David Arute celebrates victory in the SK Light Modified feature Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway (Photo: Jim DuPont)
STAFFORD – On Sept. 2, 2016 David Arute celebrated his first career victory in the SK Light Modified division at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Friday night the Tolland driver felt like it was the first time all over again.
Arute held off Cory DiMatteo over the closing laps to win the 20-lap SK Light Modified feature Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway.
It was the first victory of the season for Arute.
“The first [win] was awesome, this one, I think it almost means a lot more to show that I can still get the win,” Arute said. “It feels like it’s really late in the season. To get the win this year, I really didn’t think I was going to get one with the competition level. Now that we finally got it it seems like we’ll nail the setup every week. The one we got tonight worked real well. We’re competitive again, it feels great. It makes yourself think all the work in the shop, it’s worth it.”
DiMatteo, of Farmington, was second and Dan Wesson of Monson, Mass. third.
“The car was perfect all night,” Arute said. “No matter where I put it it went. I was thinking to myself under the red flag [after 15 laps] about how nervous I was. I don’t know why. I was up front for the first time this year. My heart was just beating like crazy. I could see DiMatteo coming. I didn’t want to look in my mirror, but you know the fast guys are coming up front. Luckily we held them off.”
Arute went by Keith Caruso for the lead on lap four. On lap eight Glenn Korner got by Arute for the top spot, but Arute fought back to regain the lead on lap 10.
Arute thought disaster was striking on a lap 16 restart after a missed shift, but thankfully a stopped car gave him a chance to fix the mistake.
“For some reason all night tonight it seemed like all the rows behind us were pushing,” Arute said. “Hey, it’s racing. Coming to the green, I think it was the second to last restart, the one that got called back, I went, it was in gear, my hand was still on the shifter and someone bumped me right from behind and it pushed it forward right out of gear. They called it back before we got to the finish line, luckily because it let me get back there. Luckily the next restart was a lot better.”
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