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STAFFORD – One subject that it’s off limits of late around Stafford Motor Speedway is the weather.
But it was a different sort of reign being celebrated Saturday at Thompson Speedway by Jeremy Lavoie.
Lavoie, of Windsor Locks, began his reign as Limited Late Model champion by winning the division’s season opening 20-lap feature Saturday at Stafford Motor Speedway.
“That was a great start to the season,” said Lavoie, who won eight of 21 Limited Late Model features in 2018. “We’ve been itching all winter to get back out to the track. All six cars in this division are quick. It’s going to be tough. We’re all withing two-tenths [a second] of each other. As you could tell, I had to work for it.”
Gary Patnode of Barkhamstead was second and Matthew Clement of Wethersfield third.
Michael Hopkins got under George Bessette for the lead off of turn four on lap 19 and then held the top spot the rest of the way to win the 30-lap Street Stock feature.
“I was getting frustrated early on.” Hopkins said. “Caution after caution after caution. I was sweating. … Something about these big races, we just stay calm. I was like ‘We’ve got a long way to go.’ … I was just kind of biding my time. We got up there and had the restart and I got up along [Bessette] there and he ran clean.”
Meghan Fuller of Auburn, Mass. was second and Travis Hydar of Woodbury third.
Is Stafford speedway going to make the fans watch a 6 car feature all season long in the limited late models? Please do something either combine them with the late models or eliminate this nonsense. Street stock race was the show ,good field of cars and a great race almost won by Megan Fuller.
Probably and don’t worry they most likely will be run before the SK’s so you will not miss them every week. Not many tracks interview half the field after their feature. That’s what makes Stafford special.
Hey my prediction for Rookie of the race next week is Casagrande. I feel pretty confident making him my prediction for rookie of the year too.
The struggling limited late models have been talked about in these comments time and time again. Ideas have been floated about how to limit the limiteds sucking the life out of the show and have fallen on deaf ears. Its quite apparent Stafford doesnt care about the fans in the stands. they have addopted more of a back gate mentality to the detriment of general admission folks.
Six LLM’s? If they are going to run on their own, how about twin 10-lap races? Run the first one with the heats, invert the field, then run the second one as the middle feature. For people that aren’t interested, it will be a good “halftime break” to hit the concessions. And the racers will still get to race in a format that might be a little more interesting for those that do want to watch.