{"id":3861,"date":"2010-11-22T23:10:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-23T04:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2010-11-22T22:10:43","modified_gmt":"2010-11-23T03:10:43","slug":"keith-rocco-ryan-posocco-matt-galko-dan-flannery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/keith-rocco-ryan-posocco-matt-galko-dan-flannery\/","title":{"rendered":"KEITH ROCCO, RYAN POSOCCO, MATT GALKO, DAN FLANNERY,"},"content":{"rendered":"

KEITH ROCCO, RYAN POSOCCO, MATT GALKO, DAN FLANNERY,
\nAND TONY MEMBRINO, JR. HONORED AS 2010 STAFFORD SPEEDWAY TRACK CHAMPIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Stafford Springs, CT)—Stafford Motor Speedway welcomed a guest list of
\nnearly 500 people consisting of teams, drivers, sponsors, and employees this
\npast Friday night, November 19 at the La Renaissance Banquet Facility in
\nEast Windsor to officially honor Keith Rocco, Ryan Posocco, Matt Galko, Dan
\nFlannery, and Tony Membrino, Jr. as the 2010 Stafford Motor Speedway NASCAR
\nWhelen All-American Series track champions.
\nWith Stafford Motor Speedway broadcasters Matt Buckler and Joe Coss serving
\nas the Masters of Ceremony, the 41st annual Stafford Motor Speedway NASCAR
\nChampions Awards Ceremony not only honored the five track champions, it also
\nhonored the top-20 points finishers from the SK Modified\u00ae, Late Model, SK
\nLight, Limited Late Model, and DARE Stock divisions. Other awards that were
\npresented during the evening\u2019s festivities were Most Popular Driver Awards,
\nMost Improved Driver Awards, Reliable Welding & Speed Rookie of the Year
\nawards, and the Craftsman Mechanic of the Year Award.
\nThe race for the 2010 SK Modified\u00ae championship began and ended with Keith
\nRocco in victory lane. In between his season opening CARQUEST Tech-Net
\nSpring Sizzler and CARQUEST Fall Final feature victories this season were 8
\nmore feature wins to give Rocco a Stafford SK Modified\u00ae record 10 wins. In
\n20 starts this season, Rocco collected 16 top-5, and 19 top-10 finishes
\nalong with his 10 wins for an amazing average finish of 3.4, which allowed
\nhim to win the championship by a whopping 138-point margin over Woody
\nPitkat. Rocco also finished in 7th place in the Late Model points standings
\nthis season with one victory.
\nThe 2010 Late Model championship chase saw Ryan Posocco complete the \u201cDrive
\nfor Five\u201d as he collected his record fifth Late Model track championship at
\nStafford. The points race was a tight race all season long between Posocco,
\nWoody Pitkat, and Dillon Moltz, which ended up coming down to the last race
\nwith Posocco and Pitkat separated by only 6 points as Moltz faded from
\ncontention. Pitkat ended up winning the CARQUEST Fall Final feature event
\nfor his division leading 8th win of the season, but Posocco finished third,
\nwhich was enough to give him the championship by the smallest of margins, 2
\npoints. In addition to locking down his fifth track championship, it was
\nalso a season of milestones for Posocco at Stafford as he surpassed 40
\ncareer Late Model feature race and he reached 50 career victories at
\nStafford with 43 Late Model wins and 7 DARE Stock wins. Posocco posted 4
\nwins, 13 top-5 and 19 top-10 finishes 20 starts this season.
\nIn the SK Light Modified division, a rookie driver claimed the championship
\nfor the second consecutive season. Matt Galko took over the points lead
\nmidway through the season and looked to be heading comfortably towards the
\nchampionship. But Tommy Barrett, Jr. was in the middle of a white hot
\nwinning streak, winning 8 of 9 races, while Galko finished 13th or worse 3
\ntimes in four races leading up to the CARQUEST Fall Final, putting Galko 6
\npoints behind Barrett for the final race of the season. But Barrett
\nencountered trouble in the opening laps of the race while Galko went on to
\nwin the race and the track championship. Galko posted 4 wins, 13 top-5, and
\n16 top-10 finishes in 21 starts to win the championship by 32 points over
\nBarrett.
