THOMPSON – Winless streaks for Keith Rocco at Thompson Speedway are sort of like diets at a buffet. They typically don’t last very long.
So it’s fair to say it was a little rattling for the multi-time Thompson Speedway champion to go four events without a victory in the SK Modified division.
On Aug. 4 Rocco got his second victory of the season and first since the season opening Icebreaker in April.
Wednesday Rocco, of Wallingford, showed there would be no break between victories again.
Rocco held off the charges of Ronnie Williams over the final 15 laps to win the 30-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature Wednesday at Thompson.
Williams, of Tolland, was second and Woody Pitkat of Stafford third.
Rocco credited going back to some old setup tricks to get back to the front of late.
“You want to have one good night with something new and the next time you come back it’s not the same and then you get carried away,” Rocco said of tinkering with the setup notebook. “We just went back to what’s always worked for me. … It feels really good. We went back to the old ways and things we used to do here and changed a lot of stuff and it’s starting to go back like the old days.”
Rocco got by Todd Owen for the lead on lap 10. Williams moved to second place following a lap 14 restart and quickly found his way to Rocco’s bumper.
On lap 16 Williams made diving move under Rocco into turn three, but Rocco was able to carry the momentum off turn four to keep a grasp on the lead.
Williams tried the same move again on lap 23 and lap 28 with the same results.
Fireworks and tension has been the theme between Rocco and Williams in quite a few events at Thompson and Stafford Motor Speedway, but Rocco was happy about the way things went Wednesday.
“He was really good and I do have to say tonight he showed me a lot of respect and that will go a long way,” Rocco said. “They’re being very strict about the slide jobs and contact and everything else. He could have done it and hoped he didn’t get penalized. But he ran me like a gentleman and that goes a long way. … I don’t know if he meant to do it or not, but if we could race like that all the time the two of us would put on one heck of a show.”
Boy could Rocco have heaped more praise on Williams for what Williams didn’t do. Such a gentlemen and will go a long way in their future racing battles according to The Roc.. Or is it Kopcik and Christopher aren’t Keith Rocco? A guy with a good memory and a rep for getting even.
Then again maybe Williams didn’t have quite the speed to plant a really good one on the 57 at the right time. Only Williams knows. What we do know is Rocco was fractionally faster then Williams when both were at their best.
So now the new thing is if the officials don’t like how you pass someone in the corner you get the black flag for a drive thru penalty? Happened to the 76 in the feature. Someone said it happened in the heat race also.