{"id":8304,"date":"2011-10-16T08:35:14","date_gmt":"2011-10-16T12:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2011-10-16T07:35:46","modified_gmt":"2011-10-16T11:35:46","slug":"d-j-burnham-wins-reliable-welding-speed-limited-late-mdoel-rookie-year-honors-stafford-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/d-j-burnham-wins-reliable-welding-speed-limited-late-mdoel-rookie-year-honors-stafford-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"D.J. BURNHAM WINS RELIABLE WELDING AND SPEED LIMITED LATE MDOEL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR HONORS AT STAFFORD SPEEDWAY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/maineracer.com\/images\/stafford.jpg\" alt=\"Stafford\" \/><br \/>\n(Stafford Springs, CT)&#8212;Much like Late Model Rookie of the Year Peter<br \/>\nThickett, D.J. Burnham took an unconventional route to racing full bodied<br \/>\nstock cars at Stafford Motor Speedway.  Burnham\u2019s career path took a turn<br \/>\nfrom racing quads on dirt and ice to the asphalt of Stafford Motor Speedway,<br \/>\nwhere Burham piloted his #60 Burnham Racing machine to Reliable Welding and<br \/>\nSpeed Rookie of the Year honors.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n\u201cThis was the first time in my career racing in a car,\u201d said Burnham.  \u201cI\u2019ve<br \/>\nraced quads on dirt and ice, drag raced snowmobiles, and I did one race in<br \/>\nan off-road truck, so everything was totally different this year.  We really<br \/>\nstruggled the first half of the year with the setup of the car, but we found<br \/>\nsomething in the car halfway through the season and the car handled like a<br \/>\ndream for the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fix that Burnham and his team fitted to his car midway through the<br \/>\nseason allowed them to pick up their first victory and gave them a strong<br \/>\nfinish to the season that allowed them to finish in 5th place in the points<br \/>\nstandings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight before we won that race, we were ready to take a couple of weeks off,<br \/>\nthat\u2019s how bad we were struggling,\u201d said Burnham.  \u201cWe were starting up<br \/>\nfront and going backwards, which wasn\u2019t a lot of  fun.  We found we had some<br \/>\nstuff binding up in the car and once we fixed that, the car was really good.<br \/>\nThat first win was the best feeling ever.  I look at those pictures every<br \/>\nday and I still get that feeling in my chest.  That win was much sweeter<br \/>\nafter we struggled early in the year.  Once we fixed the car, I got a lot<br \/>\nmore comfortable and the car was handling better.  I was learning something<br \/>\nabout the car every week and we started to pass cars during the feature.  We<br \/>\ndidn\u2019t expect to end the year in the top-5 in points or win a race, so we<br \/>\nexceeded our expectations.  We figured we\u2019d be a midpack car and maybe get a<br \/>\ncouple of podium finishes, but by the end of the season, we felt like we<br \/>\ncould finish on the podium every week.  That win was a huge confidence<br \/>\nbuilder for myself and the team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For much of the 2011 season, the race for the Reliable Welding and Speed<br \/>\nRookie of the Year title was a close duel between Burnham and Cory<br \/>\nCasagrande, who made the move up to the Limited Late Model division after a<br \/>\nseason in Stafford\u2019s DARE Stock division.  Burnham was able to win the award<br \/>\nby a narrow margin and he has his sights set on continued success next<br \/>\nseason.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really didn\u2019t pay any attention to the standings until around 3 races to<br \/>\ngo,\u201d said Burnham.  \u201cWe were more focused on making our car better.  We\u2019re<br \/>\npretty happy with how we did and I think we showed everyone that we have a<br \/>\ncompetitive car and we\u2019ll be pretty competitive next year as long as I don\u2019t<br \/>\nforget how to drive over the winter.  We met a lot of really great people<br \/>\nthis year and made some new friends and I wish it didn\u2019t have to end, we can<br \/>\n\u2019t wait for next season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Burnham will officially be crowned the 2011 Reliable Welding and Speed<br \/>\nLimited Late Model Rookie of the Year at the 42nd Annual Stafford Motor<br \/>\nSpeedway Champions Awards Ceremony on Friday, November 18 at the La<br \/>\nRenaissance Banquet Facility in East Windsor.<\/p>\n<p>Tickets to the 42nd Annual Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards Ceremony<br \/>\nare $45 per person and can be ordered by calling the Stafford Motor Speedway<br \/>\ntrack office at (860) 684-2783, or by downloading an order form from<br \/>\nwww.staffordspeedway.com <http: \/\/www.staffordspeedway.com> and mailing the<br \/>\nform to the track office.<\/http:><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Stafford Springs, CT)&#8212;Much like Late Model Rookie of the Year Peter Thickett, D.J. Burnham took an unconventional route to racing full bodied stock cars at Stafford Motor Speedway. Burnham\u2019s career path took a turn from racing quads on dirt and ice to the asphalt of Stafford Motor Speedway, where Burham piloted his #60 Burnham Racing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[72],"class_list":["post-8304","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\/8304","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=8304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}