Streak Buster: Keith Rocco Scores SK Modified Victory At Stafford Speedway

Keith Rocco

Keith Rocco

STAFFORD – In recent years Keith Rocco has been one of the drivers in the SK Modified division that competitors were looking to knock from the top.

Friday at Stafford it was Rocco playing the role of slayer.

Rocco, of Wallingford, took the lead from Dan Avery following a lap 13 restart and never trailed again on the way to victory in the 40-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature.

“This car was good everywhere,” Rocco said. “It was good on the top, good on the bottom. It was good on restarts. I’ve got to thank Brad [LaFontaine] from Northeast Race Cars. He builds one heck of a car. I’ve won races at all three racetracks [in Connecticut] in one year with different cars. But I’ve won at all three tracks this year with this car. It’s absolutely awesome. I’m sure they’re going to tear it apart in tech.”

It was the second victory of the season for Rocco and it snapped the three race winning streak of Rowan Pennink, of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., who finished second.

Woody Pitkat of Stafford was third.

“He was just as good as we were, we just got out front first,” Rocco said of Pennink. “It would have been a good race if he got up there.”

Said Pennink: “We weren’t getting in the lanes we needed to be in. We got caught up in a couple of the wrong ones. But I was still able to drive [the car] to the front and come away with a second. By the time I got to second there were too few laps left to try to get up there and race with Keith.”

It proved a big night in the championship chase in the division. Ryan Preece of Berlin came into the evening holding an 18-point lead over Ted Christopher in the division standings, but mechanical issues forced Preece out of the race on lap 22. Preece ended up 20th. Christopher’s sixth place finish unofficially gave him an 10-point lead over Preece in the standings with two events remaining this season.

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