(Press Release from Stafford Motor Speedway)
Tom Fearn celebrates victory in the Late Model feature July 21 at Stafford Motor Speedway (Photo: Jim DuPont)
After winning 10 races and coming up short of a Late Model title in 2015, Tom Fearn came back and won 7 races last season and claimed the Late Model championship in 2016. Fearn and the #92 King Ward Coach Lines team are once again in the thick of the Late Model championship chase, entering the final 4 races of the 2017 season sitting third in the points, 20 points behind Glen Reen. With four races left, Fearn needs to make up a total of 10 positions over leader Glen Reen.
“The only thing we can do is go out and try to win every one of them,” said Fearn. “If you break it down, 4 races, 5 points a race, you need to make up 6 points a race or three spots. It can be done but the likelihood isn’t that great. Not that we’re not going to try. We have a game plan with things like tire strategy and what we have to do going into things and we’ll see how things go from there. We’d just like to have a chance at it come the Fall Final. I think we made up 8 points last Friday night and if we can keep on doing that, it would be good for us. You don’t wish anything bad on anyone else, but it’s probably going to take a bad night for the guys ahead of us to get back into position. It’s tough to try to finish ahead of someone every week but we’ll come out with guns loaded and try to win. If we have a little luck we can get right back in the thick of it come the Fall Final and make things really exciting.”
If anything, Fearn certainly has experience on his side. Fearn has 7 career track championships to his name and he has also been the winningest Late Model driver at Stafford over the past 3 seasons with a total of 20 feature wins. This season has seen great parity in the Late Model division with 8 different feature winners and Fearn is currently tied with Michael Bennett for the division lead this season with 3 wins. If Fearn could change one thing about his current points situation, he would prefer to be leading the standings rather than chasing the drivers who are in front of him.
“I’ve been in this position before so maybe being here before and having the experience will help give us a leg up,” said Fearn. “Who knows if it actually gives us any advantage, but we’d like to think it does. I’d rather be the leader, then you don’t have to do any chasing. You can sit and watch how things go and you also don’t have to win, you just need to finish right behind whoever is chasing you. When you’re doing the chasing you have to be more aggressive and when you’re more aggressive sometimes you start to run into problems.”
After dominating the Late Model points race a season ago, Fearn says that if he and his team were able to overcome the 20 point deficit and claim a second consecutive track championship, it would be sweeter than last season.
“The way things have gone this year with a DNF early in the year, we had to come back from that and it would be sweeter for us having to come from behind,” said Fearn. “But no matter what happens, we won’t hang our heads. Sometimes other guys have a better season and that’s what it all comes down to.”
Fearn and the Late Model division are all back in action this Friday night, September 8th as part of the First Responders Appreciation Night program at Stafford. All First Responders (EMT, Fire, Police) will receive a general admission ticket for only $10 by showing their I.D. at the admission gate. Regular tickets are priced at $17.50 for adult general admission, kids 6-14 are $5.00 and kids 5 & under are free. Reserved seating is available for $20 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Motor Speedway offers plenty of free parking along with overnight parking available for self contained Recreational Vehicles.
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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