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(Press Release from Stafford Motor Speedway)
Stafford Motor Speedway has announced that the Mr. Rooter New England Truck Series will be added to the lineup for the 44th Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler on April 24-26. The trucks will join Stafford’s SK Lights, Limited Late Models, DARE Stocks, and U.S. Legend Cars as part of the qualifying and feature action on Saturday, April 25.
Mr. Rooter was announced as the new title sponsor of the truck series during their banquet on Sat. Jan. 10th and the Stafford race is part of an ever expanding schedule for the 2015 season as the Mr. Rooter Truck Series has added events at Wall Stadium in New Jersey and Bethel Speedway in New York as well as stops at Monadnock, Lee, Star, Hudson, and Thompson.
“I’m taking a managerial role with the Truck Series and I think I can help the series take themselves to the next level,” said Vinny Beedle, owner of Mr. Rooter Plumbing Services. “I’m a big fan of the Truck Series and I’m involved with a lot of other series. I think that Stafford is the best track out there and that the trucks will put on a great show. Everyone involved with the truck series is excited about going back to Stafford. I used to own two trucks that raced in the Midwest and I kind of got away from the trucks for a few years but have watched them grow and make some leaps the past year or two and I decided to get back into the trucks.”
Not only has Vinny Beedle taken a management role as well as become the title sponsor of the series, but he will also campaign a truck during the season with the driving duties to be shared among Keith Rocco, Ed Puleo, and Josh Galvin. While Rocco, Puleo, and Galvin will be the main drivers, Beedle has a special guest driver lined up for the Stafford race.
“We’re going to have Ted Christopher drive our #13 truck for the Stafford race,” said Beedle. “Keith, Ed, and Josh are going to split the driving among them during the season, but we’re going to have Teddy driving the truck for the Stafford race. We’re all very excited to have Teddy in the truck because he loves racing at Stafford and he has obviously done very well in his career at Stafford.”
The Mr. Rooter New England Truck Series has made three previous appearances at Stafford prior to the 2015 NAPA Spring Sizzler with 2 races during the 2012 season and one race in 2013. Duane Noll and Corey Coates were the Stafford feature winners in 2012 and Zach Sylvester used his familiarity with the Stafford oval to help him take victory in the truck race as part of the 2013 NAPA Fall Final feature event.
Mr. Rooter is a full service plumbing and drain cleaning company and fans can find their local Mr. Rooter by visiting www.mrrooter.com and entering their zip code in the search box.
The 44th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler gets underway Friday, April 24 with a practice session for Stafford’s weekly divisions. The practice session will be open to the public at no charge. Action continues on Saturday, April 25 with Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the Whelen Modified Tour cars, along with heat and consolation races for Stafford’s weekly divisions, the U.S. Legend Cars, and the Mr. Rooter New England Truck Series. Saturday will wrap up with feature events for the SK Light, Limited Late Model, DARE Stock, Legend Cars, and Mr. Rooter New England Truck Series divisions. The Sizzler continues on Sunday, April 26 with the NAPA Auto Parts Pit Party followed by Stafford’s SK Modifieds® and Late Models joining the Whelen Modified Tour in feature action.
Tickets for the “Greatest Race in the History of Spring” are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $38.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at $42.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax.
For more information on the 43rd Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler, or to order tickets, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
What a kick in the face to stafford lite division, lite cars will lap a truck in a feature event and your are going to let Mod drivers compete but you won’t let them run lites… Don’t treat your 2nd best division like they are scum. Get real and treat and pay the lites what they deserve.
Lauren, SK drivers can’t run Lights because the Lights are supposed to be a learning division. There’s no reason for an SK guy to ever take the step back down anyway. The trucks are a completely different animal, so anyone can run them, Also, Late Models are still the second tier division at Stafford.
Lauren, how does anything written in this article relate to pay for the lights?
I didn’t say 2nd tier division, the sk lite is not a beginner division, it is a less expensive alternative to running sk or a steeping stone to sk’s. Look at some of the drivers that just entered, Goss for one and the kid that just won the star championship, I believe the truck division is eqaul to the dare cars same engine and tranny
Remember how awesome the racing at Stafford was before they repaved it in the mid 1990’s….too bad its a one groove race track now…….Everyone talks about how great the SK races are, and by great they mean follow the leader for 35 laps and then push the leader out of the way with 2 to go…..Makes me wish it was the 1980s again……….JMO.
left no name so I must be “spineless”, did you watch a single SK race last year? If you don’t think that was good racing then you shouldn’t even call yourself a race fan. Ryan and Rowan ran side by side for 30 laps at the 100 lapper!
Lauren, the trucks actually run same engine and transmission as the SK lights.
