Column By: BRITTANY NUTILE / RPW – STAFFORD SPRINGS, CT – Todd Owen won the SK modified race Friday night at the Stafford Motor Speedway. He started the race in tenth.
This is his third win of the season and the current points leader. Todd started the race in 10th, by lap 12 he was in 2nd for 15 laps. He took the lead the last 14 laps form lap 28 to lap 40. Owen has been very determined of winning at Stafford this year since he hasn’t won at Stafford since 2016. Now this is his 3rd win of the season with plenty of the season left to win some more. “Things went our way tonight, no doubt. Last couple of weeks we have kind of been off a little bit, we definitely came tonight with a great piece for me to drive and goes to show how hard my guys work.” Todd talks after the race about his win and how he got the win with the help of his team.
Ronnie Williams finishes the race in 2nd, he started the race in 13th. Williams started towards the back and was making his way towards the top 10 by lap 11. Ronnie is known at most racetracks for being the closer. He usually stays in the back, out of trouble for the first half of the race and then the 2nd half he’s up in the top 10 and eventually be competing in the top 3 for the lead. That’s exactly what he did tonight, he didn’t start making moves till lap 11 and then just kept ticking off spots from there. By lap 30 with 10 laps to go, Ronnie was 3rd and then made his way to 2nd going after Owen to take the lead away but, couldn’t quite get there.
Glen Reen also had to battle his way up to the top. Reen started the race 16th, he made quick timing trying to get up to the top 10. By lap 10 he was 9th and had gotten up to the 6th spot. From lap 17 to 29, he was in 4th, 5th, and 6th positions, then made his way to 2nd by lap 30. He’s been having good races and being consistent but, is still looking for another win or multiple wins this season.
It was a very crazy, eventful race, there was lots of black flags, lots of cautions for big wrecks with multiple cars damaged. There were a lot of black flags during the race. Mike Christopher was black flagged on a restart on lap 11. Troy Talman was also black flagged on lap 20 because he was parked for getting into 2 wrecks. Joey Cipriano was black flagged also for making contact with Andrew Molleur and causing Molleur to get into a wreck.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Todd Owen
2. Ronnie Williams
3. Glen Reen
4. Cory Dimatteo
5. Dan Wesson
Top 5 in points:
1. Todd Owen 566pts.+44
2. Ronnie Williams 522pts.-44
3. Michael Gervais Jr. 512pts.-54
4. Keith Rocco 498pts.-68
5. Glen Reen 452pts.-114
SK Lights
Wesley Prucker won a wild finish to the SK light modified race.
Prucker started the race 10th and make his way up to the front quickly and been up in the top 3 for the last few laps. Just being in the right place at the right time ended up very well for Wesley. Mikey Flynn and Jonathan Puleo were having very good nights, running up in the top 2 spots. While battling on the last lap going into turn 3, both Flynn and Puleo made contact with each other battling for the lead, got together and wrecked in the turn 3, allowing Prucker to get by them both and take the lead. “I read that like a book, the 54 did the same thing to me a couple weeks ago. I knew they were going to touch; this is awesome. Right place, right time is all I can say about it. Today is probably the happiest day of this year.” Prucker talks about how this win feels and how he celebrated a little too hard and cut his hand pretty badly.
Mark Bakaj started the race in 5th and stayed in the top 5 the whole 20 laps of the race. Mark’s been consistent throughout the first 13 races. In those 13 races he has 1 win, 5 top 5s, 2 top 10s, 1 top 15, 2 top 20s, and 2 top 25 finishes. Alexander Pearl finished 3rd, he started the race 7th. He stayed in the top 10 for the 20-lap race. He was in the bottom top 10 for the first 11 laps then was in 5th for 8 laps and was in 3rd for the final lap. Pearl has had a pretty consistent in the first 13 races. He’s had 2 wins, 7 top 5s, 2 top 10s, 1 top 20 and 1 top 25.
Bryan Narducci had a crazy up and down race. He started the race 15th and got into the top 10 by lap 5 but, stayed in the bottom half of the top 10 for about 11 laps. He was 5th on lap 11, when he went 3-wide and got black flagged after the 2 cars that were 3-wide with Narducci got in a wreck. He had to go to the back but, being Bryan and him knowing how to work his way to the front and working on the top got to the top 5 by lap 17. By the final lap of the race he finished 4th.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Wesley Prucker
2. Mark Bakaj
3. Alexander Pearl
4. Bryan Narducci
5. Chris Matthews
Top 5 in points:
1. Steven Chapman -R 516pts.+4
2. Teddy Hodgdon 512pts.-4
3. Alexander Pearl 504pts-12
4. Noah Korner-R 480pts.-36
5. Mikey Flynn 450pts.-66
Late Models
Michael Wray won the late model race at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Wray made his way to the lead 3 laps. He had a very fast car and led almost every lap and no driver could really catch Wray and make a pass for the lead. He has been doing good and able to stay 2nd in points and try and knock off points from Fearn and decrease his lead in the championship hunt. “Car was hooked up, we’ve been struggling for like 10 weeks now and started to question if we would get back here to victory lane but, here we are. It was tough getting through the pack, I’m pretty proud od my 3-wide move on the outside there with Bennett it was awesome.” Michael Wray talks about how this win feels and how he got to the front.
