(Stafford Springs, CT)---For the 2012 season at Stafford Motor Speedway, the paddock area will have a new look as SPAFCO Race Chassis will become the new parts vendor, taking over a position that Reliable Welding and Speed had occupied for the past 9 seasons.

"We're looking forward to coming on board and helping support all the racers at Stafford," said Ken Barry, owner of SPAFCO Race Chassis. "We're really excited about getting the opportunity to be the parts supplier to Stafford, and we can't wait to get started this season."

Reliable Welding and Speed, owned by SK Modified® competitor Brad Hietala and his wife Linda, had provided parts supply to the Stafford paddock area every season since 2003. But the Hietalas made the decision to focus their efforts on their #9 SK Modified® with driver Chris Matthews for the 2012 season, opening the door for someone to take over the parts vendor position, and SPAFCO Race Chassis filled that opening.

"We decided that we were going to focus more on our race team," said Linda Hietala. "We won't be at the track with the trailer, but we're still in business as usual, shipping parts and materials to teams that order from us. We were spreading ourselves a little thin between the parts trailer and maintaining the car with Chris, so we made the decision to step back from the parts trailer and put all our energy and focus into Chris' car. Hopefully we can have a better finish this season in the points standings."

"Brad and Linda have done an amazing job for us," said SMS COO/GM Mark Arute. "They were an instrumental partner for us these last 9 years and they set the bar pretty high for customer service on race nights. While Brad and Linda are leaving some pretty big shoes to fill, we're confident that Ken Barry and SPAFCO will be able to fill those shoes and deliver to our competitors the same high level of customer service that Brad and Linda have been offering in the paddock area every Friday night for the last 9 years."

SPAFCO Race Chassis is an award winning chassis and race car parts fabrication company located at #4 Route 165A in Preston, Connecticut. After 50 years of building winning race cars, Ken's father Art Barry decided it was time to offer his ideas and designs to the public. SPAFCO was born in 1998 and it has grown into SPAFCO Race Chassis and Parts. SPAFCO cars have claimed three NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championships and four Modified Racing Series championships, as well as numerous track championships and hundreds of feature victories across the northeast. For more information about SPAFCO Race Chassis and Parts, you can contact them by phone at 860-887-2682 or by email at spafco1@yahoo.com. SPAFCO can be found on the web at www.spafco.com.

For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.

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