Tim Jordan Grabs First SK Modified Title At Speedbowl; Keith Rocco Wins Finale Event

Tim Jordan joined an elite club in the New London-Waterford Speedbowl history books Sunday at the track’s Finale event of 2020. 

Jordan, of Plainfield, used a 10^th place finish in the 75-lap SK Modified feature to clinch his first SK Modified championship at the track. 

“It will be nice to look in the record books one day,” Jordan said. “It’s a tough season without a lot of cars weekly every week but that’s not really the part we’ll take from it. … It’s kind of the rebirth of the Speedbowl. Hopefully over the winter we get some more cars down here and get that positive press going. There’s a lot of good race teams, a lot of good people.” 

Jordan, who had three victories in 10 starts this year at the Speedbowl, joined Keith Rocco and Ed Reed Jr. as the only drivers in track history to win SK Modified and Late Model division titles. Jordan won a Late Model title at the Speedbowl in 2010. 

Rocco, who ran selected events this season at the Speedbowl, used  a lap 72 pass of Andrew Molleur for the lead to win the 75-lap feature Sunday.

Rocco, of Wallingford, extended his record for all-time career victories at the track to 153. It was his 92^nd career SK Modified division win at the track, which also leads the all-time record book. 

Rocco pitted on lap 39 for adjustments and barnstormed back through the field. 

“We come here to win races and the difference between second and last don’t mean nothing,” Rocco said. “We had to pit if we wanted a shot to win this race. It’s a good thing we didn’t have any more restarts because the transmission broke when we pulled up to victory lane. Definitely our lucky night.” 

Todd Owen of Somers was second and Molleur, of Shelton, third. 

With Molleur leading and Owen in second contact between the two on a lap 71 restart sent Owen up the track and opened the door for Rocco to move to second. Rocco then overtook Molleur for the lead on the next lap, with Owen following into second. Caution flew again on lap 74 but Rocco was able to hold off Owen on the green-white-checkered finish. 

“He’s got some pretty good teammates out there,” Owen said of Rocco. “He was in the right place at the right time. … I wish we were one spot better but we’ll take it.” 

Said Molleur: “Definitely a heartbreaker for sure. I apologize to [Owen] for running clean out of room. You’re trying to do what you’ve got to do to win. What are you going to do? It kind of sucks that we can’t come home with a win like we probably should have. We had a really fast car.”