Michael Bennett celebrates victory in the Late Model feature Friday at Stafford Speedway (Photo: Jim DuPont)
STAFFORD – For some drivers the start of a race at Stafford Motor Speedway means settling in, setting a strategy and patiently waiting for the time to move.
On Friday night the word patience didn’t exist for Late Model division driver Michael Bennett.
The green flag to start meant it was rush hour for the Stafford driver.
Bennett went from the fourth starting spot to the lead within a quarter-lap of action Friday and went on to lead every circuit on the way to victory in the 30-lap Late Model feature at Stafford.
“I was trying to be tight to the guy in front of me and my spotter said clear and you know, I’ve been racing here a long time so I can kind of judge how I’m going to be able to enter a car and I knew I had a chance so I just made it stick,” Bennett said of the aggressive moves from the start. “I don’t know if we were three-wide or four-wide. I don’t know what we were. I just heard ‘Clear to the bottom’ and I was just very aggressive and tried to just drive away and it worked out this time.”
Glen Reen of Wilbraham, Mass. was second and Tom Fearn of East Longmeadow, Mass. third.
It was the second victory in seven starts this year for Bennett.
“The last few races we’ve been good,” Bennett said. “I think part of it is that the races have gotten strung out and it was hard to catch up. We were able to get out front first. All these cars are pretty even after 10 or 15 laps. You have to have good restarts and be aggressive on the starts and that’s what we were able to do right there. … This is where we expect to be so it feels good to get the finishes that we feel like we deserve.”
Vince Gambacorta of Ellington scored victory in the 15-lap DARE Stock feature.
Zack Robinson of Putnam was second and Johnny Walker of Ludlow, Mass. third.
It was the first victory Gambacorta since 2006.
“Starting up front ahead of [Walker] and Robinson and they had to come through traffic,” Gambacorta said of the key to victory. “They’re very fast. To beat them you’re doing something. I saw them coming but they didn’t have enough laps.”
The late model race was a real snoozer! After lap 1 the race was over.
An old man wins against the kids in the Dare division. Who doesn’t think that’s pretty cool.
Late Models- Boo. 12 Cars and spread way out at the end. As usual.
Omg
6 cars out there
Looks like they go about 55 mph too
Embarrassing
Those cars are so ugly too
Their late alright
Late to the party
End this class for Pete’s sake
Wray put a video of his race on youtube and the problem with Late Models at Stafford seems clear. They are too fast for the tires. He was sawing on the steering wheel in the corners the entire race. No passing in the front six cars and intervals that were way too far apart. It’s not a driver or team problem it’s a rules problem. Over powered and under tired.
Way to go, Vince!