Hey Lauren, this is the second time I have seen you complain about Matt Swanson running SK Lights at Stafford. Why don’t you take 5 minutes and do a little research before you start spouting ignorantly. Matt wants to run SK, but due to Stafford Rules which I believe stem from CT State LAW, he can not compete in the SK Division until he is 16.
You seem to have some kind of vendetta against the trucks cause you are the first one to trash the series every time there is a post about it. Drivers dropping down is a TRACK rule at Stafford, it has zero effect on touring divisions. If it did have an effect on touring divisions, then what happens with the WMT with your ultimate wisdom here? Suddenly you lose Rowan, Teddy, Doug, Woody, Ryan, Justin and others from the SK field because they race on the tour… Your logic makes zero sense…
You mis read my post, I like to see everybody b able to race sk lites. I don’t like stafford treating it like its a beginner division. How can stafford invite a touring series like the trucks to run when they don’t even belong to NASCAR….IMO stafford does not another division at the sizzler and pay the second best division what it deserves
Anyway, great to see trucks at the Sizzler! This has turned into an awesome series that’s gone from nearly nothing to the best thing since the NEMST tour.
Well seeing as the sk lites were made to be a beginner into the sk initially which turned into a so called low expense modified. If you notice that mr rooter is throwing money into the trucks and the sks are also given extra help if someone truly wanted more money then get someone to kick in some more. The way I look at it sponsors want names and they want drivers not saying that certain divisions aren’t good but talent isn’t tgere in most of the few good drivers in the lights but there is a lot of no talent in them as well. As for the truck it is a tour and tours usually Have a following so in essence it can only help other divisions by putting people in the stands with hopes someone may sponsor them. Btw Lauren the trucks are late model motors and chassis with truck bodies.
Hey Modfan, It was a down year for me at Stafford in 2014………was only there 7 times.
Lauren, are you serious right now? SK lites ARE a beginner division. If they aren’t, Stafford should abolish the entire division and make everyone an SK because nobody wants to see 15 divisions of the same car. You are making my brain hurt with your complete idiocy. If you ever ran a track, it would fail… No debates. Your mentality is ridiculous. The racing world does not revolve around modifieds as much as you would seemingly like it to. As much as I love mods, they are NOT the be all end all of racing. Get that idea out of your head. A track has the right to have any division it so chooses no matter what its sanctions or affiliations are.
Yes I am bias to modifieds, every race track I have attended in New England, the modified division is the top division, weather it is asphalt or dirt, and I will point out dirt is more sucessful than asphalt and their second division is either the 358 or crate division. Back when riverside was packed every Saturday they had modifieds and figure eights after the mod feature and that was it, Thompson had supers, modifieds and the street stocks ran on the inside quater mile. IMO open wheeled race cars rock, fenders are for taxi cabs. I would classify a starter division as Dare stock today.
I forgot to mention that the spring sizzler that included the RACE (my guess most people posting posting here have no clue what that is) was the most suscessful sizzler ever. Two modified divisions and one late model division. I have a trivia question for everyone Who won “The Race”?
When did the park have figure 8 after the mods last time I checked they ran late models then pro stocks then tour type modifieds. The rest of them ran Sunday unless it was a special weekend.
Before prostocks were born
Didn’t think anyone could answer the question. Maynard Troyer won the 1976 “The Race” over 100 entries, 6 heats, 2 consi’s, 21,000 purse, 2,000 to win…. This is the kind of show race fans want to see at the sizzler, almost 200 modifieds in the pits, drivers from all over the east coast, racing to make the show. Not 10 different divisions with an average of 15 cars racing for $400 or less to win
No one answered, because no one cared. Take your bias and go find somewhere else to troll, or at least try to stay on the topic of the article when you post. Your hate train earns you ZERO respect.
Dingus, you are the one that said if I ran a track it would fail…. I just reminded you that my opinion of running two modified divisions plus one other supporting worked very well in the past and should work now.
What 2 divisions were in 1976 just wondering?
Lauren; please explain to me how you can compare 1976 to 2015? Your comments make no sense.
Big block and small block divisions
What worked back then doesn’t work now. If it did, there would be 50 cars per division at each track, Riverside, Norwood, Danbury etc would likely still be here, and Thompson would not have had to cut back the schedule just to break even each week due to declining car counts. Open your eyes, people like you are the type of people hurting this sport. “let’s put all our money towards the top tier divisions and completely ignore the support and grassroots divisions” Those lower divisions are the lifeblood of our sport and many of your future top tier drivers will move up from the lower support divisions to a modified at some point. So tell me, with your ideas of abolishing support divisions which you clearly want to do, where does racing end up in 20 years?
I’ll tell you where… DEAD