The Triple: Keith Rocco Caps Triumphant Sunday At Waterford With Mod Racing Series Blastoff 100 Win

Keith Rocco celebrates his Modified Racing Series victory Sunday at the Waterford Speedbowl

Keith Rocco celebrates his Modified Racing Series victory Sunday at the Waterford Speedbowl

WATERFORD – Budweiser Blastoff weekend at the Waterford Speedbowl has seemingly always meant big success for Keith Rocco.

But Sunday the Wallingford driver set a whole new standard of achievement at the shoreline oval. All three of the top division features run Sunday at Waterford ended with Rocco in victory lane.

Rocco won the 50-lap Late Model feature, the 64-lap NASCAR All-American Series SK Modified feature and the showcase Modified Racing Series Blastoff 100.

“It’s pretty cool,” Rocco said. “I haven’t really ever put a sight on that goal but I guess it popped up today. … The way I was running around all day from car to car and pit stall to pit stall, calling out shots, I didn’t even really think about the picture of being able to win three. … But man, what a huge notch.”

Rocco became the second driver in the 64-year history of the Speedbowl to win three features at the track in one day. Don Collins accomplished the feat on June 6, 1960.

Rocco, who runs part-time on the Modified Racing Series for his John Rufrano owned team, led every lap on the way to the victory in the Blastoff 100. Chris Pasteryak of Lisbon was second and Todd Szegedy of Ridgefield third.

It was the fourth career Modified Racing Series victory for Rocco, who also won in the division’s last visit to Waterford last August.

“We had [Ted Christopher] in second and Ted doesn’t back down, he made me work hard to keep the lead and Pasteryak made me work hard,” Rocco said. “We had a lot of challengers that made us push this car for everything it had.”

Rocco said he was getting worried in the first half that he was using up his tires, but said a long red flag period at with 58 laps remaining helped refresh his effort. The red flag was caused when Christopher blew his motor running in second, causing a massive turn three pileup.

“I’ve got to thank Hoosier Tire,” Rocco said. “They gave us this new right rear [compound] and I beat it pretty good the whole race. We had that real long stretch there and I was whining pretty good on the radio saying ‘We’re done here.’ And that right rear cooled off and we went back green and I thought I had [new] tires on this thing.”

The final restart of the day came with 16 laps remaining, but Pasteryak’s hopes were quickly dashed when Rocco left him easily over the closing laps.

“I wanted to spoil it [for Rocco], nobody should win that much,” Pasteryak said. “He was going. I thought maybe I had something for him, but I wasn’t even close. He just drove away, especially after the last restart. Started 13th, finished second, I’ll take it.”

Szegedy, kicking off his first season running full-time in the series, rallied valiantly after being involved in the pileup that brought out the red flag with 58 laps left.

“This is like a win finishing third. I was happy with the guys, they kept their cool during the pit stops and got the car fixed. Every adjustment we made we got it better.”

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Comments

  1. The same guy winning every race can’t be good for business.

  2. Liz Taylor says

    Keith Rocco runs like a cheetah in three features at Waterford today and coverage of it is brought to us on RaceDayCT by CougarLife.com… Excellent! What else could I ask for?

  3. Liz Taylor, the Google Adsense ads on the site are unique to each computer/device viewing the site based on sites being trafficked or searches being performed by those individuals. Based on that, I’m guessing you’re either doing a lot of research on the migratory habits of jungle cats or the migratory habits of older ladies.

  4. Everyone knows Rocco is cheating but Waterford won’t take the time to dq him like tapley did at Thompson

  5. Mr, you are aware that Tapley is also the Modified Racing Series director too right? That’s the division Rocco won the 100-lap race in today and didn’t get disqualified for.

  6. Yes I’m aware but they prob didn’t tech where his illegal part is

  7. Just another hater says

    Enlighten us mr.

  8. Those last 2 restarts looked pretty questionable on Rocco’s part. Wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Maybe TC could’ve caught Rocco if he slipped. The 5 had nothing for Kieth. Still a pretty good race. All the divisions put on a great show today. Strong field of 25 SK’s. All 30% of the open grandstand were full.

