Todd Szegedy Ready To Return To SK Modified Action In Inaugural SK 5K At Stafford Speedway

Stafford Motor Speedway officials are expecting a hefty group of non-regulars to arrive in the pits at the track ready for competition in the inaugural SK 5K on July 4.

Todd Szegedy (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

Todd Szegedy (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

With a $27,000 plus purse on the line overall, including A $5,000 winner’s share, it’s to be expected that the outsiders will be flocking to Stafford.

Former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Todd Szegedy is one outsider ready to team up with an insider and chase down the big dollars on the Fourth of July at Stafford.

Szegedy, of Ridgefield, will drive a second Steve Greer owned ride as a teammate to SK Modified division regular Ryan Preece in the special event at Stafford.

“It’s a one-race deal,” Greer said. “I couldn’t ask for a better guy to be driving. We certainly looked at the situation, the format is kind of up in the air at the moment, but more chances to win is better.”

After parting ways with Mike Smeriglio III’s Whelen Modified Tour team after the 2013 season, Szegedy is preparing for his first full-time season with the Valenti Modified Racing Series in 2014. It was reported by RaceDayCT last week that Szegedy will replace Lou Mechalides with Kevin Stuart’s Lowell, Mass. based Valenti Modified Racing Series team in 2014.

Greer, who won the SK Modified championship last year at Stafford with driver Woody Pitkat, will field a car regularly this year for Preece at Stafford.

“I was having a conversation with Mark Arute one day a while ago and he said if you’re ever considering a driver you should look at Todd Szegedy,” Greer said. “That stuck in the back of my mind that he’s a real good driver. We tend to try to pick drivers that we know we can win with. We bring real good equipment so we want to bring really good drivers. He brings tremendous experience. It was kind of an easy pick once we didn’t decided to run that race.”

Szegedy was a regular in the SK Modified division before heading to the Whelen Modified Tour full-time in 2002. He has two career victories in the division at Stafford, the last coming in 2001.

“I think it will be fun,” Szegedy said. “I just want to go racing and have a good time. I just want to have fun and go out there and try to win.”

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Comments

  1. Andy Boright says

    The “legendary” Todd Szegedy, so say MRS officials.

  2. Terry Mansfield says

    SK’s are OK, but give me the big old regular MODS any day. The trouble I see and don’t-like is both series look too much a like. Both series the cars look awesome but when a show shows at a local track the first thing I look for is THE MODS. IF SK is only show I doubt I’ll show!! SK’s are just pushing out the good old boys of old time racing=THE MODS!! SORRY!!

  3. I agree with ya terry but if they brought the “mods” back and dropped the sks how many people could afford to run a tour mod every week. The reason the sks came to be is because of rising costs to run a tour mod. I liked when thompson had there tour type mod nights a couple of years ago but still only 10 maybe 15 tops came on those nights for the 40 lap feature. And they only ran those shows every couple of weeks or more. Back in the day my uncle and grandfather would run there cars 4 days a week. Agreed that all the tracks or most anyways had similar or the same rules but you have that now with the tour type mods but nobody is betraying the door down to run them every week. I really would love to watch tour mods every week but I just don’t see it happening unless purses can increase and it drives people back or a vendor lists the cost for parts or repairs.

  4. I hate autocorrect.. beating down the door…

  5. I still hate auto correct.. lowers the cost..

  6. My Dad(deceased) and myself were in many a pit in the glory days of the old time “MODS”!! You could change a carb from MOD to SK just to run a series!! That was just pure nonsense!! Yes its about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$!! But the reason its about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ is because NASCAR let it happen. Last time I remember MODS were raced at the beach in Daytona!! That’s kinda like kicking your grandfather when he’s down. Other series are taking over and shoving the true MODS out. That bought about the SK’s!! A substitute for the real thing. Chemung(more of a Tioga fan) is only 15 minutes down the road from me. ROC runs there and are good but still not MODS!!! I know there are always track politics and all but is there a TOUR race in Western NY??? You are not fooling the real MOD fan by this SK change over. Its watching something you know is not what it looks like. The MODS are dinosaurs and will be extinct in a matter of years. I’ll go to MOD/ROCbut not to SK only shows and many others feel the same. I’ll drive to THE GLEN and party watching the Sport Cars like we used to!! It breaks our hearts and it feels like a death in the family that the MODS are slowly leaving us. I have for years tried to bring this issue up and understand I’m hitting my head against the wall. But at the same time many men put the lives on the line for the joy of the MODS and would not change a thing about that. Its the grandfather of stock car racing. I guess at some time every must come to an end. I just wish that the SK fans of today could smell and see the MODS of past years its more about $$$$$$. But to the people today its will always be about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Too bad!!

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