Joey Ferrigno
STAFFORD – Last Friday Joey Ferrigno left Stafford Motor Speedway looking for the remains of the top of his SK Light Modified.
Friday, with a new top, the East Hartford driver was back on top of the field.
Ferrigno held off Tony Membrino Jr. on a late restart to win the 20-lap SK Light Modified feature at Stafford Motor Speedway.
It was the third victory in 10 events this season for Ferrigno, who extended his lead at the top of the standings in the division.
Membrino, of Plantsville, was second and Stephen Kopcik of Newtown third.
Ferrigno’s feature showing last week at Stafford was over before he could even finish the first lap of the event. His night came to a crashing end with the flipping car of Cory Casagrande flying over the top of his. It left Ferrigno with a sheared off roof and a bent up racecar overall.
It meant a week of late nights for Ferrigno and his crew getting his car back in shape to keep chasing a championship in the division.
“My guys needed that more than anything else after last week,” Ferrigno said We thrashed. I pulled every favor that I knew. Begged, borrowed, scraped together and went all week without sleeping to get that car back. It needed a lot. It shows that if you keep your head in it it will all pay off in the end.”
Ferrigno made quick work of going to the front, getting under Matthew Swanson for the lead out of turn two on lap four.
When the caution flew on lap 15 Ferrigno had Membrino behind him and Kopcik and Nick Salva also in the mix.
“The beginning of the race [Swanson] was running me real clean on the outside,” Ferrigno said. “We had a great race going on. Then those cautions came out and I looked up and every other fast car in the division was right there on my bumper. I knew I was going to have my hands full. I just thank everybody for running me clean.”
Ferrigno held off Membrino on three restarts over the final six laps.
“It was just good old fashioned hard racing,” Membrino said.
Ferrigno said some advice from his crew member and fellow competitor Paul French went a long way. Ferrigno said he needed to get away from worrying about the points as the division’s leader in the standings. Ferrigno is looking to win his first SK Light Modified championship.
“They’ve been drilling in my head the past couple weeks, ‘Points race, points race.’” Ferrigno said. “A couple weeks ago I stayed on the track and ended up overheating the thing. Last week, by not being aggressive, I got in the wrong place at the wrong time. Paul said, ‘Just do what you’ve always done, go out there and try to win.’ I saw my hole to get up front and went for it.”
Congratulations to Joey. Have to take the wins when you can get them. But tell me something. Going into last weeks race, Joey had 3 top 6 finishes in the last 3 races. He started 6th, the highest allowable because he had already won a race this season. Please bring back the old days when everyone (not just the top 15 or 18 in points or non-rookie or whatever else) is handicapped equally. As a fan, I want to see the best drivers storm from the back and make a show of it.
The handicap goes off a point system for just the last 3 feature event finishes. Joey had an 18th (remember the 01 vaulted over him the week prior), a 5th and a 6th. The cars that started directly behind him were the #1 (9th, 4th, and 11th) and the 07 (7th, 8th, and 5th). Rookies only had to start in the back the first 3 races now everyone is handicapped equally. There were no heats last night so the top 15 in points were handicapped for the the top 15 positions.
As I said above, going INTO the vault over week, he had 3 finishes in the top 6 and still started 6th. I will admit, this week he started 4th because someone in the outside row elected to start in back. Are multiple drivers choosing to do this every week. The top 18 in point rule originally started as top 20 a number of years ago and I thought it sucked then. Hate harping on this subject, but it hits a nerve. JMO.
I am an official at Stafford and Joey actually was slated to start 8th the night the #01 vaulted him. His row moved up when the #60 elected to start in the rear from his 4th starting position after the lineup had already been posted. Any drivers that start in the rear are electing to do so on their own or is a result of a penalty from the prior race. I hope that helps explain things a little better.