Keith Rocco celebrates victory in the SK Modified Nationals feature Sunday at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl
WATERFORD – For much of the season of the 2015 season at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl the show at the front of the SK Modified field has involved showdowns between Keith Rocco and Ted Christopher.
Fans still in the grandstands for the final feature event of the season Sunday got to see that act play out one final time this year, but with an added bonus player to the mix.
Standout Matt Hirschman made his presence known as part of the Rocco/Christopher show Sunday, but in the end it was still Rocco, the 2015 SK Modified track champion, holding the throne.
Rocco held off the charges of Christopher and Hirschman over much of the event to score the $5,000 payday as winner of the 75-lap Modified Nationals feature Sunday at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl’s Bemers Super Bowl of Racing.
“The car was awesome all night. … Pettit Horsepower under the hood carried us all the way on the restarts. We got up there and we were getting in all the wrong lanes and then this thing just started rolling on the top. I got to the front and you know, I thought when it was me and Ted it was going to be one of those nights where it was a race to the front. All year it was a race to the front and tonight me and him got to battle back and forth and that was a lot of fun. I’ve got a lot of respect for Ted. I thought it was going to go the whole race going back and forth.”
With 61 laps left Christopher went to the lead past Craig Lutz with Rocco quickly following to second.
Rocco went to the lead on a restart with 47 laps remaining, but Christopher wrestled the lead back six laps later.
With 38 laps left Rocco went back out front as Hirschman peeked into the top-five. Hirschman got by Christopher for second on a restart with 12 laps remaining. The caution came out again with 10 laps left and on the ensuing restart Hirschman bid to stay outside of Rocco and battle for the top spot was quickly derailed when contact from Rocco sent him to the frontstretch wall.
Hirschman saved his car from wrecking, fall back to third behind Christopher, before fighting back to second before the checkered.
“That was the first restart that I was on the outside,” Hirschman said of his tangle with Rocco. “Ted wasn’t really able to stay next to him on most of his [restarts] and maybe I could see why. Keith just took me right out and put me right up against the wall there. I don’t think we were going to beat him, but I just wanted to have that outside line there and maybe get into second. … This is their house, I know that. I’m definitely an outsider coming in here. If you told me coming in that we were going to finish in the top-three with Keith and Ted that’s kind of a win for us because we don’t run here and they’re the best here.”
busch league move taking hirshman to the fence.. hirshman was all class .if rocco thought he had the better car he would not have run hirshman to the wall.. rocco will always be a big fish in a small pond. the late model race was a farce..no mention of the wreck caused by timmystock destroyed sylvester and himelf along with buzel and lutz getting heavy damage .no class timmy says “I was in back with the squirrels”?? overdriving in a tight spot and cant admit he made a mistake.. loser…
Rocco sent Hirschman and Chrstopher into the outside wall on every restart. Not sure if Rocco had the fastest car and he knew. If you can’t race em’, wreck em’. Stay classy Keith. Good racing minus the cautions. Too much rubber on the track.
“hirshman was all class” Um, we have the RF wheel, upper, lower, spindle and ball joints to show how much class he has. Hde drove us out of the ballpark three times then finally fenced us….for third….
Pure “class”
Far too long a day for me. I pulled the plug on the second yellow of the tri state feature. I like to be home before 11:00!
The two legends races were hard to watch. Caution after caution after caution. I think their feature averaged 7 MPH.
No doubt drier weather earlier would have helped.
Congrats to the winners.
warren 27 sk.. pick a lane ..you were as bad as diego yesterday with running your line …I wont blame ur driver though just the spotter …LOL
This had to be one of the best racing events i have been to in a long time !! Hope they do it again next year < Thanks to all the staff at Waterford nice crew of people . WAY to GO Mr. Monahan, you to Mike
Let’s hope tritrack series stays around. Big $$$ payed out yesterday
i’ll wait to see the video, to many Rocco haters out there to believe what i read
Yeah, I guess we should pick a lane when we are racing on the outside of him??? Clueless.
Tyler ran smart, went to the outside on just about everyone, got outside the 41 and the caution came out. Once that happened and he knew we were going by or going to race him he just started running us up. It got to the point he fenced us, for third. It’s the comments about what Keith did that I really don’t get. The guy protected his lead in a $5000 race and didn’t really do anything wrong. MH did us wrong for third when we were on the OUTSIDE.
The kid passes 90% of the cars he does on the outside, yet he should pick a lane? I really don’t get it.
