THOMPSON – On May 19 Ronnie Williams held off Keith Rocco to get his first career SK Modified victory at Thompson Speedway.
It took a few months later for Williams to find his way back to victory lane at the track, but Sunday he made the return in grand style.
Williams swept both feature events of the annual SK Modified 20/20 Sprint.
Williams, of Tolland, ended up finishing fourth in the 10-lap finale shootout for the format to capture the day’s overall championship.
Williams went to the lead on lap 11 of the first 20-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modiifed feature and never trailed again. Troy Talman of Oxford, Mass. was second and Keith Rocco of Wallingford third.
In the second feature Williams made everything a little more dramatic.
Williams used a last corner pass into turn three to grab the lead from Woody Pitkat and win.
“I could just tell where he was getting a little bit tight through the center [of the corner] and we could roll him pretty good,” Williams said. “I just had to send it in in the final corner. Didn’t make much contact if any with him. I don’t think he was too happy with it.”
Pitkat, of Stafford, held on for second and Rocco was third.
In the final 10-lap shootout it was Rocco going by Williams for the lead on lap one and never trailing again. Williams ended up finishing fourth in the final segment. Pitkat was second in the final segment and Owen, of Somers, third. P
“I kind of made a stupid rookie mistake on the second restart and that got Keith in front of race,” Williams said. “… From there it was just hanging on, hoping you can find a spot. You’re not going to boot anyone out of the way. I was just finding a spot and running there.”
The overall winner of the event was determined by the driver haven’t the lowest cumulative finishing number for the three segments. Williams finished with a six. Rocco had a seven. Pitkat was third in the overall with an eight.
“These guys gave me an awesome car and I can’t thank them enough,” Williams said. “We’ve been getting closer and closer to having the perfect car here and the last couple weeks we figured it out. I’m just happy we were able to get it twice to victory lane and get the overall victory.”
Said Rocco: “We won the one that didn’t count, but we’ll take it. Second place overall, it’s a decent payday but it’s definitely not what we wanted.”
CONGRATS to Ronnie Adam Les and the whole #50 team for the overall win in the 20)20 race. Two wins and a fourth resulted in the overall win. Great Job, keep up the good work.
Can anybody tell me how to navigate the Thompson website to get the point standings. Have tried several times with no results. Their website sucks.
Rob. P.
Click the NASCAR Racing tab on the right and the Point Standings tab on the top of the next page. It’s really pretty simple.