![\"Stafford\"](\"http:\/\/maineracer.com\/images\/stafford.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/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 18 at the La Renaissance Banquet Facility in
\nEast Windsor to officially honor Ryan Preece, Ryan Posocco, Matt Galko,
\nKevin Gambacorta, and Don Wood as the 2011 Stafford Motor Speedway NASCAR
\nWhelen All-American Series track champions.
\n
\nWith Stafford Motor Speedway broadcasters Matt Buckler and Joe Coss serving
\nas the Masters of Ceremony, the 42nd 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.<\/p>\n
The 2011 SK Modified\u00ae season saw Ryan Preece outduel Keith Rocco in a
\nthrilling season-long fight for the championship. Rocco, who was the
\ndefending SK Modified\u00ae track champion at Stafford, led the division with 8
\nwins this season, but Preece won 5 times and collected more top-5 and top-10
\nfinishes than Rocco to capture his first career track championship. In 18
\nstarts this season, Preece collected 14 top-5, and 17 top-10 finishes along
\nwith his 5 wins for an amazing average finish of 3.8, which allowed him to
\nwin the championship by a 78-point margin over Rocco.<\/p>\n
The 2011 Late Model championship chase saw Ryan Posocco collect his second
\nconsecutive and record sixth Late Model track championship at Stafford.
\nJust as it was during the 2010 season, the Late Model points fight was a
\ntight race all season long between Posocco and Woody Pitkat that came down
\nto the last race of the season. At the end of the season, Posocco took the
\ntitle by a 24 point margin over Pitkat. Posocco posted 2 wins, 13 top-5 and
\n17 top-10 finishes in 18 starts this season. The championship was also
\nPosocco\u2019s third in the past 4 years driving the #48 Kretschman Motorsports
\ncar.<\/p>\n
In the SK Light Modified division, Matt Galko moved into the points lead
\nafter the second race of the season and he stayed there for the remainder of
\nthe season to capture his second consecutive track championship. Joey
\nCipriano was Galko\u2019s closest pursuer for the championship with 6 victories
\nthis season, but Galko and his team had the better overall consistency
\nthroughout the season and they won the championship by a 22 point margin
\nover Cipriano. For the season, Galko posted 4 wins, 14 top-5, and 17 top-10
\nfinishes in 19 starts.<\/p>\n
In the Limited Late Model division, the championship race was a three-man
\nrace for much of the year between Kevin Gambacorta, Shawn Thibeault, and
\nGeorge Nocera, Jr. For Gambacorta, he and Nocera took the championship race
\ndown to the wire during the 2006 season, and the championship race once
\nagain came down to the final race. Gambacorta finished 7th in the CARQUEST
\nFall Final, which was enough to make him the champion by a slim 4 point
\nmargin over Nocera. Gambacorta was a model of consistency this season,
\nnever finishing lower than 7th all season long. For the year, Gambacorta
\nposted 1 win, 16 top-5 and 19 top-10 finishes in 19 starts.<\/p>\n
The DARE Stock division saw Don Wood take a roller coaster ride to his
\nsecond track championship. Originally scheduled to race only half the
\nseason, Wood was asked to drive the full season by his car owner John
\nBerardi when they found themselves in championship contention at the halfway
\npoint of the year. Wood began the year strong, then a couple of subpar
\nfinishes knocked him out of the points lead. But Wood posted 10 podium
\nfinishes in the final 13 races of the year to lay claim to the championship
\nby 26 points over Cliff Saunders. Wood was tied for the division lead with
\n5 wins and he posted 14 top-5, and 16 top-10 finishes in 19 starts this
\nsason.<\/p>\n
Receiving awards for Most Improved Driver were Michael Gervais, Jr. in the
\nSK Modified\u00ae division, Patrick Townsend in the Late Model division, Steve
\nGreer in the SK Light division, and Duane Provost in the Limited Late Model
\ndivision. The Most Improved Driver award is given to a driver who exhibits
\nthe greatest degree of improvement in on-track performance over the past
\nseason. Nominees are selected and voted upon by a committee of select
\nStafford Motor Speedway management and track officials.<\/p>\n
The Reliable Welding & Speed Rookie of the Year awards were presented by
\nBrad and Linda Hietala of Reliable Welding and Speed to Heather DesRochers
\nfrom the SK Modified\u00ae division, Peter Thickett from the Late Model division,
\nCody Gneiting from the SK Light division, and D.J. Burnham from the Limited
\nLate Model division. The awards will be worth a $700.00 bonus to
\nDesRochers, and $500.00 bonuses to Thickett, Gneiting, and Burnham from
\nReliable Welding and Speed. Each Rookie of the Year bonus will be paid out
\nin $100.00 weekly increments to each driver as they attend events during the
\n2012 season.<\/p>\n
The winners of the Most Popular Driver Awards were Woody Pitkat in the SK
\nModified\u00ae and Late Model divisions, Joey Cipriano from the SK Light
\ndivision, Cory Casagrande from the Limited Late Model division, and David
\nArute from the DARE Stock division. The Most Popular Driver Awards are
\nvoted on by the fans who attend Stafford Motor Speedway race events and fill
\nout the ballots found weekly in the track\u2019s PitStopper Magazine.<\/p>\n
The Craftsman Mechanic of the Year Award was awarded to Rick Casagrande.
\nCasagrande prepared and maintained cars for his two sons, Cory and Kyle
\nCasagrande. Cory won three races and narrowly missed out on winning Rookie
\nof the Year honors in the Limited Late Model division, while Kyle tied for
\nthe DARE Stock division lead with 5 feature wins. The Craftsman Mechanic
\nof the Year Award is voted on by Stafford crew members who possess a valid
\n2011 NASCAR License.<\/p>\n
For more information about the 2011 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":"
(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 18 at the La Renaissance Banquet Facility in East Windsor to officially honor Ryan Preece, Ryan Posocco, Matt Galko, Kevin Gambacorta, and Don Wood as the 2011 Stafford Motor Speedway […]<\/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":[196,126,197],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-8526","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\/8526","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=8526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}