Column By: BRITTANY NUTILE / RPW – STAFFORD SPRINGS, CT – Ronnie Williams won the SK 5K for the second year in a row Friday night at Stafford Speedway.
Ronnie started the race in 8th and didn’t seem to be very happy with his car for the first half of the race. He had 2 flat tires and other damaged from getting involved in an accident during the race. He came into the pits and had a better car after the pit stop than he did in the beginning half of the race. This is the third win for Williams in 6 days, he won $5,000 at NHMS on Sunday, then Wednesday he won $10,000 at Seekonk in the tour type modified race, and finally he won $5,000 in the SK 5K race tonight.
He won a total of $20,000 in 6 days, that’s a pretty good week for a racecar driver. Ronnie was in 2nd place for 16 laps and battled with Keith Rocco for the top spot and the win for the race. The margin of victory was 0.53 between Ronnie who won and Keith who got 2nd place.
“I was trying to take it easy in the beginning and just got caught up in a wreck off of turn 4, had a flat left and flat right tire. The racks all messed up; it just shows how good these guys are. Third year in a row for them, 2nd in a row for me and we are definitely happy to take home the big check. It’s pretty awesome, you take it one race at a time, and you don’t take anything for granted, things can fall apart real quick, so we are going to ride this for as long as we can and keep this going. Its great momentum and looking forward to the rest of the season.”
Williams talks about his incredible week and how it feels to win this race and the other two this week in 6 days.
Keith Rocco started the race in 10th place and for the first 40 laps he was in 6th, 7th, or 8th place and then started working himself up to the top 5. He started around 5th place till lap 70 then jumped to the top spot at lap 72. Rocco kept the lead for 27 laps but, the whole time he was battling with Williams and put on a great show with hard fought battles and clean racing. Rocco finished 2nd again for the 2nd time in the SK 5K race.
“We probably just needed to ride a little bit more in the beginning to save more of the tires. We were really good, we had a good drive, just right front got used up and were a little too tight. I think I’m he king of second in this race, two years in a row second to Ronnie. It was a good race, good battle and good show for the fans.” Keith talks about his race and being so close the last too years but, coming up short.
Chase Dowling had an up and down race, in the beginning of the race he started towards the back in 21st. He had to make his way from the back, he got inside the top 10 by lap 21. He showed that he had a good, fast car because he made his way up to the top 5 by lap 32. Chase then took the lead by lap 60 and made a big gap between him and 2nd place. H led the race for 10 laps and then fell back with in the top 3. Dowling finished the race in 3rd place.
“We had a pretty good car; we had a lot of fun tonight. I don’t know what happened, we were on the front stretch and something just cut off and some thing happened with the motor. We were like oh man, but its great to be back at the SK 5K and had a lot of fun.”
Dowling talks about his race and how it is to be back racing at Stafford Speedway again.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Ronnie Williams
2. Keith Rocco
3. Chase Dowling
4. Joey Cipriano
5. Andrew Molleur-R
Top 5 in the point standings
1. Todd Owen 390pts. +28
2. Michael Gervais Jr. 362pts. -28
3. Keith Rocco 352pts. -38
4. Ronnie Williams 330pts. -60
5. Eric Berndt 292pts. -98
SK Light
Teddy Hodgdon won the SK light race at Stafford Speedway Friday.
He started the race 8th, he had a good race and stayed in the top 5 for the whole race all the way to the finish. “This car was on rails tonight, we made our right moves on the start there, the lines went for us. We had the car to do it tonight, I just saw that I was clear on the inside with JP and made a move. The car was amazing, hats off to JP and Robert for 2nd and 3rd.” Teddy talks about his race and how he made his move to take the lead on Jonathan Puleo. Robert Bloxsom III got the pole for the race. He led the first 12 laps of the race and then got back to the 3rd spot and race there till the finished.
Jonathan Puleo also had another great race; he started the race in 7th place and made his way up to the top 5 by lap 6. He led laps 12 and 13 but, they stayed in the 2nd spot for 7 laps. He finished in 2nd place at the end of the race. The car was really fast tonight, we were kind of even with Teddy, he got me there. It was awesome racing with him, it was a good clean race. He pushed me right into the lead was awesome. We got to lead a few laps; we are making gains which is what its all about.” Jonathan said in an interview after his race.
Steven Chapman had a good race finishing in the top 5. He started the race 4th and got pushed back to 7th, 8th, and 9th place for a few laps and then made his way back to the top 5 by lap 11 and stayed in 5th place for 5 laps and then got his way up o 4th where he ended up 4th to finish the race. Alexander Pearl also got a top 5 finish, he started 14th in the race and worked his way to the top 10 by lap 6 and had to fight his way through the field. By lap 17, Alexander got up to 5th place where he finished.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Teddy Hodgdon
2. Jonathan Puleo-R
3. Robert Bloxsom III- R
4. Steven Chapman-R
5. Alexander Pearl
Top 5 in the point standings:
1. Teddy Hodgdon 380pts. +14
2. Steven Chapman-R 366pts. -14
3. Noah Korner-R 346pts. -34
4. Alexander Pearl 340pts.-40
5. Mikey Flynn 318pts.-62
Limited Late Model
Jeremy Lavoie won the limited late model race at Stafford Speedway.
He started the race in 3rd place. He had a fast car and made his way to the lead quickly. They had a caution on lap 10 which was not what Jeremy wanted but, for the restart he got a good jump and took the lead again to win the race. He talks in his interview after the race how him and his crew made some changes and talked to a few people last week about some changes, they took that advice and it certainly helped for this week. “You’re not going to win races if you’re a 3rd place car. We made changes to help improve the car and it definitely helped. The car feels good we were a little tight in the corner driving wise but, set up wise we made some changes and we found a good spot.”
Matt Clement started the race in 5th place for tonight’s race. He stayed in the top 3 for the whole race and had a hard-fought race. He started 2nd on the restart on lap 10 but, couldn’t get passed Jeremy for the lead. Matt ended up 2nd to finish the race. Matt and Jeremy are tied for the points lead after tonight’s race.
Duane Provost started the race 6th in his first week back after vacation, he had a pretty good night. He got to the top 5 in the first couple of laps. He had a fast car and got up to the 2nd spot at lap 11 and had a shot to get the lead but, couldn’t quite get it and dropped to third for the final two laps of the race. He ended up finishing the race in 3rd.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Jeremy Lavoie
2. Matt Clement
3. Duane Provost
4. David Teft
5. Kevin Crosby -R
Top 5 in the point standings:
1. Matt Clement 422pts. +0
2. Jeremy Lavoie 422pts. +0
3. Gary Patnode 410pts. -12
4. Alexandra Fearn 386pts. -36
5. Kyle Casagrande 328pts. -94
