{"id":4856,"date":"2011-04-17T06:25:54","date_gmt":"2011-04-17T11:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2011-04-17T06:25:54","modified_gmt":"2011-04-17T11:25:54","slug":"george-summers-recalls-inaugural-spring-sizzler-stafford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/george-summers-recalls-inaugural-spring-sizzler-stafford\/","title":{"rendered":"GEORGE SUMMERS RECALLS INAUGURAL SPRING SIZZLER AT STAFFORD"},"content":{"rendered":"

GEORGE SUMMERS RECALLS INAUGURAL SPRING SIZZLER AT STAFFORD<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Stafford Springs, CT)—As Stafford Speedway gets ready to host its 40th
\nAnnual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, we are taking a walk back in time
\nwith some of the drivers who were on hand for the very first Sizzler in
\n1972. This week\u2019s Sizzler spotlight of yesteryear falls on George Summers,
\nwho drove the #31 Firebird for car owner Ken Curley. Summers ran well in
\nthat Inaugural Sizzler before a failed piston ended his day early.
\n
\n\u201cI remember we ran pretty darn good in that race,\u201d said Summers. \u201cI don\u2019t
\nknow if we had a winning car, but I think we definitely had a top-5 car. We
\nwere running up in the top-5 right up until I had a piston failure, which
\nknocked me out of the race. I still have that piston sitting on my desk.\u201d
\nThe piston isn\u2019t the only memento that Summers has from that very first
\nSpring Sizzler.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the race was over, Dick Berggren sent all of the drivers a letter to
\nthank them for coming out,\u201d said Summers. \u201cAlong with the letter, he had
\nDick Armstrong make up medallions for all of the drivers and I still have
\nthat medallion today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summers would go onto record a Stafford Modified victory in August of 1972
\nand he recorded another victory in 1981, but he is most well known for his
\nexploits at Seekonk Speedway. Summers won over 100 feature events at
\nSeekonk and even had a bounty placed on him for any driver who could beat
\nSummers, much like the bounty that was established at Stafford in 1978 for
\nGeoff Bodine. Summers\u2019 racing career spanned 32 very successful years and
\nhe ended his career on a winning note, driving Art Barry\u2019s famous #21 to
\nwins at Oxford and Thompson in the final two races of his career in 1983.
\nThe 40th Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler gets underway Friday, April
\n29 with a practice session for Stafford\u2019s weekly divisions. The practice
\nsession will be open to the public at no charge. The run for the Coors
\nLight Pole position gets underway on Saturday, April 30 with time trials for
\nthe Whelen Modified Tour cars, along with heat and consolation races for
\nStafford\u2019s weekly divisions. Saturday will conclude with feature events for
\nthe SK Light, Limited Late Model, and DARE Stock divisions. The Sizzler
\nconcludes on Sunday, May 1 with the CARQUEST Belts and Hose Pit Party
\nfollowed by Stafford\u2019s SK Modifieds\u00ae and Late Models joining the Whelen
\nModified Tour in feature action.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the \u201cGreatest Race in the History of Spring\u201d are on sale now at
\nthe Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for adult general
\nadmission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and
\nunder are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved
\nseating is priced at $38.00 for all ages. As always, Stafford Motor
\nSpeedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.<\/p>\n

For more information on the 40th annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler\u00ae,
\nor to order tickets, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
\n860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GEORGE SUMMERS RECALLS INAUGURAL SPRING SIZZLER AT STAFFORD (Stafford Springs, CT)—As Stafford Speedway gets ready to host its 40th Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, we are taking a walk back in time with some of the drivers who were on hand for the very first Sizzler in 1972. This week\u2019s Sizzler spotlight of yesteryear falls […]<\/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":[196,126,197],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-4856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-new-england","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856","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=4856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}