Zack Robinson
STAFFORD – In 2015 Stafford Motor Speedway DARE Stock driver Johnny Walker decided to step away from competition for the season.
Watching from the sidelines, Walker took on a role as a mentor of sorts for then DARE Stock division rookie Zack Robinson.
Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway the teacher and the student put on a show for fans and it was the student offering a lesson in winning to the reigning division champion.
On a dramatic final lap, Robinson got by Walker for the lead, then held off Walker coming to the checkered to win the 15-lap DARE Stock feature Friday at Stafford.
“It feels good to race him like that,” Robinson said. “He just came over and he said ‘The day that the student passes the teacher is the day that the teacher should retire.’”
It was the first victory of the season and fourth career victory overall for Robinson, of Putnam.
Walker, of Ludlow, Mass. held on for second and Nicole Chambrello of Kensington was third.
The caution flew on lap 12 lining up Walker in the lead with Robinson to his outside for a restart. On the restart Robinson stayed riding the outside lane attacking Walker. Robinson led at the line to complete lap 12.
The pair remained side-by-side through lap 13 with Walker leading at the line to complete the lap. On lap 14 Walker was able to clear Robinson off of turn one, but Robinson didn’t relent.
Coming to the white flag a tap from Robinson to Walker was enough to open the inside lane for Robinson. He took advantage going into turn one on the final lap and came off of turn two with the lead.
But going into turn three Walker returned the tap, getting Robinson up the track through turn four. Walker was able to find the inside lane off of turn four, but it was Robinson winning the side-by-side drag race to the checkered flag.
“The yellow flag, it seems to haunt us man,” Walker said. “[Robinson], he came from the back. That was some good clean racing. I hope we made it spicy toward the end. That restart he was real fast on the outside.”
Said Robinson: “I didn’t mean to get into him as hard as I did. Racing’s racing and I had fun racing with him. The car was just on rails today. We battled it in the first two practices, all day. I can’t thank [crew chief] Joe Brockett enough. We had to change so much in it in between the practice and the heat race. We came out, we won the heat race and then this is just a great ending to the night now.”
A couple of massive coil springs in the front, a mixture of cut stock springs in the rear and a prayer is all we had to get us around the corners in the old street stock days. Now they’ve got those Dare Stocks glued down to the track so well it’s amazing the difference. You missed this race you missed a spectacular duel for the lead with Nicole taking third.I love it when a chick does well. And you know guys you don’t have to feel guilty for banging a little.
And a shout out to the announcers for a great call. Ben Dodge limiting his making magic addiction to one time and Matt, the king of metaphor porn only straying a couple of times. “Witch doctor his way by” and “as close as lipstick on your collar”. Metaphor abuse. But the call was great, racer knowledge informative and the hand offs near perfect. Good calls may not get recognized but they’re important.
What division is dare stock??
Do they race in ct?????
I watch sk
I watch Seinfeld
I never heard of dare stock
Glad the coils are good though
They go around the track real fast
I had a dare stock 4 sale 10000 with motor
Jeffrey a dare stock is a highly unaffordable form of entry level motorsports cleverly priced to keep the poor from participating in events at the Stafford.
Its like low income housing in Simsbury.
Dameathead will disagree with this of course. He knows all.
Stafford’s got it’s formula and they know what they want. And what they don’t want is an affordable entry division with a lot of home made cars built on a budget that could present safety issues. Those days are gone.They made their investment. It’s modified racing. That’s where the car counts are, that’s where the young guys want to be and that’s were the excitement usually is. The rest is just a frequently boring under card.