(Stafford Springs, CT)---After winning the SK Light championship at Stafford in 2010 and 2011, Meriden native Matt Galko made the transition into the SK Modified® division for the 2012 season.  Galko ended up taking home SPAFCO Rookie of the Year Honors with 1 top-5 and 8 top-10 finishes and a 9th place finish in the points standings.  With the 2013 season on the horizon, Galko’s car owner Tim Rowe has joined forces with Donald Silberman to make a run at the championship. 

“I’m pretty excited about 2013, I thought maybe I wasn’t going to have a full ride for the year,” said Galko.  “I got to know Don during last season and I told him that I didn’t have any solid plans for the 2013 season.  He got in touch with Tim and asked if we wanted to team up with him for the 2013 season.”

“I’ve been watching Matt since the SK Light days and he knows what it takes to go for points,” said Silberman.  “Right now, we’re putting a new body on the car and we’re all real excited and looking forward to the season.”

“We’re going to join forces with Don and this way we have a good team with a good backup car if we need it,” said Rowe.  “We’ll use Don’s #21 car as the primary car and have the #3 as a backup.  We’re going to have a lot of fun this year and I think that Matt can get his first win.  He proved that he can run with the big dogs last year and hopefully we can have a championship season.”

The #21 Silberman car was driven last season by Glen Reen to a 15th position in the points standings with a best finish during the season of fourth.  Although Galko has yet to drive the #21 car, it is the same style CD Chassis that his #3 car was, and with Brian Ross returning as his crew chief, Galko is confident that he can run at the front of the pack during the 2013 season.

“It’s pretty much the same car, I’ll just have to get used to working with a different group of people,” said Galko.  “Brian Ross worked with us on the 3 car for the final two races of the season, and I’m real excited to be working with him again.  We tried a few things at the end of the year and the car was as close to perfect as we had it all year in the second to last race and close to perfect for the Fall Final.  I think the chassis was the one area that we were struggling with last year and if we can carry over what we had at the end of the season, we should be able to run towards the top-5.  In the SK’s, if your car is off just a little, you’re not going to put up much of a fight against the front runners.”

With two SK Light championships and a SPAFCO Rookie of the Year season under his belt, Galko seems to have everything pointed in the right direction for the 2013 season.  But with a new team and crew chief, Galko is cautiously optimistic about his chances.

“Coming into this year, I didn’t really have high expectations for myself,” said Galko.  “My main goal was to earn the respect of the all the drivers and I think I did that and I can race with them a little harder now.  Ever since I started racing in quarter midgets and go karts, my dad has been my crew chief.  But with what he learned working on the SK Light and then the SK car, he has a lot to bring to the table and combine that with Brian and everyone else on the team, I think we’re going to have a pretty good year.  We had a lot of top-5 runs last year, we just didn’t get the finishes.  A couple of nights we were in the top-5 we ended up finishing 6th or 7th and a couple of nights we had stuff break on the car in the last 5 laps of the race.  We want to increase the number of top-10’s we had from last year and we definitely want to get some more top-5 finishes and hopefully we can be lucky enough one night to win a race.”

In addition to his SK Modified® duties, Galko will make his Modified Racing Series debut in the three Stafford races during the 2013 season. 

“I have a ride lined up with Norm Perry’s team,” said Galko.  “Our plan is to run 5 races this year so I can maintain my rookie status.  We’ll do the three Stafford races and our other two races are still to be determined.”

Also to be determined is sponsorship on Galko’s car for the 2013 season.

“We’re working on some deals right now for sponsorship, but nothing has been finalized yet,” said Galko.  “I had a lot of great help this past year from TJ’s Auto Body, Napa of Wallingford, Fazzino’s Auto Parts, Dutch’s Restaurant, Tech Circuits, Air Gas, and Sign-A-Rama, so I’d like to thank them all for their support and hopefully we can find that level of help again for the 2013 season.”

Galko and the Silberman / Rowe crews will begin their chase for the championship with 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.