STAFFORD – There’s some around the Southern New England racing scene that that would say Keith Rocco is good enough to beat most people in an SK Modified with one arm tied behind his back.
Keith Rocco celebrates Friday at Stafford Speedway (Photo: Nicholas Teto)
Friday night at Stafford Motor Speedway Rocco essentially proved that to be true.
Despite wearing a cast nearly shoulder to hand length protecting a surgically repaired broken left wrist, Rocco drove to victory in the 40-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford.
Woody Pitkat of Stafford was second and Ted Christopher of Plainville third.
Rocco suffered the broken wrist in a practice crash at Thompson International Speedway on July 29. He had surgery on the wrist days later and has sported a cast since then. He made his return to competition in a modified SK Modified at Stafford last week.
“I put a little lever on the left side of the seat,” Rocco said. “It almost looks like a shifter. I just hold my hand on it so it doesn’t bounce around. On restarts I just kind of palm the wheel with my left hand, just enough to hold the wheel straight, and I shift real quick and put my hand back the side. Last week when we came here I had a real fast car but after we spun out we realized we needed to find a way to be able to turn the wheel more and correct it. We made those changes this week and dialed it in.”
Rocco used a lap 14 restart to go by Todd Owen for the lead. Pitkat moved to second after a lap 32 restart, but couldn’t find the way around Rocco.
“I just kind of had to be ready for the shot because you can only do so much with one hand,” Rocco said. “… I figured he was going to drive in the back of me and try something but he was pretty good about it.”
Said Pitkat: “I have to congratulate him, he’s out there with one hand.”
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