Friday Night Racing Action at Stafford Motor Speedway

 

Stafford, CT (7-16-10) – Thomas Barrett, Jr. and Ryan Posocco were winners in Friday nights rained shortened action at Stafford Motor Speedway.  Barrett earned the victory in the SK Light Modified division while Posocco was victorious in the Late Model division.

In the first feature of the evening, Jay Goff led the SK field to the green flag for their 20 lap race only to loose the lead on the opening lap to Heather DesRochers coming out of turn four.  DesRochers opened up a quick five car length lead before the first caution waved on lap three for a multi car spin and wreck in turn 3 involved David Webb, John Hanafin and Frank Cardile.

Cardile stopped up against the turn three wall and suffered the worse damage in the mele, with Hanafin coming to a stop in turn four.  Both drivers were finished for the night while Webb was able to complete one more lap before his night also came to an end.

            The restart saw DesRochers pull ahead of the field again, followed by Erica Santos, Joseph Cipriano, III and Barrett.  Caution quickly flew again as Tony Santangelo and Matthew Galko make contact in turn 2.   Santangelo suffered left front damage as both cars were towed behind the pit wall.

            On the ensuing restart, Cipriano was able to get under Santos for second and was attempting to go under DesRochers, but she closed the door on that move.  Meanwhile Barrett was also able to get by Santos for third.  DesRochers slipped in the turn and had to slow to regain control of the car, allowing Cipriano, Barrett and Santos to get by before getting back on the gas in the fourth position.

            With the top four drivers pulling away, Barrett began working over Cipriano before making a clean pass for the lead as they exited off turn two on lap 16.  Santos held off DesRochers for third with Zach Aszklar beating Dylan Liseo to the line to take fifth place.

            It was the fourth victory of the year for the 15 year old Barrett, who is showing maturity beyond his age as he chases the division title after missing the opening race of the year due to being under aged.

            In the Late Model feature, John Hill, Jr. led the field to the green flag and maintained the lead as the field went three wide at the front on lap two. The first caution of the event flew on lap 3 as Adam Gray and Keith Rocco made contact coming out of turn two.  Rocco went airborne and rode the wall on two wheels before coming off the wall and coming to a rest in turn three.  Rocco was done for the evening as the crew was unable to fix the heavy damage.

            The restart had Hill and Michael Bennett on the front row followed by Ryan Posocco and Gray in row two.  The green flew and Dillon Moltz went from 5^th to 3^rd by the time the field came back to the start/finish line.  Meanwhile, Posocco was able to quickly dispatch Bennett before setting his sights on the leader.

             Lap eight saw Posocco pacing the field with Moltz in second followed by Gray, Scott Cook and John Kasper rounding out the top five.  Gray slowed on lap nine coming out of turn two and fell from 3^rd to 8^th and wasn’t a factor in the finish.

            The second caution waved as Woody Pitkat drove into and over the drivers side of Tom Butler’s race car. 

            On the restart, Kasper, who was now in fifth, failed to come up to speed and dropped from 4^th to 10^th.  Kasper eventually finished seventh.

            At the midway point of the race Posocco held a commanding lead over Moltz, Bennett, Cook and Jim Peterson.  Two laps later, Peterson gets under Cook for the position.

            The third and final caution flies as Pitkat gets into Gray in turns 3 and 4 causing Gray to spin on lap 20.  With rain approaching, the field is quickly doubled up to get back to racing.

            Posocco once again took the field to green with Bennett to his outside, followed by Peterson and Moltz.  On lap 23, Moltz is able to charge to the inside of Peterson coming down the backstretch and out brakes Peterson as the two head into turn three to take over the podium position.  Bennett works over the back bumper of Posocco but is unable to get the leader to falter as the lightning began to light up the evening sky.

            Posocco took the checkers with Bennett right on his bumper.  They were followed by Molt, Peterson and Cook, who completed the top five finishers.  As the top three pulled into victory the wind picked up and the rains came.

            After waiting out the rain and attempting to dry the track for nearly two hours, the evenings racing was finally called.  The remainder of the nights racing card divisions; Dare Stocks, Limited Late Models and SK Modifieds will be made up at a later date.

Visit www.staffordmotorspeedway.com for more information.