{"id":9403,"date":"2012-04-04T21:53:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T01:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9403"},"modified":"2012-04-04T21:53:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-05T01:53:00","slug":"todd-owen-looking-to-get-back-to-carquest-victory-lane-in-sk-modified-division-at-stafford-as-ownerdriver-in-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/todd-owen-looking-to-get-back-to-carquest-victory-lane-in-sk-modified-division-at-stafford-as-ownerdriver-in-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"TODD OWEN LOOKING TO GET BACK TO CARQUEST VICTORY LANE IN SK MODIFIED\u00ae DIVISION AT STAFFORD AS OWNER\/DRIVER IN 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stafford\"<\/a>(Stafford Springs, CT)–Todd Owen has been a mainstay of consistency in
\nStafford Speedway\u2019s SK Modified\u00ae division, finishing in the top-9 of the
\npoints standings every year since his rookie season in 2003. Owen was twice
\na runner-up in the SK Modified\u00ae standings in 2004 and 2005, and he finished
\nthird in 2009. The 2012 season will present a new challenge for Owen as he
\nwill be an owner\/driver for the first time in his SK Modified\u00ae career after
\ndriving for Brad and Linda Hietala in each of his 9 SK Modified\u00ae seasons at
\nStafford. With his last SK Modified\u00ae feature win coming in the 2006 Coors
\nLight SK Modified\u00ae 100, Owen is ready to tackle the challenge of returning
\nto victory lane this year while driving his own car.
\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m excited about the season,\u201d said Owen. \u201cBrad and Linda started working
\nwith Chris Matthews last year and I was kind of doing my own deal last year,
\nand working with Chris was the direction they were looking to go in for this
\nseason. I had a great time with Brad and Linda, we had a great relationship
\nand they would do anything for me, I think it was just time to try something
\ndifferent after 9 years together. I have the same car and engine as last
\nyear, we just have a lot of different ideas and some new parts and pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Owen makes his first foray into the driver\/owner ranks in the SK
\nModified\u00ae division, he may have an ace up his sleeve as he prepares for the
\nseason. Owen will reunite with Butch Shea, who Owen worked with in the
\nProStock division and nearly won the track championship together during the
\n2000 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of luck with Butch in the ProStocks, and he actually started
\nhelping me out at the end of last season,\u201d said Owen. \u201cButch has taught me
\na lot about racing, so when he offered to help me out, it was a no-brainer.
\nButch made a couple of minor changes at the end of last season, and with
\njust those few minor changes we made a lot of progress with the car, so I
\nthink we should be pretty good this year. It seemed like there was a hurdle
\nlast year that we just couldn\u2019t quite get over with what to do to the car.
\nI have confidence we can be better this year, but we\u2019ll see what happens
\nwhen we get out onto the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the 2012 season draws closer and closer to taking the green flag, Owen
\nseems to have everything in place that he needs to go out and win races this
\nseason. Owen will also have a familiar number on his car this season as he
\nswitches from 90 back to his old number 81, which was his number when he
\ndrove in the ProStock ranks at Stafford.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal for this season is to get back to the success we had in the
\nProStock days, so I\u2019m going back to my original number 81,\u201d said Owen. \u201cI
\nthink we can win races this year. I feel like we were at the level we were
\nat in 2005 and 2006, but since then you\u2019ve had guys like Keith Rocco and
\nRyan Preece come into the division and those are the guys you have to beat
\nif you want to win races. We were good last year, we just needed a little
\nbit more to be a championship contender, and that is going to be a huge step
\nfor us to try to take this year. Every year the goal is to run for the
\nchampionship, we just need to get the car to a point that I can be good
\nevery Friday night. Hopefully we can be close right out of the box, and if
\nwe\u2019re not close, we have time to get the car right before the Sizzler. I\u2019m
\ntoo cheap to buy tires for practice, so we\u2019ll use the practice to shake the
\ncar down and make sure there are no problems and get ready to race at the
\nSizzler. I have great support from Cooker Construction, Austin Auto Body,
\nBarnes Pools, and a host of other sponsors that I couldn\u2019t go racing
\nwithout, and I have a great crew, so we\u2019re looking forward to the season.\u201d
\nThe 2012 SK Modified\u00ae season gets underway 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.<\/p>\n

Tickets 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. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. As
\nalways, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking
\navailable.<\/p>\n

Visit NERacingForum.Com<\/a> for latest New England Racing community News.<\/p>\n

[adrotate block=”3″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Stafford Springs, CT)–Todd Owen has been a mainstay of consistency in Stafford Speedway\u2019s SK Modified\u00ae division, finishing in the top-9 of the points standings every year since his rookie season in 2003. Owen was twice a runner-up in the SK Modified\u00ae standings in 2004 and 2005, and he finished third in 2009. The 2012 season […]<\/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":[7966,15035],"class_list":["post-9403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-new-england","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford-speedway","tag-todd-owen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9403","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=9403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}