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STAFFORD – With wholesale changes being the them of the offseason for Stafford Speedway Late Model driver Cliff Saunders, the Stafford driver figured challenging for victory wouldn’t be something he would see in the early weeks of the 2019.
Saturday he proved himself wrong.
Saunders held off every challenger to win the 30-lap Late Model feature Saturday at Stafford. It was the first career Late Model victory for Saunders.
“I really thought it was going to take some time to get used to the new car and used to the new setup and all the changes that we had for this season,” Saunders said. “… I knew this car was really good. I wasn’t really sure how it was going to be this week. … The car was better in the feature than it was in practice today.”
Kevin Gambacorta of Ellington rallied from a disqualification from a win last week to finish second. Tom Fearn of East Longmeadow, Mass. was third.
“We had a mission today,” Gambacorta said. “It’s unfortunate what happened last week and there’s always more to the story. But we just needed to prove that whatever they didn’t like last week, that’s not why we won the race.”
Matt Clement of Wethersfield passed Alexadra Fearn for the lead on lap six and led the rest of the way to win the 15-lap Limited Late Model feature.
It was the first career feature victory for Clement.
Duane Provost of Palmer, Mass was second and Jeremy Lavoie of Windsor Locks third.
Congrats to Cliff and his team. They say the first ones the hardest good luck going forward
Lets hope the car count stays up. Good to see a full field