\nOne year after a flat tire eliminated him from championship contention, Dan
\nFlannery returned strong to the Limited Late Model division and took the
\nchampionship with a division leading 6 feature victories. Although Flannery
\nled the division in wins, he had to contend with Dave Yardley, III as well
\nas defending track champion Andrew Durand in the chase for the championship.
\nHeading into the final race of the year, Flannery and Yardley were separated
\nby only 6 points. But like Galko, Flannery won the final race to take the
\nchampionship in grand style by 12 points over Yardley. Along with his 6
\nwins, Flannery also led the division with 15 top-5 and 19 top-10 finishes.
\nJust as the SK Light Modified division had a rookie driver win the
\nchampionship for the second consecutive season, the DARE Stock division had
\nthe CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler feature winner win the championship for
\nthe third consecutive season. Tony Membrino, Jr. matched the feat that was
\nturned by Norm Sears in 2008 and Don Wood last year. Membrino enjoyed a
\nremarkable season, finishing no lower than seventh place all year long and
\nhe took the championship by a 42 point margin over Jeff Jolly. Membrino
\nposted 1 win, 16 top-5, and 21 top-10 finishes in 21 starts this sason.
\n Receiving awards for Most Improved Driver were Zach Sylvester in the SK
\nModified\u00ae division, Adam Gray in the Late Model division, Erica Santos in
\nthe SK Light division, and Michael Wray in the Limited Late Model division.
\nThe Most Improved Driver award is given to a driver who exhibits the
\ngreatest degree of improvement in on-track performance over the past season.
\nNominees are selected and voted upon by a committee of select Stafford Motor
\nSpeedway management and track officials.
\nThe Reliable Welding & Speed Rookie of the Year awards were presented by
\nBrad and Linda Hietala of Reliable Welding and Speed to Josh Sylvester from
\nthe SK Modified\u00ae division, Tim Fogg from the Late Model division, Matt Galko
\nfrom the SK Light division, and Duane Provost from the Limited Late Model
\ndivision. The awards will be worth a $700.00 bonus to Sylvester, and
\n$500.00 bonuses to Fogg, Galko, and Provost from Reliable Welding and Speed.
\nEach Rookie of the Year bonus will be paid out in $100.00 weekly increments
\nto each driver as they attend events during the 2011 season.
\nThe winners of the Most Popular Driver Awards were Woody Pitkat in the SK
\nModified\u00ae and Late Model divisions, Erica Santos from the SK Light division,
\nAndrew Durand from the Limited Late Model division, and Cory Casagrande from
\nthe DARE Stock division. The Most Popular Driver Awards are voted on by the
\nfans who attend Stafford Motor Speedway race events and fill out the ballots
\nfound weekly in the track\u2019s PitStopper Magazine.
\nThe Craftsman Mechanic of the Year Award was awarded to Stephen Butova
\nBerardi. Butova prepared and maintained Frank Ruocco\u2019s SK Modified\u00ae machine
\nthat visited CARQUEST Victory Lane 4 times this season, including the
\nprestigious CARQUEST SK 150. The Craftsman Mechanic of the Year Award is
\nvoted on by Stafford crew members who possess a valid 2010 NASCAR License.
\nFor more information about the 2010 Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards
\nCeremony, or to order a video of the night\u2019s festivities, contact the
\nStafford Motor Speedway\u2019s track office at (860) 684-2783 or visit us on the
\nweb at www.staffordspeedway.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KEITH ROCCO, RYAN POSOCCO, MATT GALKO, DAN FLANNERY, AND TONY MEMBRINO, JR. HONORED AS 2010 STAFFORD SPEEDWAY TRACK CHAMPIONS (Stafford Springs, CT)—Stafford Motor Speedway welcomed a guest list of nearly 500 people consisting of teams, drivers, sponsors, and employees this past Friday night, November 19 at the La Renaissance Banquet Facility in East Windsor to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}