Matt Galko, his open wheel modified experience at Stafford Motor Speedway has been a tale of two divergent paths. Galko burst onto the modified scene by winning the SK Light championship as a rookie in 2010 and he followed that up with another championship in 2011. Galko moved up to the SK Modified\u00ae division in 2012 and in the three plus seasons since then, he is still in search of his first SK Modified\u00ae victory. Although the 2015 season is only approaching its midway point, Galko has enjoyed his best season and what better race to claim as your first win than the NAPA SK 5k with a total purse of over $30,000 and over $5,000 going to the winner?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously that first win would be fantastic, no matter what race it comes in,\u201d said Galko. \u201cBut to win the biggest race of the year with the biggest purse of the year, and what I\u2019m guessing will probably be our biggest car count of the year, that would be unbelievable and would put the icing on the cake for us. After 4 years of trying, it would be awesome to get the monkey off our back and be considered a winner in the SK Modified\u00ae division. It would be a dream come true for me and I think this year is our best chance so far. They always say once you win that first one, the rest come easy and I\u2019m still waiting for that first one. The last 2 podium finishes we had, I feel if we had one or two more restarts go our way, we could have won the race. We\u2019ve been joking around in the shop that it\u2019s ok to let those races go since we\u2019re saving up our win for the SK 5k and that winner\u2019s check would go a long way in helping us out.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his first three full seasons of SK Modified\u00ae competition, Galko has recorded a total of 3 top-5 finishes. He has already matched that total this season with a career best finish of third and he currently sits in fourth place in the SK Modified\u00ae points standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest difference is our equipment this year,\u201d said Galko. \u201cWe have a Troyer chassis from Northeast Racecars and a T\/A Engines spec motor. We are running against guys with top of the line equipment so we need top of the line equipment to keep up with them. I had good equipment during my first few years but we were always lacking slightly and in the SK Modified\u00ae division that can make a big difference. It took us a little bit this year to get used to the car but the more races we run, the bigger our notebook gets and I think we\u2019re really starting to tune the car in much better. Going into the season I set my goals to get back in the top-10 in points so we can get an invite to the banquet and we also wanted to get more top-5\u2019s than we had in the past and get a podium finish. We\u2019ve accomplished those goals already and the only thing I haven\u2019t been able to cross off of our list yet is a win. We don\u2019t know where we\u2019re going to finish in points, but to be fourth right now is awesome. When you look at the guys in front of us, they\u2019re kind of in their own race for the championship right now, but just to have your name in the top-5 is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Galko\u2019s short time in the SK Modified\u00ae division, he feels that an extra distance event is perfect for his style of driving and could be his best opportunity to capture his first checkered flag.
\n\u201cI think the extra distance races are perfect for my driving style,\u201d said Galko. \u201cBetween Stafford, Waterford, and the Tri-Track Series, I have about a dozen extra distance races under my belt and with that experience I think that would be a good shot for us get that first win. The longer distance gives you time to plan out your moves and strategy instead of just going gung-ho to get to the front. I couldn\u2019t do any of this without our great sponsors NAPA Fazzino Auto Parts, Tech Circuits, Dutch\u2019s Restaurant, A & R Auto Body and my crew, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Dave Day, Jr., Nick Andrews, Matt, Mike, Tim Rowe, and my spotter Glenn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $5,000 to win SK 5K won\u2019t be the only entertainment at Stafford during the night of July 10th. Stafford Speedway will host The Savage Brothers Band for a pre-race concert, the 4now Band for the post-race entertainment, and a barbeque taking place on the midway with some great food available to race fans.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the July 10th NAPA SK 5K are available and on sale now at the Speedway Box Office or discount tickets are available at participating NAPA Auto Parts Stores. Tickets purchased through NAPA Auto Parts also include the barbeque dinner and a NAPA goodie bag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Stafford Springs, CT)—For Meriden native Matt Galko, his open wheel modified experience at Stafford Motor Speedway has been a tale of two divergent paths. Galko burst onto the modified scene by winning the SK Light championship as a rookie in 2010 and he followed that up with another championship in 2011. Galko moved up to […]<\/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-19255","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\/19255","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=19255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19256,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19255\/revisions\/19256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}