Well speed kills I have to disagree with you. I watched the race from the second turn and had a birds eye view of the back stretch. Hirschman drove anyone that was outside of him into the wall. Everyone who got to his right rear got driven up until they backed off or ended up with the Waterford stripe. When you have your left front up to the right side door how about giving the guy some room to race. My opinion the only guy that had something for Rocco was Chadwick. To bad Hirschman would not give him the room to race.
Pick a lane? Really? When you have the car to go anywhere you want and don’t hold anyone up you can go where you want. The 27 passed (key word pass not block) on the top and bottom so why stay on one lane or the other? Lane picking is for blockers, didn’t see the 27 do any of that, he didn’t need to!
How about that Ron Silk, a caution with 10 to go would have been interesting!
All this and not a single mention to Tim Jordan’s horrific wreck. Not sure how many of you saw that car on the flat bed but there was not much left on the car that wasn’t bent. Not sure how Timmy walked away from that but then again, the LFR’s do fold up like rice paper.
Tim was very lucky. The biggest compliant I hear about the LFR is how easy and how badly they bend. One person I spoke with termed it a throw away car. However the 2 is fast on the tour.
the 2 team did wreck a car beyond repair early in the season while testing
The SK race was entertaining at the front but the wrecks were just stupid. I believe there were about 4 cars that should have been flat bedded out of there after that thing you call a race. More like kill the guy with the ball.
Did anyone see the wreck? I saw the aftermath.
anyone who says its ok to block to win is a bum in my book.. BLOCKING is not racing. you should have done a better job spotting and let your driver know hirshman was under him. I saw no intent by hirshman.I saw contact as a result of hard racing and your failure as a spotter .chadwick was fast but hirshman doesn`t need to wreck people to win.rocco had a bad weekend .got a freebie in the L/M and decided he wasn`t going to let anyone by in the sk`s ..now I dont feel bad about diego blocking him almost all the time . I mentioned timmystock . he wrecked his car and three others ..you reap what you sew .
warren 27sk..just thinking if sid had a camera in your car and it shows hirshman wrecked you intentionally I will retarct my statement ..
Hmm, let my driver know he’s under him? We were behind him the whole time, or restarted outside of him. I’m not sure how I can fail at that. We followed him through the field and when we got to 4th we went to work on him on the outside.
According to you we blocked our way from 21st to 4th.
And thanks I guess, the official word of “speed kills” would be retracted. We run two of our own cameras on the car every week.
My on;y failure here is wasting my time commenting to someone with a fake name and an axe to grind.
Unless you count my attempt at spelling only. 🙂
never said you blocked. hard racing. lets see sids video if I am wrong I will retract ..thats what I said no axe to grind you are former track champs and deservedly so.. you did a lousy job of spotting no problem with your driver ..own it
P.S. warren sk27 my comment on blocking was for rocco. you said you were ok with it for 5000
blocking isnt racing …i have seen you “run your line” to keep rocco behind you as well this past season
It’s ok Speed, I know I’m the worst guy up there… let me know your name or the team you work with so I can critique your performance as a spotter/crew chief/crew member or how well you cover a spot in the stands.
i sit in the stands dont need to own,fix or drive a car to have an opinion..sorry your feelings got hurt Lets wait for the video
Yeah, that Warren is a real hack.
speed kills says:
October 26, 2015 at 2:42 pm
warren 27 sk.. pick a lane ..you were as bad as diego yesterday with running your line
speed kills says:
October 27, 2015 at 2:41 pm
never said you blocked.
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Anyway. I wont bore you with video of everything leading up to this, I also have shots of him intentionally bouncing off our left front hard enough to make smoke coming down the back stretch under caution before taking the green, driving out RF to the top white line, Tyler’s comments during the red flag after the first time he drove into us our radio conversation and so on.
Hard enough hit to bend a lot of parts including the rear. It would be water under the bridge but, the comment he made about others just really irks me.
https://youtu.be/-54PtMqroiM
your a spotter and you dont know the differnce between running your line and blocking.. running your line would allow for an opprotunity for a faster car to attempt a pass…you consistantly run the same every lap … blocking and or mirror driving (possibly with the assist of a spotter) and a faster car has no chance to pass without wrecking you or himself…your back pedaling on the video.. I said hard racing and thats what it will show. people make contact on occasion when scuffing tires etc.. idyour a past champion you should act accordingly and admit you made an error spotting.. you gave your driver bad advice or difection..get over yourself ..you said its ok to block or fence someone for 5000 you stink.. not your driver ..you made the comment and it sums up everything that “racing” today has become .cant hold a line , block when you can and drive in as hard as you can on the bottom in the turn.. yup thats sk modified racing warren 27 style…..again not your driver