{"id":9508,"date":"2012-04-20T06:45:19","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T10:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9508"},"modified":"2012-04-19T21:46:33","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T01:46:33","slug":"carquest-champions-for-charities-driver-spotlight-todd-szegedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/carquest-champions-for-charities-driver-spotlight-todd-szegedy\/","title":{"rendered":"CARQUEST CHAMPIONS FOR CHARITIES DRIVER SPOTLIGHT: TODD SZEGEDY"},"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. This
\nweek’s CARQUEST Champions For Charities spotlight falls on 2003 NASCAR
\nWhelen Modified Series Champion Todd Szegedy, who will be racing to help
\nsupport The Foundation For Life.
\n
\nThe Foundation For Life is an organization that provides funding in
\nConnecticut for underprivileged children. Their motto is to make children\u2019s
\ndreams come true by providing scholarships, bikes, school clothes and
\nsupplies, various playgrounds in CT, and provide volunteers to teach Junior
\nAchievement in CT elementary schools. They have also assisted in the ABC
\nExtreme Makeover Home Edition in Bridgeport, CT by paying off the owner\u2019s
\nmortgage. Since 2006, the Foundation for Life has distributed over $350,000
\nto organizations in Connecticut who are working to better the lives of those
\nin need throughout the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Foundation for Life is a great organization which gives back to
\ncommunities who are in need of giving throughout the state of Connecticut,\u201d
\nsaid Szegedy. \u201cWe didn\u2019t raise as much money last year as we would have
\nliked, so hopefully we can get some more people to come on board with us
\nthis year. I know the economy is tough, but the money all goes to a very
\ngood cause. We have a lot of people around us who like to support The
\nFoundation For Life, so we\u2019re hoping we can pick up some more donations and
\nhave a larger total than we did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

After having never driven a Wild Thing Kart Senior Outlaw before, Szegedy
\nput in a fine showing in last year\u2019s 15-lap CARQUEST Champions For Charities
\nevent. Szegedy started 8th and he worked his way through the field to take
\n4th place at the checkered flag after not being able to make it to the track
\nin time for practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year\u2019s race was awesome,\u201d said Szegedy. \u201cI couldn\u2019t get out of work
\nearly enough to make it for practice and those karts are very line
\nsensitive. It was a lot of fun to drive and it was fun watching the guys
\nstruggle to drive the karts around the mini mile. After the race was over,
\nthere wasn\u2019t one driver who didn\u2019t have a smile on their face, we were all
\nswapping spots like crazy. I hope I can make it for practice this year to
\nget a better idea of how the kart will drive and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll all have as
\nmuch fun as we did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to preparing for his CARQUEST Champions For Charities duties,
\nSzegedy is also busy preparing for the 41st Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring
\nSizzler next weekend. After a crash left him with a 27th place finish in
\nthe season opening Whelen Modified Tour event, Szegedy will look to get his
\n2012 season back on track with a strong effort at Stafford.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the Sizzler,\u201d said Szegedy. \u201cI\u2019ve been close to
\nwinning that race before and the Sizzler is definitely on my list of races
\nthat I want to win. We didn\u2019t qualify as well as we would have liked at
\nThompson, but we knew the car was going to race well. We pitted for tires
\nand it seemed like all heck broke loose and we got caught up in a wreck. It
\nseems lately like it\u2019s a 50\/50 deal if you\u2019re going to get caught up in
\nsomething after pit stops and we\u2019re starting the season out behind again
\nlike we did last year. But the team is phenomenally strong and we have good
\nequipment, so we have what it takes to overcome our Thompson finish. If you
\nlook at last year, we wrecked in the first two races and we ended up getting
\ninto the points lead later in the season, so it can be done. With the short
\nschedule this year, we\u2019ve used our one mulligan, but we feel pretty
\nconfident going to Stafford. Phil Moran, my crew chief, has been around a
\nwhile, we have good cars, and I\u2019m very comfortable at Stafford. Generally I\u2019
\nve been able to make passes on the bottom and on the outside, so we just
\nhave to hang around in the top-5, stay out of trouble, and be there at the
\nend to have a chance to fight for the win.\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 Foundation For Life on behalf of Todd Szegedy, and for more
\ninformation on the event, please refer to the CARQUEST Champions for
\nCharities donation page located at www.staffordspeedway.com. Stay tuned to
\nwww.staffordspeedway.com for more driver spotlights and exciting information
\nregarding 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

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

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(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":[196,4163,126,197],"tags":[7966],"class_list":["post-9508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-modified","category-new-england","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford-speedway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9508","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=9508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}