By Pete Vander Veer

Waterford, Conn. —September 20, 2008- It looked like Keith Rocco was using super glue on Saturday night at the Waterford Speedbowl.

For the better part of his 35-lap run to the win in the SK Modified feature, Rocco kept it stuck to the bottom in the corners and took it up just enough on the straightaways to ward off any efforts Ron Yuhas Jr., the eventual second-place finisher, could make.

It was Rocco’s sixth victory at the ‘Bowl and his 13th as part of his grueling schedule of racing at Thompson on Thursday night and at Stafford on Friday night before showing up in Waterford on Saturday afternoon.

“I’ve had an awesome car for the past three weeks,” Rocco said. “We just didn’t have any luck. Tonight, I knew if I could keep it to the bottom, I had a very good chance of winning.”

Rocco only had to deal with two restarts and one serious challenge from Yuhas who passed points leader Dennis Gada shortly after the halfway mark.

“My car was much too free tonight,” Yuhas said. “I had one good shot at Ronnie (in the closing laps), but I just couldn’t get under him.”

With his third-place finish, Gada improved his points by 12 over Rob Janovic (who was sixth on Saturday night) and by 18 over Rocco.

“The car kept getting tighter, tighter and tighter,” Gada said. “I couldn’t keep up with those guys (Rocco and Yuhas). They just drove away from me.”

Around the track
Other wins on Saturday night went to Bruce Thomas Jr. of Groton in the 30-lap Bob Valenti Auto Mall Late-Model Stock Car Feature; to New Haven’s Ed Lamb Jr., in the 20-lap Sportsman Feature; and to Jason Palmer of Berlin in the 20-lap Legends Cars feature.

The most difficult part of Thomas’ night was finding his way past Rich Staskowski and into the lead with 14 laps remaining.

After that, he skated to the finish, ahead of Vin Esposito (Seymour), Keith Rocco (Wallingford), Joe Curioso III, (Stonington) and Tim Jordan (Plainfield).

“This never gets boring, never,” said Thomas, about his ninth victory of 2008 and his 21th over the past two seasons. “It’s always a challenge. We’re not going to let up.

“You know that my opponents aren’t letting up. Vinnie (Esposito) and Tim (Jordan) have gotten faster each week as the season has gone on.”

Thomas has increased his points lead to 66 (900-844) over Jordan with two events left.

Prior to the 2008 season, Lamb has never taken a feature. Now, he has two.

Lamb led from start to finish in the non-stop race.

As he increased his lead, numerous battles took place behind him.

“I didn’t care what was going on back there,” Lamb said. “I don’t look. I simply concentrate on what I need to do.”

The best confrontation was for second and third as Josh Galvin just nosed out Nate Appel for second.

“My car was just too loose,” Appel said. “The outside groove was the best one for me tonight. But, I couldn’t stay out there.”

Galvin said his car was just the opposite of Appel’s.

“We were tight, real tight,” he said. “I just couldn’t get away quickly enough from the slower cars around me to take a run at Lamb.”

Walt Hovey Jr. (Scotland) and Brandon Plemons (Montville) rounded out the top five.

Palmer won for the sixth time on the Saturday night program. He trails Shaun Buffington by 10 points in the run for the championship in the division.


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