Tony Membrino Jr. Wins $5,000 Sponsorship From @nlarophoto Drawing

The offseason is the time for short track racers to not only get prepared for the next season, but also chase down support in the form of sponsorship. 

Sunday evening Stafford Speedway SK Modified driver Tony Membrino Jr. landed new sponsorship for his team that he was hardly expecting. 

The veteran driver won the fourth annual @nlarophoto Sponsorship Drawing put on by Nicole LaRose. 

Membrino’s name was drawn from more than 300 entrants for the $5,000 sponsorship for the 2021 season. 

Membrino was just tuning into the drawing live on Facebook when he found out he won. 

“I just got caught up at home with the family and I looked at my phone and I went ‘Crap.’” Membrino said. “And I turned everything on to go on and all of the sudden I was getting all these text messages telling me I won. I was like ‘No freaking way.’” 

The 20-year old LaRose, who serves as a multimedia reporter at Stafford Speedway, is the daughter of veteran short track racer Ernie LaRose.

Each year LaRose produces a racing calendar of short track photos she takes. Each person who purchases a calendar gets to enter a name for the drawing for the $5,000 sponsorship. 

“It’s incredible.” Membrino said of winning the prize. “There’s so many things that any type of person could do within something like she’s doing with this type of endeavor and the proceeds she gets. … What Nicole has done is nothing short of incredible as far as supporting local racers. She’s investing back into the lifeblood of what we love to do. For her to do this, it’s incredible. I don’t think she gets the credit she deserves for it.” 

In addition to the $5,000 sponsorship, Membrino also won 25 gallons of Sunoco racing fuel from New England Racing Fuel as part of the drawing. 

“It’s a huge help, especially on our end where we’ve never been anything short of budget racers,” Membrino said. “It’s a big deal. 

“It makes everything a little bit easier financially. I’ve got everything kind of already in motion for the season. I’m just putting a couple other pieces together. The big piece right now that’s on my plate is that we don’t have a race shop at the end of the month. … I’m sure I’ll get that figured out. My car owner Al Heinke is working with us on a couple different ideas as far as what to do with that. We’ll land on our feet, probably with a better pair of shoes.”

Jacob Perry was drawn as the first alternate for the sponsorship award. Jon McKennedy was the second alternate.