Al Saunders had a good race finishing 2nd. He stayed in the top 3 from lap 3 to lap 30 and was in 3rd for the first half of the race then got up to 2nd for the rest of the race. He was trying to catch Wray and at one point got into reach but, couldn’t quite get there with only a few laps left.
Michael Bennett had a good run tonight; he started the race 3rd and stayed in the top 5 for the whole race. Bennett led a lap in the beginning of the race then fell back to 2nd and then eventually got to the 3rd position and finished there.
Tom Fearn had an up and down day. He got into a multi-car incident in the first lap, went on pit road, fixed his car and then started making his way back up the pack. He got the car up and running again but, not great to be running up in the front like he usually is. He made his way to 7th on lap 7 and stayed there till lap 30 and finished 7th.
Top 5 finishes:
1. Michael Wray
2. Al Saunders
3. Michael Bennett
4. Cliff Saunders
5. Kevin Gambacorta
Top 5 in points:
1. Tom Fearn 614pts.+84
2. Michael Wray 530pts.-84
3. Al Saunders 514pts.-100
4. Kevin Gambacorta 512pts.-102
5. Paul Arute 502pts.-112
Limited Late Models
Gary Patnode won the Limited Late Model race at Stafford Speedway.
He started the race 2nd and stayed up in the top 3 and battle with Tefft and clement for most of the race. This is Patnode’s 2nd win of the season. He has been consistent, finishing in the top 5 for most of the season, there are some exceptions he had a problem one race and didn’t finish that well. But for the most part has been doing very well. Patnode talks about this win and how he feels about it. “We did it again, it feels good if not better than the first win. I hope everyone’s ok from the incidents that happen. Looks like Alexandra hit pretty hard, but just hope everyone’s ok.”
David Tefft had a really good race tonight; he started the race on the pole and had a good car to stay up in the front and compete with the regular drivers in the series. He finished 2nd tonight which is good overall for David and his team.
Matt Clement finished the race 3rd in tonight’s race, he started the race 5th and got up to the top 3 pretty quickly. Matt’s been very consistent this season with winning multiple times, and if he’s not winning, he still in the top 3 for the rest of the races.
Going into this race Matt Clement and Jeremy Lavoie were even tied for the lead for the championship points but, with Lavoie had a right front go down and got into the wall at lap 8 and was out of the race early. Matt Clement finished the race 3rd and has been very consistent during the season and is a good contender to fight for the championship.
After having wins in the past 2 weeks, Alexandra Fearn was doing well in the race, she started the race 6th and made her way up to the front and was battling for the top 3 spots and got tangled with the other drivers battling together and spun into the wall and got wrecked before getting the checkered flag.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Todd Patnode
2. David Tefft
3. Matt Clement
4. Duane Provost
5. Kevin Crosby-R
Top 5 in points:
1. Matt Clement 608pts. +8
2. Jeremy Lavoie 600pts.-8
3. Gary Patnode 588pts.-20
4. Alexandra Fearn 574pts.-34
5. Kevin Crosby-R 462pts.-146
Street Stocks
Travis Hydar won the Street Stock race at Stafford Speedway.
Hydar started the race in 6th and didn’t have anything else on his mind then, to get to the front and finally win his first race this season. He’s had 1 win, 10 top 5s, 1 top 15 and 1 did not start. He’s had a very impressive 13 races and is now 3rd in points, 38 points back from the points leader, Zack Robinson. “It was really hard to get through traffic, but we put the right adjustments in the car for the feature and it worked. We had all the consistent finishes throughout the year and finally paid off and here we are in victory lane.
Zack Robinson finished 2nd and is now the current points leader with a 20-point cushion from Meghan Fuller who is 2nd in points. He started the race in 8th and made his way through the field and got up to 2nd to finish there.
Nicole Chambrello had a very impressive run tonight; she started the race in 4th and was in the top 5 all night and finished 3rd in the race. She had a pretty good run this year. She had 4 top 5s, 5 top 10s, 2 top 15 finishes and 2 races she didn’t compete in, due to problems with the car.
Top 5 finishers:
1. Travis Hydar
2. Zack Robinson
3. Nicole Chambrello
4. Meghan Fuller
5. Jason Lafayette
Top 5 in points:
1. Zack Robinson 572pts.+20
2. Meghan Fuller 552pts.-20
3. Travis Hydar 534pts.-38
4. George Bessette Jr.520pts-52
5. Jason Lafayette 490pts.-82