STAFFORD – Friday was NAPA Championship Night at Stafford Speedway, but for one of the track’s champions the celebration of a season’s worth of work came last Friday night.
Keith Rocco clinched his fourth Stafford Speedway SK Modified title with a third place finish in the division’s feature on October 2.
With his championship celebration in the rear view, Rocco used the final Friday night event of 2020 to pad his season stats in the best way possible.
Rocco passed Marcello Rufrano for the lead on lap 16 and never trailed again on the way to winning the 40-lap SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford.
It was Rocco’s division leading sixth SK Modified win in 14 events this year.
“This is awesome,” Rocco said. “We really wanted to win last week and go out on top. But I guess we’ll take the last Friday night and go out with the championship and the win. We wanted to do it last week with a win and a championship. But we’ll take this. We’re going out on a high.”
Todd Owen of Somers was second and Ronnie Williams of Tolland third.
The victory moved Rocco into sole possession of third place on the track’s all-time overall win list with 74 victories. He had been tied with Tom Fearn for third. The late Ted Christopher leads the all-time win list with 131 victories. Woody Pitkat is second with 78 wins.
It was Rocco’s 63rd career SK Modified win at Stafford. He sits second on the SK Modified win list behind Christopher’s 109 wins.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Rocco smokes them all in the TTOM event on 10/24.
Rocco is every bit as good as anyone in the past, the present, and probably in the future. I would even say that the competition he races against every week at Stafford is higher than the SK fields in the past. The fields are full fields with top notch equipment only tenths of seconds apart top to bottom. In the past you had maybe 4 or 5 guys that could win. Today you have 10 or 12 cars that are capable of winning with a driver and car combo with top notch cars and crews to match. The Fact that Rocco can win almost 50% of the features, even with the handicap system is even more remarkable.!! You have to respect his driving ability to get to the front week in and week out. Not only that but his knowledge of building engines , setting up Chassis , overall organization of multiple cars is just as impressive to me. You may be a fan or not, but hey you gotta respect his ability on the track and in the shop. Guys like this only come around every 20 years or so . Enjoy watching Rocco come through the field and realize what you are seeing is someone that is super competitive ,every time he straps in he has his eye on the win ..
I couldn’t agree with every bit of that any more. You don’t have to be a fan of the guy to appreciate what he has accomplished and means to local racing going forward. And he may be only half done which is a little scary.
You said it Jake. You may not like him, but you should respect him for his outstanding accomplishments in a relatively short career. And he’s still got a good 10- 15 years to go.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T !!!