John Rosati

Competitor
CLASS OF 2007

In the early days of his racing career, he was known as “Little John” Rosati, part of a trio of young-guns (along with Robbie Crouch & Joey Kourafas) that Ken Squier eventually dubbed “The Mod Squad”.

Rosati found success at an early age, winning the Westboro Speedway Late Model title as a rookie in 1969 when he was 17 years old. A couple years later he after won the pole award for back-to-back Milk Bowl events at Thunder Road Speedbowl in 1971-1972. He ran late models for most of the decade with much success notably at Catamount Stadium, but also at Riverside Park Speedway.

Switching to the Modifieds, he would have continued success at numerous tracks, including Stafford Speedway, Thompson Speedway, Seekonk Speedway and Monadnock Speedway. He then won back-to-back Modified titles at Riverside Park Speedway in 1985-1986.

At the 1979 Fall Stinger 100, an open competition modified race at Waterford, Rosati went a lap down early and pitted. Late in the race during green flag laps, he passed race leader Rick Donnelly once to unlap himself, then came through field again (still under green) to pass Donnelly for the win. His dominant performance in the race was especially impressive considering Donnelly himself was dominate at Waterford that season – winning 10 of the 13 races up to that point and the championship.

Rosati was also a Pro Stock Champion at Monadnock Speedway.