Matt Galko, Joey Ferrigno Secure SPAFCO Rookie Of The Year Honors In Modified Divisions At Stafford

Stafford Motor Speedway will honor drivers Matt Galko and Joey Ferrigno with SPAFCO Rookie of the Year honors in their respective divisions.

Joey Ferrigno celebrates his lone victory this season at Stafford Speedway (Photo: Nicholas Teto)

After making the jump this year from the SK Light Modified division, Galko won the Rookie of the Year title for the SK Modified division.

Galko, of Meriden, finished the 2012 season with one top-five and eight top-10 finishes and was ninth in the standings in the SK Modified standings.

“I think it was a pretty good season,” Galko said in a release from Stafford. “I don’t think it was as good as maybe we wanted it to be, but we really have nothing to complain about. Our goals at the beginning of the season were to win Rookie of the Year, finish in the top-10 in points, and get a win or a podium finish. We had some decent runs this year and we achieved two of our three goals, it just seemed like we didn’t have any luck at the end of races. Something would always happen that would cause us to fall back.”

Ferrigno made the jump from driving the car’s pace car to winning SPAFCO Rookie of the Year honors in Stafford’s SK Light Modified division.

After spending 2008 in the track’s Limited Late Model division, Ferrigno, of East Hartford, took over the pace car driving duties at the track from 2009 to 2011.

He arrived in the SK Light Modified division this season with a victory, nine top-five finishes and 12 top-10’s, good for a fifth place showing in the final standings for the season.

“It was great to be racing again, I missed being on that side of the fence,” Ferrigno said in a release. “At the beginning of the year we were hoping to get a couple of top-5’s and finish in the top-10 in points. We ended up getting a win, Rookie of the Year, and a top-5 finish in the points, so we had a great year. How many people have it on their bucket list to win a modified race at Stafford? I know it’s not the SK Modified® division, but now I can say that I’ve won a Modified race at Stafford. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast. The one thing I did miss this year was the air conditioning in the pace car.”

Galko and Ferrigno will be formally honored with their Rookie of the Year awards at the 43rd Stafford Motor Speedway banquet on Nov. 16 at LaRenaissance Banquet Facility in East Windsor.