![\"Stafford\"](\"http:\/\/maineracer.com\/images\/stafford.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
(Stafford Springs, CT)—Peter Portante, who is the defending Allison Legacy
\nSeries North champion and has more wins in the Wild Thing Kart Series than
\nany other driver, will become the newest member of the Late Model rookie
\nclass for the 2012 season at Stafford Motor Speedway. While most drivers
\nfrom the Wild Thing Kart Series make their home in the Modified divisions at
\nStafford, Portante has taken the unique route of moving into Stafford\u2019s
\npremier full bodied division for his rookie campaign. Portante has
\npurchased the former #71 Late Model from Walt Wosko, Jr., and Portante will
\nalso have help from Wosko\u2019s team as he tackles his rookie season at
\nStafford.
\n
\n\u201dThe Late Model division seemed like a great way to move up the ladder, and
\nwe had a great opportunity with Walt Wosko\u2019s team,\u201d said Portante. \u201cWe
\nbought Walt\u2019s #71 car and his crew guys are going to be helping us out this
\nyear, so it was all about taking advantage of the opportunity that we had in
\nfront of us. Those guys know a lot about the car, so everything is going to
\nbe on me this year and I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. We have \u201cLittle
\nJohn\u201d as the crew chief, and Bill and Jay, I would be nothing without those
\nguys helping me out. I\u2019d like to stick with the full body cars and this was
\nthe best opportunity for us right now and we like the direction the Late
\nModel division will take us for the future. It doesn\u2019t get any better than
\nthe Late Model division at Stafford and it\u2019s up to me to make the most of
\nthe opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Portante will have the Wosko crew to lean on for help with setting up
\nhis #24 Spargo Construction Chevrolet, he says that getting used to the size
\nof both the Late Model car and Stafford track will be his biggest challenge
\nas he looks to get himself established during his rookie season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that adapting to the size of the car and racing in a big pack of
\ncars will be my biggest challenge this year,\u201d said Portante. \u201cWith so many
\ncars on the track, there\u2019s usually a big pack and you always have to be on
\nyour game in the Late Model division. One slip and you\u2019re going to get
\nfreight trained, so this will all be a new experience for me. My dad and I
\nhave been working on the car as much as we can with the 71 guys so we can
\nget meshed together as a team. With their experience and with Walt also
\nhelping me out, that should be a big help to me with the learning curve and
\nhopefully we can get the car dialed in pretty quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Portante has his sights set squarely on winning Rookie of the Year honors,
\nand he is looking forward to the challenge of having to beat the defending
\nand two-time Lilmited Late Model champion Kevin Gambacorta, who join
\nPortante in the 2012 Late Model rookie class.<\/p>\n
\u201cKevin will be moving up to the Late Model division, so it will be
\ninteresting to see how we stack up compared to him with all the knowledge
\nand experience he has,\u201d said Portante. \u201cKevin was very consistent last year
\nin the Limited Late Model division, and what he did was unbelievable, I don\u2019
\nt think he was outside the top-10 all year. I\u2019d like to be able to keep up
\nwith him on the track and see what I can learn from him about being
\nconsistent, and if we can hang with him, it will be a testament to all the
\nguys on the team. I know it\u2019s going to be very tough this year, but I have
\nconfidence in myself and if everything goes according to plan, it should be
\na great battle for Rookie of the Year. We want to be improving every week
\nand get some top-10 finishes. Who knows, maybe one night we can get up
\nfront and be fighting for a top-5 or even a win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Portante will kick off his rookie season with the 41st Annual CARQUEST
\nTech-Net Spring Sizzler on April 27-29. Tickets for the CARQUEST Tech-Net
\nSpring Sizzler are available and on sale now through the SMS Box Office.
\nTickets are priced at $38.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for
\nchildren ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of
\ncharge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at
\n$42.00 for all ages. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking
\nwith overnight parking available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Stafford Springs, CT)—Peter Portante, who is the defending Allison Legacy Series North champion and has more wins in the Wild Thing Kart Series than any other driver, will become the newest member of the Late Model rookie class for the 2012 season at Stafford Motor Speedway. While most drivers from the Wild Thing Kart Series […]<\/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-8717","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\/8717","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=8717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}