Keith Rocco
THOMPSON – The drama of Keith Rocco’s first Late Model victory of the season at Thompson Speedway came days after the event when his car was disqualified from the win for issues with his transmission flexplate.
Thursday, Rocco kept the drama on the track in winning the first of two Late Model events at the track and earning the overall Late Model champion of the night label at Thompson.
In the first 20-lap Late Model feature of the evening it was Rocco making the dramatics happen on the final lap.
Rocco used a last corner pass of Rick Gentes to win the feature.
Gentes, of Woonsocket, R.I. was second and Glen Boss of Danielson third.
Gentes went to the lead past Boss on a restart on lap seven. Two laps later Rocco moved past Boss into second place.
Over the final seven laps, Rocco ducked under Gentes in attempts to take the lead circuit after circuit, with no luck.
On the final lap Rocco got under Gentes into turn three. The two made contact with each other off of turn four with Rocco edging Gentes by a bumper under the checkered flag.
“Rick is a great guy to race with, we had a lot of fun,” Rocco said. “We were side-by-side and never touched until the last lap when I had to take a little bit of his lane away to get the win. This car was awesome.”
In the second 20-lap feature, Rocco started 12th and picked his way methodically to the front, going to the lead past Jim Banfield on lap 12. Rocco held off second place finisher Boss on a green-white-checkered finish. Banfield, of Glastonbury, was third.
“The car was really great in the [second] race,” Rocco said. “It was really easy to come through traffic.”
Gentes passed Rocco for the lead on a lap eight restart and went on to win the final 10-lap feature of the night for the division. Rocco had a cumulative score of 4 in the three events to win the overall win for the division for the night.
Rumor at Thompson last night is that the tech guys were looking at Rocco’s chassis. Why would they’re be roll bar padding on the right side? Is this his ego and head that big that Scott is afraid Keith is going to wack his head over there? I can wait to see the open letter to Rocco hater nation defending this one.
more head games from the rocco camp. lol dont fall in their trap…
No head games here just fact unlike most things on this blog