FRANK RUOCCO READY TO CHALLENGE FOR SECOND SK MODIFIED\u00ae TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP AT STAFFORD MOTOR SPEEDWAY IN 2011<\/p>\n
(Stafford Springs, CT)—With the dawn of a new season rising above Stafford
\nMotor Speedway, SK Modified\u00ae driver Frank Ruocco is ready to challenge for
\nhis second track championship at the famed half-mile oval. Ruocco is the
\n2006 Stafford SK Modified\u00ae track champion, and he is eager to get back to
\nthat position after a season in which he finished third in the standings
\nbehind Keith Rocco and Woody Pitkat in what he describes as the toughest
\ndivision in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the winter we\u2019ve gone through the cars down to the chassis, we redid
\neverything, and now we\u2019re ready to go,\u201d said Ruocco. \u201cOur cars were fast
\nall year long and they\u2019ve been fast for the past couple of years, but in the
\nSKs at Stafford, everyone is so close. I would argue that there isn\u2019t a
\nmore competitive field anywhere than we have in the SK Modified\u00ae division at
\nStafford.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rocco\u2019s 2010 season was a mix of peaks and valleys. Ruocco consistently had
\none of the fastest cars every Friday night, but his finishes didn\u2019t always
\nmatch the pace of his car. Ruocco won the second race of the year after an
\n18th place showing in the season opening CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler,
\nbut he had 5 finishes of 16th or worse in the first half of the year.
\nThe turning point for Ruocco was the midway point of the year, when he made
\na crew chief change that saw Steve Butova take over the role. In their
\nfirst race together, Ruocco came home as the race winner and began a streak
\nthat saw them win 3 times and finish on the podium a total of 7 times over
\nthe final 10 races of the 2010 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that definitely the turning point was when Steve took over,\u201d said
\nRuocco. \u201cStash and I had been working together for a long time and once we
\ndecided to do what we did, there\u2019s no question we ran better. Also, I
\nalways say that you have to have luck on your side and we definitely had
\nsome luck on our side during the second half of the season. The greatest
\nthing was seeing Steve win the Craftsman Mechanic of the Year award at the
\nStafford banquet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Had Ruocco not had such a slow start to the 2010 season, he may very well
\nhave been able to give eventual Stafford track champion and NASCAR Whelen
\nAll-American Series National Champion Keith Rocco a run for his money.
\nRuocco finished second to Rocco with 4 wins and 11 top-5 finishes.
\n\u201cWe started the year out painfully slow,\u201d said Ruocco. \u201cWe had some stupid
\nmechanical problems and we got caught up in a couple of wrecks, which put us
\nbehind very early on. I think we only finished three of the first seven
\nraces of the year. But even if we could have had a first half of the year
\nlike the second half, it would have been nearly impossible to beat Keith
\n[Rocco]. Those guys had a great year and I was really happy to see him win
\nthe national championship.\u201d
\nAmong Ruocco\u2019s four 2010 race victories was a trip to victory lane in the
\nprestigious CARQUEST SK 150. Ruocco has made a habit of winning that
\nparticular race, winning three of the last four CARQUEST SK 150 races at
\nStafford.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 150 was a great race for us, I wish every week could be a 150-lapper,\u201d
\nsaid Ruocco. \u201cWe got spun around early in that race and went a lap down.
\nWe had to get a lucky dog to get back on the lead lap and then get back to
\nthe front. Normally, you like to be able to use some patience in those
\nlonger races, but we had to fight the whole 150 laps to win that race. We
\nhad to beat Ryan Preece and he is a great driver and it was a lot of fun
\nracing with him for the win.\u201d
\nIn addition to himself, Ruocco will have another car to keep an eye on as
\nhis son Jesse will make his debut this season in Stafford\u2019s SK Light
\nModified division.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited about it, I think he\u2019s going to do a good job this
\n year,\u201d said Ruocco. \u201cWe\u2019re going to rent the track before the season gets
\nstarted to put him out there and get some seat time in the car. I won\u2019t be
\nnervous, but his mother sure will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruocco will begin his quest for a second SK Modified\u00ae track championship at
\nthe season opening 40th Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, which is
\nscheduled for April 29-May 1. The SK Modifieds\u00ae will be joined by the
\nWhelen Modified Tour as well as Stafford\u2019s other four NASCAR Whelen
\nAll-American Series divisions. Tickets for the \u201cGreatest Race in the
\nHistory of Spring\u201d are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are
\npriced at $35.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children
\nages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when
\naccompanied by an adult. Reserved seating is priced at $38.00 for all ages.
\nAs always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight
\nparking available.<\/p>\n
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at FRANK RUOCCO READY TO CHALLENGE FOR SECOND SK MODIFIED\u00ae TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP AT STAFFORD MOTOR SPEEDWAY IN 2011 (Stafford Springs, CT)—With the dawn of a new season rising above Stafford Motor Speedway, SK Modified\u00ae driver Frank Ruocco is ready to challenge for his second track championship at the famed half-mile oval. Ruocco is the 2006 Stafford […]<\/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":[196,197],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-4625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625","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=4625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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