(Press Release from Stafford Motor Speedway)
Just as Stafford Motor Speedway’s 2015 SK Modified® rookie crop is looking to be a great duel for Rookie of the Year honors, Stafford’s SK Light rookie class is also looking to be a blockbuster fight for the top rookie honors. R.A.D. Automachine and T/A Engines are each putting up a $500 bonus for a record total of $1,000 that will go to the top rookie.
Jeremy Sorel was the top SK Light rookie in 2014 and not only was he the top rookie, but he was the third driver in the short history of the SK Light division at Stafford to win the championship as a rookie driver, joining Michael Gervias, Jr. and Matt Galko. With the backgrounds and racing experience that each of the 2015 SK Light rookie class drivers possess, there could be a fourth rookie championship winner.
Out of the 7 rookie drivers signed up thusfar for competition in 2015, Kyle Jette is the only driver who has had experience not only racing an SK Light Modified car, but racing at Stafford as well. Jette came to Stafford towards the tail end of the 2014 season and he made four starts to preserve his rookie status for the 2015 season. Jette posted 3 top-9 finishes in his four starts with a best finish of third.
There are two rookie drivers who already have championship credentials to their racing resumes. Matt Swanson, who will drive a SPAFCO chassis, has been racing tour type modifieds for the past two seasons at Star Speedway. After winning Rookie of the Year in 2013, Swanson won the championship this season as a 14 year old. The second rookie with a championship to his name is Daniel Wesson, who is making the move into the SK Lights from the Wild Thing Kart ranks. Wesson has won a championship in the Junior Outlaw ranks and he will join the likes of Ronnie Williams, Tyler Hines, David and Paul Arute, Cory and Kyle Casagrande, and Alexandra and Ryan Fearn as drivers who have made the transition from Wild Thing Karts on Monday nights to the half-mile track on Friday nights at Stafford.
Paul Buzel and Jeff Fialkovich have been racing SK Lights at Waterford Speedbowl and Buzel finished 4th in points this past season and he also got his very first feature victory. Fialkovich finished the 2014 season in 8th place in the points and with both drivers already having SK Light experience, their learning curve should be a lot shorter.
Casey Ouellette is the lone female rookie driver in the 2015 class and she is making the step up to the SK Light ranks from the Pro-4 Modified division. Ouellette drove a Pro-4 Light Modified this past season and she got her first Light win at Waterford while finishing 9th in the overall Pro-4 Modified points standings.
Albert Wisialko comes to Stafford with quarter midgets and Legend Cars in his background. Wisialko is looking to run only 5 races during the 2015 season to be stepping stone for the 2016 season where he will challenge for the Rookie of the Year honors.
With such a formidable crop of rookie drivers, the chase for the R.A.D. Automachine & T/A Engines Rookie of the Year award and the record $1,000 bonus that goes with it should be a duel for the ages.
great for Stafford for supporting what will be an exciting class for the fans to enjoy next year…………………I wonder when Thompson will post their Light division schedule, oh wait, they don’t support one……………………………………
I Wouldn’t say stafford is supporting the sk lites, it’s more like the division is supporting stafford. It is a shame that stafford does not pay this division what they deserve. It is the second most expensive and popular division and they are paid less then the least popular late model division,
I thought the SK Lite was a learning division for drivers to make an upward progression to the SK mods and possibly modified tour? How can you allow a driver that has been racing a tour type modified for the last two years no less winning the championship last year to compete? Just not fair to the rest of the competitors.
The purse should be at least what the starting purse was back when the sk division started back in the eighties, somewhere near 5k. Should b at least 700 to win and 160 for last.
I agree that the purse should be relative to that of the Late Model class……………..Chassis, tires, and engines are on a parallel with that off late model costs, maybe more………….
Get rid of the late models, they only draw 12 to 15 cars a week, can’t race them anywhere here in ct. Go ACT rules or drop them, besides too many divisions at stafford.