On
Friday, December 10th, Keith Rocco continued to live the dream that
surrounds winning the 2010 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Championship.
Rocco was the first National Champion to receive the championship trophy at
the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte North Carolina.
“It is great to represent the series,” said Rocco about his accomplishment.
“NASCAR plans such great things for the champions to do. It is like a dream
come true. The way that things have changed from twenty years ago to today
is just incredible.”
“The NASCAR Hall of Fame is a great place to have the banquet this year. We
want to thank Whelen Engineering for what they do for the sport. The banquet
and everything that they do for the champions is absolutely phenomenal. They
really know how to make a champion feel like a champion!”
This year NASCAR had re-evaluated the NWAAS Championship program which made
the structure more feasible for short track racers like Rocco to run for the
championship. “This year they lowered the number of cars to twenty for a
full field that helped guys like me. With the way the economy is the car
count is dropping off, so that change definitely helped us.”
Rocco raced hard and received the maximum number of points (810) that earned
him the 2010 National Championship. The last driver to reach this milestone
under the same format was the late Larry Phillips in 1995. “It is absolutely
unbelievable. We worked so hard at it for so many years. You cannot just
imagine coming back and trying to repeat the season that you just had and
improve on it. This year is the year that made the difference. You came
right out of the box and charged every week to win races which is what we
have always tried to accomplish. It is just great for my team and car
owners.”
During 2010 Keith Rocco raced primarily in his home state of Connecticut.
His race weekend started on Thursday night at Thompson International
Speedway, then moved to Stafford Motor Speedway for Friday night racing and
wrapped up on Saturday at Waterford Speedbowl. “Racing has always been a
part of my family. My father was racing before I was even born. In the late
80’s my father started the tri-track theory. The tri-track theory consisted
of the three major tracks in Connecticut: Stafford, Thompson and Waterford.
At that time a team on low budget could run and stretch their money across
all three tracks. I grew up around it and that type of schedule makes me
happy to race just like my father. He follows me all three nights a week and
does not miss a race. And it could not make him prouder doing what I am
doing.”
“Nightly it is tough competition running two by two and sometimes being
unable to come through the field. There is a lot of strong competition in
Connecticut. We had great car counts at the tracks this year considering how
the economy was. The last few years it had been higher. At Stafford we had a
full car count. At Waterford it went back and forth. Sometimes they had it
and some times they did not. This year things stabilized and that played a
huge role in our success this year. So we just had to keep the wheels on
most of the time.”
Early on in his career Rocco was both mentored and influenced by two local
race favorites. One was Ted Christopher who gave him the opportunity to fill
in for him as he drove towards his own goal of a National Championship. “I
definitely think back when Ted Christopher won the National Championship
back in 2001, my brother and I were actually crew members on his cars. We
always compete with Teddy and racing with him is great knowing how he
thinks. Ted is one of the best in racing including the Modified Tours. He is
one of the best in racing. No matter what he gets in he is able to win. To
be able to compete with him and match his record with the title is
absolutely amazing. Working with him definitely helped my learning career. I
respect Ted for that.”
The second person was the mentor that taught him to swing a wrench and
hopefully someday fill his shoes, his father, Ronnie Rocco. “My father got
me to where I am at. He taught me from the day that I was old enough to
walk. He had me in the garage with wrenches. I was just brought up around
it.”
There is no doubt what the goal has been for Keith Rocco. Since the driver
first came to the banquet as a 16 year old crew member to celebrate Ted
Christopher’s National Championship in 2001, the Wallingford, CT driver has
worked tirelessly to capture the title finishing 2nd last year in the
national standings, 4th the two years in a row prior to that.
To get there, Rocco will tell you, you have to surround yourself with the
best people- mission accomplished. The support from family, the team and car
owners has been essential.
Two key ingredients to this success has been the duo that head up the
wrenches of the 88 and 57. Accepting the 2010 Lunati Crew Chief Award was
twin brother Jeff Rocco of Wallingford and Shane Hopkins of Burrillville,
RI. While there are two separate cars for the different tracks, the effort
is a true collaboration between crew chiefs and driver.
Jeff handles the crew chief responsibilities for the John Rufrano owned 88
car that runs at Stafford, the car housed in their grandfather’s garage in
their hometown. “Shane and I more or less work together at all the tracks.
We throw ideas back and forth constantly, what to do with the car, how to
make it better. We all get along really well,” explains the ’older’ twin
Jeff. “I think it’s the chemistry, that’s why we’ve had so much success.”
“I grew up with my brother, everything we did in racing we did together,”
continued Rocco. “I mean from the time my father built us a homemade go-kart
we were 12 years old running around a parking lot, that’s how far our
relationship goes back. We’re best friends, we do everything together and
that carries over at the races because when you’re so close to somebody,
when you care, you go that extra distance, get that little extra you need.”
Shane Hopkins oversees the 57 car owned by Mark Pane, the Waterford
Speedbowl Championship modified. “Basically I’m at all the tracks,”
explained Hopkins. “Racing three nights a week.” The start of the
relationship, between Keith and Shane was not particularly smooth and
seamless like it is now. Specifically the first night they raced together.
“I was running the 6 car at Thompson and we were looking for a driver four
years ago. Keith was just starting to come up.” Hopkins can’t hide his smile
at this point as he continues. “Sometimes you see something in a driver and
you can just tell if they’re going to be good or not and you could tell, the
kid had all the talent, he just needed to be calmed down a bit. We put him
in the car and the first race we wrecked the car. The first thing Keith said
to me was ‘am I fired?’. I said ‘no, you’re not fired, I’ll let you know
when you’re fired,” Hopkins chuckling at the tenuous beginning. “We’ve got a
real good relationship, we work well together and we’ve been off winning
races ever since.”
“I’ll tell you, you can’t stop that kid, he does the majority of the work on
these cars. He runs around like a madman and does the majority of the work,”
Hopkins continued. “What do you say about a kid like that? All’s he wants to
do is race and that’s what he does. It doesn’t matter who comes up to him,
if they have a legend car, a late model or a truck, they say ‘you want to
drive this thing tonight? He gets in and drives it.”
Hopkins, reflecting a bit before the beginning of the awards banquet,
glancing at the 88 ad 57 modified on display in the actual banquet room,
summed up his thoughts. “The kid really came into his own, especially this
year. Once you taught him that you don’t have to be rough to move people
around, he’s seen that for himself, he’s a totally different driver out
there.”
Jeff echoed earlier nearly the same statement. “We put the hard work in at
the garage, but honestly, you can’t take away the fact he has a ton of
talent behind the wheel and he’s really matured over the years. I think
that’s why this year he’s stepped out. Every year he gets a little bit
better and a little bit better and this year, he’s got that patience and
he’s so got the drive. That combination is why we’re here.”
So what is next for the 2010 champion? “After tonight we are going to have
to start all over again. This year was kind of a dream season. We will have
to regroup and go after it again next year. We will pretty much race as we
did this year.”
“To start off a new year of racing after you have had a season like this you
cannot go out and think that you will not win a National Championship again.
You just have to put it behind you and start all over. If we go out and try
to beat this year it is just going to get frustrating. You have to start on
a clean slate. It will be frustrating at the tracks if we do not click them
off as we did this year. So we are just going to go out next year and
pretend that this season just did not happen “
As far as a ride with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has Keith been offered
a ride? “We have been approached by a few teams and have been wheeling and
dealing and hopefully something will work out.” |