Ryan Fearn climbs the catch fence at Stafford Motor Speedway after scoring his first career Limited Late Model feature Friday
Call it the over exuberance of teen excitement, but the show wasn’t over for fans after Fearn took the checkered flag for his first career win in the division.
Fearn won the 20-lap feature for the division Friday at Stafford, then parked his car on the frontstrech, got out and proceeded to climb the catch fence.
“A small disclaimer on that catch fence climb, don’t do that at home kids,” the 18-year old Fearn said. “I’ve never done one of those before but now I can’t do it again. They told me not to. It was totally worth it.
“I don’t know, I wanted to do it. I’ve never climbed the fence before. So I was just like ‘I want to climb the fence, this is awesome.’”
Cliff Saunders of Stafford was second and Albert Saunders of Stafford third.
It was Fearn’s sixth start in the division after making the jump from the DARE Stock division last year. The victory for Fearn was as much about celebrating putting frustrations behind. Bad luck has plagued the team for much of the season.
“Thankfully we were able to break through this week,” Fearn said. “We did a lot of work and I feel like everyone on the team deserved this. It was definitely a team effort. … It’s great. I know what I can do now. I know I can win. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it again. I know the formula.”
Seriously. We’re going on 24 hours into Fearns first LLM win and no one is congratulating him. Then let me be the first. A mere 4 or 5 starts in the division and a win. Sure some may say he’s a legacy driver with the advantages of the extensive knowledge from the Budda of Late Models Tom Fearn. And yes Fearn Motorsports is an elite team with resources that most can only dream of having. And sure Fearn started near the front and when is that ever bad. But he won in a pretty competitive division if not well populated and winning is never, ever easy especially for a rookie.
Climbing the fence. This geezer hated that he did it but loved the fact he did after the fact. The kids must have loved it. Unexpected, great showmanship if not original. The track hated it but sometimes the best things for the track are wild cards such as this that no one expects.
So once again congratulations and we’re looking forward to Alexandra getting her first win that should not be too far off I’m thinking. Personally I’m for equality of the sexes but as a fan would prefer she not be climbing any fences.
Thanks Doug, much appreciated.
Yeah, climbing the fence was pretty wild by Stafford’s terms, I was just ecstatic that countless hours of work and dedication paid off. It was a one and done thing, we’ll be back to keeping it civil in the future.
Got lucky on that opening at the beginning, the outside is tough to stay fast on in the Limiteds. Kept the restarts under control (except one jump) and made it happen. Couldn’t have done it without everyone at Fearn Motorsports for sure.
See you in the comments again when this week’s column gets finished.
Sorry I didn’t say it before now, but congratulations Ryan. Can’t wait for your next column.