Woody Pitkat Gets First Valenti Modified Racing Series Title; Keith Rocco Wins Finale At Thompson

THOMPSON – One down, two to go for Woody Pitkat this weekend at Sunoco World Series of Speedway Racing at Thompson Speedway.

Pitkat came into this weekend’s racing card at Thompson fighting to win championships with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, the Valenti Modified Racing Series and in the track’s weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified division.

Saturday night he checked one box off the list of accomplished.

Pitkat’s second place in the 50-lap Valenti Modified Racing Series event clinched his first series title in his first full-time season running in the division.

Keith Rocco of Wallingford won the event. Dave Etheridge of Portland was third.

Pitkat, of Stafford, came into the event with a seven-point lead over two-time series champion Chris Pasteryak of Lisbon. Pasteryak finished fifth.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said Pitkat, who drove on the series for car owner Peter Kulessa. “We started out, we didn’t think we were going to even run for the championship. We were just going to run some races. We were just going to have fun and race.”

Pitkat gained the title while still missing one event this year due to a commitment to his Whelen Modified Tour team.

“All in all it worked,” Pitkat said. “We came out of the box and we were really consistent and really good the whole year.”

Pitkat goes into Sunday’s Whelen Modified Tour season ending Sunoco World Series 150 third in the standings, four points behind Doug Coby and Ryan Preece who are tied for the series lead.

Rocco went from second to the lead at the start and never trailed again.

“We had a great car all year all the races we ran,” Rocco said. “We should have contended for a lot more wins and had a lot more than we did.”