As had been reported on RaceDayCT on Saturday, Adam Gray has officially been disqualified from victory in the 30-lap Late Model division feature from Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Gray was disqualified from the victory for us an unapproved part, which was a driveshaft that didn’t meet measurement requirements.
Gray, of Belchertown, Mass., had finished second in the first three features of the season.
Gray, who has won the last two Late Model championships at the track, said Tuesday he will not return to competition at the facility for the remainder of this season.
Josh Wood of Palmer, Mass. was declared winner of the Late Model event from Friday.
Stafford Motor Speedway also announced that SK Modified driver Ron Silk of Norwalk was disqualified from his 18th place finish in the 40-lap feature for that division on Friday.
Silk was disqualified for use of unapproved shocks. He was also penalized for actions detrimental to the sport for use of unsecured lead weights in his car. He was fined $500 for that violation.
Silk was running the Glenn Johnson owned SK Modified in place of its usual driver Jeff Rocco.
Another Late Model flies the coop. At this rate, we’re going to be watching a two car match race for the Fall Final Late Model feature…
Since when does an 18th place car have to go through tech? Although, I heard a weight flew off a car and hit Teddy’s car, so that must be why they looked at Silk’s car.
Actually Chris a piece of lead fell off the #15 car in practice and hit the #13 and the #88 destroying both radiators causing the #13 to miss second practice. A $500 fine seems reasonable and if I recall they have done this in the past on the NWMT for lead falling off in practice. As for the shocks the 15 car was running a pair of FOX shocks which is a tour rated shock and is over the dollar value that an SK is allowed to run. Half of the pit area knew they were on the car and were illegal.
Actually Mike, the shocks were legal. Fox shocks has a low dollar shock as well. Same as Penske and Bilstein. All this is about is racers trying to figure out why that car was so fast. They will be back with the same shocks as soon as the car is repaired and have over a tenth on the field again. The officials gave Glenn until Tuesday to provide paperwork on the shocks and Glenn did not do it because they did not finish. Fox will send over the data and pricing soon I’m sure, but until then everyone else can think that the shocks were illegal. Kinda funny.
Speaking of shocks, wish stafford would release the new spec shock for next year I would suspect that teams would like to start testing them now to get a jump on next year. I don’t really want to spend money on new shocks for next year but as usual stafford has to change the rules so everyone has too spend another 1k. So in the last 5 years or so sk modifieds have changed the engine, transmission, clutch and shock rule. That’s about 30k in changes and you wonder why there are not many cars at the track.
Steve, and all those change were to make it economical and improve car counts, right?
Steve, there were 25 cars in the SK race on Friday, is that not alot?
Racer178, when I raced full time we had 40 cars on a Friday night. Every rule change costs the car owner money
When did you race and have 40 cars in the field?
I have not seen that and I’ve gone every week since 1989. Please fill us in.
Every rule change cost money, I don’t care what it is. Look at the car count in every fender division at stafford. Pathetic.
Steve,
When you raced, did the SK Lights exist? I often wonder what counts would be if there were only one mod division.
On the Fox Shock issue. I’m sure they may make a shock that is within the Stafford $ Limit, but the real question is, were they adjustable shocks? Because I can guarantee you that if they were/are, they are well outside of the cost limit. Also, just because you have a Fox/Bilstein/Penske shock that meets the $ requirement, does not mean the internals of the shock are the same.
c’mon, obviously that was a test session for LFR, they don’t care about being dq’d in a sk feature.
Yes a very costly test session for the #13 and #88 when each car had $500+ in repairs because of the #15, and yes the shocks were adjustable. They actually came off of the #2 NWMT that was testing earlier that day.
Maybe the $500 fine can be split between the cars with the ruined radiators. How bout it Stafford?
Barry, we started racing sk’s back in the 1980’s we all built our own engines too. Way before sk lites, there was two divisions one was modified and the other was sk until the mods disappeared to the tour. There were nights that had two consi with 15 in each and two qualified from each. I would guess that we did not have a rule change for at least 15 years, now they seem to change every year
Thank you, Steve!
I didn’t know SK’s ran nightly with “Mods”. I thought they replaced them in one swoop. That’s good to know.
Back then, I was a Danbury rat, so I’m not up on SMS history. Danbury wasn’t a NASCAR sanctioned track, but often had 4, sometimes 5! full heats and 2 consi’s, but there was only one class in the house. As I remember, they also promoted the top two in each consi to the feature.
I was too young to make the trip from New Milford to Stafford, Thompson, or Waterford, so I always appreciate hearing from someone who was there back in the day.
Back in 1986 a regular 30 lap Friday night modified feature at Stafford paid $2,000 to win. Using the CPI that has the same buying power as $4,283.25 today.