{"id":9324,"date":"2012-03-23T19:26:46","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T23:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9324"},"modified":"2012-03-23T19:26:46","modified_gmt":"2012-03-23T23:26:46","slug":"carquest-champions-for-charities-driver-spotlight-woody-pitkat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/carquest-champions-for-charities-driver-spotlight-woody-pitkat\/","title":{"rendered":"CARQUEST CHAMPIONS FOR CHARITIES DRIVER SPOTLIGHT: WOODY PITKAT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stafford\"<\/a>
\n(Stafford Springs, CT)—Stafford Motor Speedway has again lined up an
\nimpressive field of current and former open wheel champions for its CARQUEST
\nChampions For Charities Event as part of CARQUEST Super Saturday on June
\n30th. During the coming weeks, SMS will offer a profile on each of its
\nchampionship winning drivers and the charity they will be racing for and
\nthis week\u2019s CARQUEST Champions For Charities spotlight falls on Woody
\nPitkat, the 2006 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Division 4 Regional
\nChampion, who will be racing to help support The Victory Junction Gang Camp.
\nThe Victory Junction Gang Camp was built in honor of Adam Petty and they
\nprovide life-changing experiences for children with chronic medical
\nconditions or serious illnesses. Victory Junction has opened it\u2019s doors to
\nover 14,000 children from all 50 states and 4 countries since opening in
\n2004. Located in Randleman, NC, Victory Junction is partnered with 30
\ndifferent hospitals to deliver health care to its campers, who are dealing
\nwith such chronic medical conditions and serious illnesses as Autism,
\nCancer, Craniofacial Anomalies, Diabetes, Hemophilia, Sickle Cell and Spina
\nBifida. The cost for a child to attend Victory Junction is $2,500, but
\nthanks to generous donations, no child or family incurs that cost.
\n
\nLast year Pitkat was a substitute for Davey Hamilton, and in less than two
\nweeks, he was able to raise $2,728 for Victory Junction, which was good
\nenough to allow Pitkat to start the race in the 4th position. With more
\ntime on his side this year, Pitkat is looking forward to surpassing his
\ndonation total from one year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year we only had about 10 days to raise money, so it wasn\u2019t a lot of
\ntime,\u201d said Pitkat. \u201cWe have a lot more time on our side this year, so
\nhopefully we can raise more than last year, I\u2019m pretty excited about what we
\ncan contribute this year. We\u2019re looking into some things that we can do
\nraise some money, I\u2019ve asked around a bit but we haven\u2019t really got going
\njust yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitkat\u2019s fund raising efforts will get a kick start this weekend with
\nproceeds from the Spring Craft\/Vendor Fair being held at the Fairgrounds
\nBanquet Hall at Stafford Speedway going to Victory Junction Gang Camp. The
\nCraft\/Vendor Fair will run from 9am-3pm and Admission is FREE! There will
\nbe crafts and vendors ranging from jewelry, candles, country crafts, local
\nhoney and more. For details, please search for Craft\/Vendor Fair on
\nFacebook.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s CARQUEST Champions For Charities feature event saw Pitkat finish
\n5th after leading several laps and then fighting side by side with Todd
\nSzegedy for the fourth position in the closing laps. After the CARQUEST
\nChampions For Charities feature event, Pitkat went on to race in several
\nMonday night Wild Thing Kart events as well as a race at Pomfret Speedway
\ntowards the end of the season. While Pitkat has the benefit of extra
\nexperience behind the wheel of a Senior Outlaw kart, he isn\u2019t quite sure
\nthat will play out into an advantage come feature time this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to doing this race again,\u201d said Pitkat. \u201cLast year we
\nran up front some and we swapped the lead with Richie Pallai a couple of
\ntimes, and then we had a great race with Todd Szegedy at the end of the
\nrace. I ended up running the same kart on a couple of Monday nights and I
\nran a race at Pomfret at the end of the year, so I developed a great
\nrelationship with the Forgette\u2019s. I think most of the guys in this race
\ncame up through quarter midgets and things like that, so I don\u2019t know how
\nmuch of an advantage I\u2019ll have. The key is to get the kart handling well
\nand not bouncing around the track. But this race isn\u2019t about winning, it\u2019s
