Tom Fearn celebrates his fourth consecutive Late Model victory Friday at Stafford Speedway (Photo: Jim DuPont)
STAFFORD – On Saturday – like he has done for the previous three Saturday’s of his life – Tom Fearn will go looking for a way to make his Late Model faster.
That’s bad news for the rest of the Late Model field at Stafford Motor Speedway.
The fact is, Fearn has had the best Late Model for a month at Stafford, and each win only puts him on a more furious mission to find a way to make it better.
Fearn, of East Longmeadow, Mass. ran to his fourth consecutive victory in the 30-lap Late Model feature Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway.
“We’ve just to keep that ball rolling,” Fearn said. “When things are going right they’re going right. I’m sure we’ll have our bad luck one of these nights. We’ve just got to go with it and come back better and better every week. We’ll go back tomorrow and work on this car again and try to make it even better.”
Kevin Gambacorta of Ellington was second and Paul Arute of Tolland third.
Fearn started 11th in the 12-car Late Model field, but his time near the rear of the pack was short lived.
On lap one Fearn made a quick move through the field through first corner.
“We started near the back but lap one everybody got jammed up in [turn] one and I was in the right place at the right time and I think I passed half the field in turn one,” Fearn said. “Luck plays into it.”
Fearn was up to second, deep behind leader Tyler Leary, by lap nine. But a lap 15 caution bunched up the field gave Fearn the chance to size up Leary.
On lap 18 Fearn found his chance and went around Leary for a lead he wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way.
“The restart there really helped us on that,” Fearn said. “I just followed him and he got a little hot into [turn] three and go up the race track a little bit and that’s all I needed to get by him. Then after that I just had to make sure I didn’t screw up at all.”
Ryan Fearn of East Longmeadow, Mass. got his second victory of the season in the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature.
Alexandra Fearn of East Longmeadow, Mass. was second and R.J. Surdell of Willington third.
Brandon Michael of Granville, Mass. won the 20-lap Street Stock feature.
George Bessette Jr. of Danbury was second and Meghan Fuller of Aubrn, Mass. third.
Alexandra should have won her race. We were rooting for her. She should have dumped her brother to pay him back for the last two weeks at the end. Ryan should have been parked this week but with only 9 cars. They couldn’t. Congratulations Tom on your win! Your a real class act!
Some how I don’t think Stuart Fearn who has to fix the cars would sign on to the intentional dumping theory but the point is well taken. Ryan had to suffer the results of a penalty starting way, way back in the scratch position otherwise know as 9th or not much of a penalty at all. Some of the LLM and LM racing was good for sure but in view of the results and anemic car counts they should rename the two divisions the Fearn Invitational Late Model Divisions.
What would it take to merge the two divisions and make it somewhat equal? I think it needs to be done fast! Restrictor plates and weight for the late models? ACT is not the answer. Love to see some comments. 🏁🏁🏁
ACT is not the answer? I don’ t doubt there are good reasons for feeling that way I just would like to know what they are. All over the Northeast LM using the ACT rules are prospering. Modified country my foot. Modified and LM pockets is more like it. My view ACT is the only thing that can save Late Models.
Stafford is having a special night for Late Models. There are literally dozen’s of teams that are excluded simply because Stafford made a decision on rules, has teams invested and locked in on rules and the division struggles cause the rest of the Late Model world has passed them by. The Late Models invest a ton of money on their motors and you want to restrict and add weight to slow them down to be equal to a slower division. Never. Sorry, I’m just frustrated. It’s like watching something you care about die in slow motion. Even Ryan Fearn to his credit mentioned the low car count in victory lane after his win like it diminished it to some degree and when has that ever happened. It’s just all so sad.