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(Stafford Springs, CT)—When the green flag falls on the 2024 SK Light season at Stafford Speedway, third generation driver Austin Goff will kick off his first full year of competition. Goff is the son of Aaron Goff and the grandson of Jay Goff, who have both previously piloted the same green and black #07 A+ Fire Protection car that Austin will be behind the wheel of this season. The entire family is excited for Austin to get his rookie campaign started.
“I’m very excited but I’m also pretty nervous because I’m not sure what’s going to happen,” said Austin Goff. “I’m trying to win Rookie of the Year and I’d be happy with a top-3 finish this season, but it’s going to be very tough. The SK Lights are a very tough division and I just have to see what happens once we get started, but overall I’m pretty excited. Thanks to our sponsors A+ Fire Protection, SK Property Maintenance, Mendel Racing, White Electric, BlasTech, JMLS, and Harry Caray.”
“We’re excited and Austin is excited,” said Jay Goff. “I think he’s going to do pretty well. He hopped into the car last year and did very well considering he had never driven a standard or a full size car. Obviously time will tell, but we’re all pretty excited. We’re all very proud of Austin and everyone in the family is very supportive of Austin’s initiative to run the SK Light division this season.”
“I’m pretty excited to see Austin in the car,” said Aaron Goff. “He put in a pretty good effort last season in the few races that he ran at the end of the season so we’re looking forward to it. I’m very proud to see Austin grow up into an adult and take on more responsibilities from racing go karts 10 years ago to the SK Light now.”
While the 2024 season will be Austin’s first full season of SK Light competition, he ran several races at the end of the 2023 season to get his feet wet and gain some experience in the division. Despite having never before driven a full size racecar or a manual transmission car, Goff made 2 starts and finished 20th and 17th. Austin will be relying heavily on those two starts plus plenty of advice from his father and grandfather as he prepares to take to the track.
“I’ll be leaning on last season a lot because that’s the only experience I’ve had until I start to make progress this season,” said Austin. “I’ll also be leaning on my father and grandfather quite a lot for help.”
“It’s quite a big jump and he’s taken everything on in stride,” said Aaron. “Luckily Austin has myself and my father as two people who have raced in the division before and whenever we give him a pointer, he immediately goes out and applies it. From where he started last year to where he ended up, he picked up over 1.5 seconds in lap time and he was among the top-15 cars on speed, so that wasn’t anything to shake your head at.”
The first SK Light feature event of the 2024 season will be held as part of the 52nd Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler®, set for April 27-28. The NAPA Spring Sizzler® kicks off on Saturday, April 27th and will consist of two 40-lap NAPA Duel qualifying races for the Open Modified division. The 40-lap races will each pay $3,500 to win and will set the field for Sunday’s NAPA Spring Sizzler®. Stafford’s Late Model, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions will complete Saturday’s racing program with qualifying and feature racing.
Order 52nd NAPA Spring Sizzler® Tickets
Sponsor a NAPA Spring Sizzler® Lap
Sunday, April 28th will play host to the $20,000 to win 52nd NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler®. Filling out Sunday’s racing card will be qualifying and feature racing for the SK Modified® and SK Light Modified divisions along with last chance qualifiers for the NAPA Spring Sizzler®.
For more information, visit staffordspeedway.com, follow Stafford Speedway on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.
