RPW Column: Entering His 20th Year In, Kevin Gambacorta’s Ready For, Quite Possibly, His Favorite In The Sport
Column By: BRITTANY NUTILE / RPW – ELLINGTON, CT – The 2020 racing season will be Kevin Gambacorta’s 20th year in the sport and one he’s ready for.
Gambacorta started racing in 2001. His father and friends used to run enduro at the old Riverside Park Speedway so Kevin used to go watch them race. He never got the chance to race when he was a kid, but during high school, help out Sumner Chapman with his Pro Stock at Stafford Motor Speedway.
The Ellington, CT youngster knew what he wanted to do. He worked all through high school and saved up his money so that, in 2001, he could take his shot. Gambacorta bought himself a car to run in the Dare Stocks and he went racing.
Now, all these years later, is the fire still there? What does he want out of the 2021 season?
“My goal is to win the Late Model championship,” Gambacorta said. “We’ve finished second and third in the point standings a few times but now it’s time to win the title.”
Kevin’s looking to make history as well if he was to capture the Late Model crown.
“I want to become the only driver at Stafford to win a championship in three different divisions,” he said. “That would be a big feather in our cap.”
Gambacorta won the Dare Stock championship in 2004 and took home the Limited Late Model title in both 2006 and 2011.
Even though 2020 was tough on many drivers, it hit Gambacorta very hard. He didn’t have the year he wanted. He got into a bad wreck during the season and only ended up running about seven times. For this season, though, he’ll be prepared so sitting on the sidelines won’t be an option. Over the winter, he purchased another car so he’ll have a back-up if needed.
Even though last year didn’t go the way he wanted, Gambacorta did find positives.
“One of the good things was we got to try a bunch of different ideas,” he said. “We definitely found some adjustments and what not that worked pretty well.”
The work in the Gambacorta shop, however, isn’t just done on Kevin’s racing equipment. Aside from his racing, last year, Kevin’s son raced a couple times in karts on Monday’s at Stafford and will be going kart racing more in ’21.
“I’m really excited about my son getting into kart racing,” he said. “We did a couple of races at the end of the last year and he did better than I expected. I’m more nervous when he races than when I am. However, he’s really into it and its been a blast so far.”
Racing’s the Gambacorta bloodline. Kevin’s son will be the third generation in this family to strap behind the wheel. Good luck to both Kevin and his son racing this year. It’s going to be fun for all fans to watch both work their ways to the front.
