(Stafford Springs, CT)—As teams prepare for the 2012 season at Stafford
Motor Speedway, Limited Late Model driver Jesse Hinze is hard at work
preparing his car in hopes of reaching victory lane for the first time in
his career at Stafford. The 2012 season will be Hinze’s 7th season at
Stafford, he spent the first three years of his career in the DARE Stock
division before moving into the Limited Late Model division in 2009. The
move to the Ltd. Late Model division has seen Hinze become a consistent
driver, finishing 8th in points for three consecutive seasons. After coming
close on more than one occasion to winning a feature, Hinze is looking to
break into the win column this year at Stafford.
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(Stafford Springs, CT)—Stafford Motor Speedway has again lined up an
impressive field of current and former open wheel champions for its CARQUEST
Champions For Charities Event as part of CARQUEST Super Saturday on June
30th. During the coming weeks, SMS will offer a profile on each of its
championship winning drivers and the charity they will be racing for and
this week’s CARQUEST Champions For Charities spotlights falls on 8-time ISMA
Supermodified champion Russ Wood, who will be racing to support Racing
Against Cancer™.

“My relationship with Racing Against Cancer™ goes back to 6 or 7 years ago
when my kids were racing karts at Sugar Hill,” said Wood. “We got started
with Racing Against Cancer™ back then and we’ve been involved with them in a
few things since then. My wife was the chairperson for a Relay for Life in
our hometown, and she will be doing that again this year. We’re looking
forward to raising money for cancer research and hopefully we can surpass
our total that we raised last year.”

A big part of Wood’s fundraising efforts will be at Stafford Motor Speedway
the day of the CARQUEST Champions For Charities event. The speedway will
host A Prelude to CARQUEST Super Saturday; Foot Power in the A.M. and Horse
Power in the P.M., a Racing Against Cancer™ Track Walk that will run from
9:30-11:30am on Saturday, June 30 prior to the feature events.

All funds raised from the track walk will be credited towards Wood’s
fundraising total for the CARQUEST Champions For Charities event. Race fans
can register for the track walk by picking up a brochure at the Stafford
booth during the Frank Maratta Auto Show at the CT Convention Center from
March 9-11, the Stafford Motor Speedway track office, at the Racing Against
Cancer™ booth set up on the midway during the CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring
Sizzler Weekend on April 27-29, or online at www.racingagainstcancer.org
. The minimum donation required is $25
and fans can also donate online through the RAC website if they cannot
attend the track walk. Last year’s Racing Against Cancer™ track walk raised
over $5,700 and the more money that Wood raises this year will start him
closer to the front of the field for the 15-lap Champions For Charities
feature event. Participants who register in advance for the Racing Against
Cancer™ Track Walk will be able to receive a $5 discount on Adult General
Admission tickets for the CARQUEST Super Saturday feature events.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to do a little better this year than we did last
year,” said Wood. “We did pretty well, but we want to do better. The
racing last year was pretty intense and all the karts seemed like they were
pretty equal. Maybe I need to bring a bigger motor; we’ll have to talk with
Mark [Arute] to see if maybe we can bring a bigger motor with us for the
race this year.”

In addition to his CARQUEST Champions For Charities duties, Wood will be
behind the wheel of his familiar #29 for the 50-lap ISMA Supermodifed event
and will be looking to drive into CARQUEST Victory Lane for the second time
at Stafford. Wood was the ISMA Supermodified feature winner in 2005, but he
knows that he and the rest of the ISMA Supermodified field will have to beat
Chris Perley, who has won 5 of the previous 8 CARQUEST Super Saturday events
at Stafford. Wood set an ISMA record last season with his 8th drivers
championship, breaking a tie that he had held with Perley for the most ISMA
championships.

“Last year was great, it was a little different not winning the owner’s
championship, but it was a great year for us, 8 is a pretty good mark,” said
Wood. “I would have like to have won the owner’s championship because it’s
not just me that won the driver’s championship, I had a great team behind me
and they deserved to be recognized for their efforts. Right now we’re still
refining our car, but we’re looking to have a great year. Although when we
come to Stafford I think we’ll all be chasing the 11 [Perley]. They have
the car, the motor, and they seem to have Stafford figured out pretty well.
We’ll give it our best shot and hope we land in victory lane.”

Racing Against Cancer™ is a Federally Recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization dedicated to the raising of funds for cancer research, patient
services, youth tobacco educational programs, and awareness. Racing Against
Cancer™ was founded in 1996 and the program has generated over $700,000 for
the fight against cancer. For more information, please visit
www.RacingAgainstCancer.org.

CARQUEST Extreme Tuesday will take place on Saturday, June 30, 2012 and will
feature the ISMA Super Modifieds, NEMA Midgets, and Pro-4 Modifieds in
addition to the Senior Outlaw Wild Thing Karts. Tickets for CARQUEST
Extreme Tuesday are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office and are priced at
$33.00 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 priced at $35.00 for all ages. All ticket
prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway
offers free parking with overnight parking available.

(Stafford Springs, CT)—Stafford Speedway has begun the process of sending
out special invitations to past and present open wheel championship winning
drivers to make up the starting field for the 2nd Annual CARQUEST Champions
For Charities race. The CARQUEST Champions For Charities race will be part
of the CARQUEST Super Saturday program, which will feature the ISMA
Supermodifieds, NEMA Midgets, and Pro-4 Modifieds. The special invitation
only field of open wheel champions will sit behind the wheel of Wild Thing
Kart Senior Outlaw karts and participate in a special 15-lap race while
raising money for a charity of their choosing.
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