Keith Rocco said he was pretty sure early Saturday evening that he had broken something in his left wrist or arm after making contact with Justin Gaydosh during an SK Modified division heat race at the Waterford Speedbowl.
Keith Rocco (right) returns to the Waterford Speedbowl pits Saturday after sustaining a wrist injury in an SK Modified heat race.
He said he was also pretty sure that a season of chasing championships at Waterford and Stafford Motor Speedway could be shot waiting hours in an emergency waiting room.
“I didn’t want to be kicking myself in the [butt] that I gave away a night of racing,” Rocco said. “I guess it worked out.”
Rocco raced to a third place finish in the 30-lap Late Model feature Saturday at Waterford and a fourth place finish in the Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature.
After the events at Waterford he went to a local emergency room where x-rays showed he had broken a bone in his left wrist. He had the injury casted and on Sunday morning he was at Stafford for the Spring Sizzler to run his SK Modified. In that event, seven-time series champion Mike Stefanik replaced Rocco in the car after the race’s first caution and then ran to a seventh place finish.
Rocco said he was happy with the points results of the weekend considering he may not have earned a single point at either track.
“You can’t really complain about what [Mike Stefanik] did. He got a top-10 finish for us. I can’t complain. I didn’t think I was going to do as well as I did with the SK driving with one hand [at Waterford] and to also finish third with the Late Model, I can’t complain at all.”
It marks the third consecutive season that Rocco has sustained an upper body injury in competition. He sustained a dislocated shoulder in an SK Modified heat race crash in 2011 at Stafford. Last July he sustained a broken wrist in an SK Modified practice crash at Thompson International Speedway.
He said Monday that he will see his orthopedic specialist for a better evaluation of the injury on Tuesday. He said the break is in a different bone than the one he suffered last year. He said he hopes to be racing Saturday at the Waterford Speedbowl. Stafford isn’t back in action until May 10.
“It’s just a matter of how bad it is,” Rocco said. “More or less, what I know, it’s the wrist, a bone right off the wrist. The one they fixed last year is good though. That one is plated and all the hardware stayed intact.”
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