(Stafford Springs, CT)---For Palmer, MA native Josh Wood, his rookie season in Stafford’s Limited Late Model division was nearly the perfect season.  Wood won 6 out of the first 8 feature events and he was locked in a season long duel with Cory Casagrande for the track championship.  Wood eventually came up 12 points short of Casagrande in the chase for the championship, but he is looking to take the momentum he built up during his rookie season and carry that over to the 2013 season and once again be a championship contender with his #51 R.A.D. Automachine Chevrolet.

“We certainly hope we can do it again, but we’re not going to count on it,” said Wood.  “Hopefully we can get ourselves a couple of wins and we’ll hope for the best.  I’d like to think we’re going to be contenders again for the championship, but no matter if we are or aren’t in contention, we’re still going to have a lot of fun this year.”

For Wood, the 2012 season was a season of two halves.  The first half of the year saw Wood accumulate all 6 of his wins, while his best finish of the second half of the year was second.  Wood’s main championship rival, Cory Casagrande, won 5 of the final 7 races to leapfrong Wood in the points standings and take home the championship.  Despite finishing second behind Casagrande, Wood says he and his team weren’t disappointed at all in their finish and that they will look to have two good halves during 2013.

“The way I look at it, I wasn’t disappointed at all to finish second behind Cory,” said Wood.  “Last year was a great year for us.  It was a bit of a surprise to us that we ran as well as we did, we definitely weren’t expecting that to happen.  I think we were good during the first half of the year and everyone else got faster as the year went on and it got tougher and tougher to win a race.  Hopefully we can have as good a first half this year as we did last year and then back that up and have the same second half of the year as the first half.  There’s always room for improvement, maybe we lost a little something over the off-season and we’ll have to find that something once we get back to racing this year.”

Wood and his team have been busy during the winter going through his #51 to get it ready to race for the 2013 season.  While Wood ran a primarily blue car last season, he says he will have a new look for the 2013 season.

“We got an early start on the car and it’s almost ready to go now,” said Wood.  “We went through the car, we re-did the rear end, and the car will have a new look to it for this year.  Pete Rossi did the lettering for us, the car is still going to be blue but we’re going to have some nice green stripes on the car, and the car looks really nice.  The off-season has been nice, but I’m definitely ready to get back out on the track and go racing.”

In addition to R.A.D. Automachine, Falls Alignment, Custom Wood Floors, and Fluckiger Race Chassis returning as sponsors on Wood’s #51, he will have the same crew returning an additional member to help him get back to victory lane.

“We have the same crew as last year, my Dad, Barry Fluckiger, and Ernie Whidden, and Matt Duby is going to help us out this year,” said Wood.  “I think anyone in the Limited Late Model division can win the championship this year and our goal is to go out and win as many races as we can.”

Wood will have his first opportunity to drive into CARQUEST Victory Lane during the 42nd Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler on April 26-28.  Tickets for the “Greatest Race in the History of Spring” may be ordered by calling the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $38.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult.  Reserved seating is $42.00 for all ages.  All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. 

For more information on the 42nd Annual CARQUEST TECH-NET Spring Sizzler®, or to order tickets, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.

###