\nabout going out and raising money for a good cause and having some fun on
\nthe track without all the hype of racing for points and things like that.\u201d
\nIn addition to racing in the CARQUEST Champions For Charities feature event,
\nPitkat will have a full plate of racing ahead of him in 2012. Pitkat will
\nrun the full SK Modified\u00ae schedule for Bob Hitchcock and Kelly Iverson in
\nthe SK Modified\u00ae division, while also racing full-time in the Late Model
\ndivision for Billy Snow, Sr. Pitkat will also be part of the Whelen
\nModified Tour fields at Stafford, driving the #11 for car owner John
\nLukosavage that was piloted last season by both Ryan Preece and Donny Lia.
\n\u201cI\u2019m real excited about this season,\u201d said Pitkat. \u201cWe switched the SK over
\nto the car I used to run at Thompson, which I feel more comfortable in and I
\nthink is a little bit better car than the one we ran last year. We had a
\ncarburetor issue for most of the year last year, but once Billy the Kid
\nfixed that, we won, finished second, and won again in our first three races
\nwith the new carb. I\u2019m excited to be racing for Mr. Snow again in the Late
\nModel. We\u2019ve been so close to the championship the last two years, maybe
\nthe third time will be the charm for us. We\u2019ve had great results the past
\ntwo years with two cars so maybe now that we will be focusing on one car
\ninstead of two we\u2019ll be that much better this year. On the Tour, John
\nLukosavage has a CD car, which I\u2019m familiar with, and he has a genius in Bob
\nCuneo working on the car and Lloyd Agor is going to be the crew chief. I\u2019ve
\nalways raced against Lloyd and I\u2019m looking forward to working with him. All
\nin all, I\u2019m excited about the season, this year is the best start to a
\nseason that I\u2019ve had, so I think we\u2019re going to have a good year. I\u2019d like
\nto thank all my car owners, with how the economy is right now, most drivers
\nare lucky to have one ride, and between Stafford, Thompson, and the Whelen
\nModified Tour, I\u2019ll have four rides, so I\u2019m very fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The starting lineup for the CARQUEST Champions For Charities feature event
\nwill be determined by how much money each driver raises for their selected
\ncharity. The starting grid will be set with the drivers who have raised the
\nmost money starting up front. Fans are encouraged to get involved in the
\nevent by donating to their favorite driver or favorite charity. To make a
\ndonation to The Victory Junction Gang Camp on behalf of Woody Pitkat, and
\nfor more information on the event, please refer to the CARQUEST Champions
\nfor Charities donation page located at www.staffordspeedway.com. Stay tuned
\nto www.staffordspeedway.com for more driver spotlights and exciting
\ninformation regarding the CARQUEST Champions for Charities event.<\/p>\n

CARQUEST Super Saturday will take place on Saturday, June 30, 2012 and will
\nfeature the ISMA Super Modifieds, NEMA Midgets, and Pro-4 Modifieds in
\naddition to the Senior Outlaw Wild Thing Karts. Tickets for CARQUEST Super
\nSaturday are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office and are priced at $33.00
\nfor adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and
\nchildren ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an
\nadult. Reserved seating is priced at $35.00 for all ages. All ticket
\nprices include 10% CT Admission Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway
\noffers free parking with overnight parking available.<\/p>\n

[adrotate block=”3″]<\/p>\n

Visit NERacingForum.Com<\/a> for latest New England Racing community News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Stafford Springs, CT)—Stafford Motor Speedway has again lined up an impressive field of current and former open wheel champions for its CARQUEST Champions For Charities Event as part of CARQUEST Super Saturday on June 30th. During the coming weeks, SMS will offer a profile on each of its championship winning drivers and the charity they […]<\/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":[6795,4711],"class_list":["post-9324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-new-england","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford-motor-speedway","tag-woody-pitkat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324","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=9324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}