07/07/14 - Matt Galko Looking to Continue Strong 2014 Season in NAPA Auto Parts SK 5k

After winning 8 features and 2 consecutive championships in the SK Light division in 2010-2011, Matt Galko has found success harder to come by after moving into the SK Modified® division. But things are turning around for Galko during the 2014 season. He has already recorded a career best finish of fourth and he has four top-5 finishes in the first 5 races of the season. With positive momentum behind him plus experience gained racing in extra distance events, Galko is feeling primed for a good finish in the $5,000 to win NAPA Auto Parts SK 5k on Friday, July 25th at Stafford Motor Speedway.

“I have confidence we can make this race one of our best races,” said Galko. “Luckily we have a couple of extra distance races under our belt at Stafford, so we have an idea of what kind of setup to put in the car. I’ve run a 100-lapper and a 150-lapper at Waterford, I’ve ran the Lee, Star, and Seekonk open races, so I have some experience with longer distance races and I have an idea of what to expect and I’m not going into the race blind. The SK Modified® division is like the Whelen Modified Tour now so everyone has long distance experience, but I feel like I’ll have an advantage over guys that are just coming into the SK’s. I think the longer races suit my driving styles because I’m not aggressive enough for a short race like the 40-lappers or even the 20-lappers we ran in the SK Lights. With the longer races, I can take my time and be a little more tedious with how I make my passes. As long as we can stay out of trouble because everyone will be going for it since it’s $5,000 to win, and be there at the end, I think we’ll have a good shot at getting a top-3 finish or even a win. That would make up for not having a podium finish the last 3 years, it’s been a long dry spell.”

Although Galko has experience to lean back on, he knows that a challenge lies ahead in how to best prepare his car for a race that he won’t know how many laps will be run until right before the start of the race.

“It’s going to be tough to prepare for the race, but the top-3 choices in the voting are pretty close together so I think you can go with a base setup in your car and prepare for 100-laps with fuel,” said Galko. “It’s definitely a different situation and it should be a lot of fun and an interesting night for sure.”

The 2014 season started out strong for Galko as he recorded a career best finish of fourth in the season opening NAPA Spring Sizzler and he has backed that up with three more top-10 finishes. Galko was as high in the points standings as fourth, but a wreck and a 27th place finish on June 20th have left him 10th in the points standings, but Galko is only 38 points behind fifth place.

“We started out strong and we just had that one race two weeks ago we got caught up in a wreck,” said Galko. “I picked a lane to go and the wreck moved right in front of us but other than that, we’ve had some really strong runs. We ran in the top-5 for the whole race at the Sizzler and we finished fourth, and after that we’ve had a couple of top-10’s. Last week we started 17th and we finished 8th. I think we had a top-5 car last week but we just ran out of laps. We were fourth in points before the week we wrecked and now we’re in 10th place. But I’m real happy with the car and it’s been a solid start to the season and hopefully we can keep that ball rolling for the rest of the year. We’ve been trying some things and as long as we keep on tweaking things we’ll be ok. I think our biggest problem last year was we were so tired of not handling that we would swing for the fence with changes and half the time we swung a little too hard. We’re taking smaller steps this year and our biggest thing is to get the car handling during the day so we can compete in the heat race and get ourselves into the handicapping and not have to start the feature in the back.”

With his 4 top-10 showings thus far this season, Galko has almost equaled his total of 5 from one year ago and he has halved his total of 2 years ago when he had 8 top-10’s.

“I really couldn’t have asked for a better season,” said Galko. “I didn’t think we were going to start out this well. A lot of that was [car owner] Tim Rowe stepping up and getting the motor refreshed. We weren’t originally planning on doing that and then my Dad and I have been working hard in the garage every week and I have a couple of my friends Mike and Jeff from school helping me out. Also, Rick Williams has been helping us out a lot and there’s my Dad, my Grandfather, my Mom, and my sister, so it’s been a total team effort and a really fun season. I also have to thank my sponsors, NAPA of Wallingford and Fazzino’s Auto Parts, A & R Autobody, Payless Oil, Garrett’s Carpentry and Drywall, Tech Circuits, Dutch’s Restaurant, and of course Tim Rowe.”

Tickets for the July 25th NAPA SK 5K are available and on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $27.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for kids ages 6-14, and kids 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at $30.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Speedway offers free parking with free overnight parking for self-contained RV’s available.

For more information on the Inaugural NAPA SK 5K, 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.

Scott Running