  9. just my two cents says

    Davis Traction Control built into the msd ignition box or distributer. The officials need to swap out his distributer and ignition box and let the car sit in impound so they cant tamper with anything. Honestly i sold off my sk and stopped going to all 3 tracks in CT because i’m tired of seeing Keith Rocco win the late model and sk races and Ken Cassidy winning the mini stock races a the speedbowl. All 3 tracks need tech officials that check other items besides rocker arms, carburetor and rear gear and they have Mike from Magnus tech the transmissions he built. Its all about pollitics

  10. Cole Trickle says

    All of his cars are made of aluminum for starters. He has rocket roller skates attached to his car from the Acme catalog and Waterford lets him get away with it. I Heard he even has a couple flux capacitors from doc brown too. Thats why im not racing anymore.

  11. Great day had by all at the Speedbowl Sunday.Dedicated racers,fans,officials and staff all deserve a salute.Not so for Terry Eames.His total lack of respect for all is obvious.There is no excuse for closed grandstands.Fans were forced to jam together in the 30% of the grandstands that were available.The racers must have been so exited to race down the frontstretch with the bulk of the seats empty.A monkey could have repaired the grandstands in plenty of time for this prestigious race weekend.Eames is a greedy carpetbagger;he does not pay his creditors,barely maintains our beloved racetrack,then carries the cash home in the pace car.Shame on Terry Eames.

  12. For traction control to work, wouldn’t you need some type of wheel speed sensors? This would be easily seen. If not how would it work? If so they need to find a solution.

  13. Really 450mike? I’ll buy the bananas, you come down and show us how it’s done.

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eMgRr4HrbEI/URFcBKwkI-I/AAAAAAAAAoM/YJDgecZGO9Y/s1600/images.jpg

  14. STEADY EDDIE FAN says

    IF YOU STOPPED RACING BECAUSE OF KEITH WINNING YOU SHOULD BLAME YOURSELF FOR NOT HAVING THE TALENT OR KNOWLEDGE TO WIN. IF YOU PUT IN THE EFFORT AND HOURS THAT KEITH AND HIS TEAM PUT IN EVERYDAY MAYBE YOU COULD WIN TOO…OR MAYBE QUITTING IS THE EASY WAY OUT FOR YOU BECAUSE YOUR LAZY..”I’M JUST SAYING”

  15. While I agree that there is no exscuse for the grandstand situation as it has been well known for a long time they needed to be repaired and were not. The amount of seating available is just ridiculous. I am how ever glad that we have at least one more season at the speedbowl as this very well could be the last year we see racing on the ct shoreline.There are just too many problems that are not being addressed. really sad that it has come to this but I will go to the bowl for as long as its there.

    On a different note I don’t understand how I can wait 10 minutes while burgers are being cooked and still get a cold one? I was like cool im getting a fresh one, well that was certainly not the case. Also I did not like that they are enforceing only a 1 time re-entry this year. At least Thompson and Stafford let you come and go as you please, that’s the way it should be. You can pay extra for a pit pass and where ever you want as many times as you want but the general fans can only go to there car one time isn’t right to me.

  16. It could always be worse. You could be Liz Taylor’s significant other being caught “browsing” Cougarlife.com. I’d rather eat some cold burgers than have the wife catch me window shopping. Too funny.

  17. mike pane says

    know one dislikes keith more then me, all that aside he won his share of races in the 57 we went through all the same stuff,traction control,illegal carb,light flywheel,its his hard work that makes it look easy.there isnt many guys left that can build the motor ,build the car , set it up and then drive it left . race him like he races you dont be intimadated by him. if your worried where hes starting hes already in your head.if you think its your motor theres other builders ,if its your car there is other cars .just think he turns more laps in one week then most of his competitors do in a month. there is no replacement for seat time cant speak about any other cars other than the 57 we went through are share of tech and there never was any issues at waterford or thompson

  18. I find it funny that everyone thinks Keith is cheating kyle James has the fastest car at the bowl and he can’t beat Keith as for the late model what can you say there is only 10 cars so he should win but what about his vmrs car is he cheating there to well sorry to tell you all Keith is the best.driver to come along in a long time keep it up kid rock and let all the winers wine

  19. well said mike

  20. 450mike, if you think a monkey can fix the grandstands. Then lets see if you can get your monkey rear down there to help repair the stands, so we can keep the race track alive. seems to me that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that we had a harsh winter with freezing temps right up until a few days before the original date of blastoff and the ground was still frozen, and you shouldn`t make comments when you have no clue on what your talking about

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