(Press Release from Stafford Motor Speedway)
Frank L’Etoile Jr.
After winning his second consecutive track championship this season in Stafford Speedway’s DARE Stock division, Wethersfield native Frank L’Etoile, Jr. will make the move up the division ladder and make his Limited Late Model debut in 2016. L’Etoile will drive a #11 car that will be fielded by the Trott family. Tyler Trott was one of L’Etoile’s main rivals for the DARE Stock championship this season but L’Etoile says the partnership between the two was actually formed several years ago.
“My father built a DARE Stock for the Trott’s two years ago and we’ve been friends ever since then,” said L’Etoile. “We’re kind of teammates so to speak and we park together in the pits every week. I’m excited about the opportunity and I can’t thank Jason Trott enough for giving me the opportunity to drive his car next season.”
Although the car that L’Etoile will be driving will carry the Trott family #11 on the side and the roof, it is a car that has both race winning and track championship winning pedigree to its name. The Trott family purchased the former Cory Casagrande #1 car that was piloted to a Limited Late Model championship during the 2012 season in addition to feature victories in both divisions. L’Etoile says that while the car will need some work to get back to Limited Late Model specs, the pedigree of the car his him excited about his debut.
“I work for Mr. Casagrande now and they’ve had Cory’s Late Model for sale for a while and the Casagrande’s and Trott’s were both at an open practice at Waterford one night and they got to talking and they ended up buying the car,” said L’Etoile. “The car needs some work but I feel good about getting into a winning car. It’s definitely going to be a fast car and I won’t have any excuses if we aren’t running up front, it’ll all be on the driver.”
With his DARE Stock experience now behind him, L’Etoile says his biggest challenge for the 2016 will be learning a new set of competitors and their tendencies on the race track.
“It’s going to be a big jump for me going from DARE to the Limited,” said L’Etoile. “I’m going to have to learn the competition and how they race and how you can race around them and the Limited cars have a locked rear and I’ve never run that before. The power is pretty similar to our Thompson car so that won’t be that big of an adjustment for me. I’m ready to go and I can’t wait to get back. I wish the Sizzler was tomorrow.”
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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