STAFFORD – When the SK Modifieds last ran a feature before Friday at Stafford Speedway, Keith Rocco drove to a fifth place finish in the Casella Waste 80 on June 5.
To some it may not have looked like a turning point event for one of the division’s all-time greats, but Rocco felt like the team hit on something that night.
Friday at Stafford his theory was proven correct.
Rocco drove away from Dylan Izzo over the final eight laps to win the 40-lap SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford Speedway.
“We had such a good car on [June 5 for the Casella Waste SK Modified 80],” Rocco said. “Just really hit on something for that and man it carried over for this. I’m looking forward to next week already.”
It was the second win of the season for Rocco. It was the 76th SK Modified victory at Stafford for the Berlin driver. The late Ted Christopher tops the division’s all-time list with 109 wins. Rocco sits second. Rocco also sits second to Christopher on the track’s all-time win list. Friday’s win was Rocco’s 87th overall at the track. Christopher had 131 wins.
“There’s those cars you have that you can drive it and you say ‘Man this thing is going to be unbeatable tonight.’ I feel like that was one of those cars.”
Izzo, of Monroe, was second and Mikey Flynn of Hampden, Mass. third.
“We had a really good car throughout that race,” Izzo said. “… It’s always a crapshoot coming into these races where the tires sit for two weeks, you don’t really know what to expect. To come out second, obviously I would have loved one more spot, but to run up with them and know that we’re a contender every week, that’s good enough for me.”
Said Flynn: Pretty solid night for us. … Was able to start up front tonight. Had a bad last few weeks, that’s what the handicap kind of does here. When that happens you’ve got to take advantage of it. Would have liked to win, it’s not often you get to start on the pole, but happy with a podium run.”
Anthony Flannery moved past Izzo for the lead on lap nine with Rocco following him to second. A lap later Rocco went to the bottom of Flannery into turn three and moved into the lead off of turn four.
Flynn got under Flannery for second just after a lap 14 restart. Izzo followed Flynn to third.
On lap 21 Izzo got under Flynn to move to second off of turn four. Izzo challenged Rocco for the lead following a lap 29 restart. Rocco was able to check out from Izzo over the final eight laps.
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