STAFFORD – The road to victory lane in the Limited Late Model division in 2019 has figuratively been a long one for Alexandra Fearn.
And Friday it was also quite literally when taking into account the seven days Fearn had between events at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Fearn, of East Longmeadow, Mass., got her first victory of the season in the 15-lap Limited Late Model feature Friday at Stafford Speedway.
Fearn packed plenty of living between her second place finish on July 5 and Friday’s victory.
Fearn, who recently graduated Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, left Stafford Speedway on July 5 and drove to New York City meet with her former college roommate, who had taken a job with Microsoft in Redmond, Wash.
The pair left New York City on Saturday morning and hit the road to Seattle, making a four-day commute of the cross-country trek.
Late Thursday night Fearn got on a plane in Seattle and laned in New York at 5 a.m. Friday. From there she drove from New York to East Longmeadow, Mass. to prepare for her return to the track.
The weariness wasn’t enough to slow her on the half-mile at Stafford where she had enough to dominant from start-to-finish in the feature.
“This is awesome,” Fearn said. “I can’t thank my dad and [car owner Amedeo Francesca] enough. I was away this week so this car is fast because of them. Thank you so much guys, and everyone that comes down to the shop.”
Jeremy Lavoie of Windsor Locks was second and Matt Clement third.
It was a victory that poured relief over Fearn who has had a fast car much of the season but has struggled to seal the deal on victories. Fearn had one victory in 2017 and one in 2018 in the division.
“It’s definitely really frustrating,” Fearn said of chasing victory in 2019. “It feels like literally ages. I know that the grind never stops when you race here every week. You only have six days really between races, which is not a lot. It feels like an eternity when your car is ill handling. … It’s really hard on your confidence and the moral and the motivation to keep coming back. … There’s other things I could be doing in my life. I could have taken two weeks to drive across the U.S. but we took six days because of my racing schedule. Because I knew that this is where I want to be.
“When you do find success and do achieve the goals that you’ve been looking to achieve it’s a huge confidence boost. I feel more motivated than ever to come back here every single week and be faster … and make more improvement on top of all of the other stuff we’ve done.”
All the work put in that culminates in graduation. The ultimate road trip. She said the win at Stafford was bigger. I’m not buying that at all. There is no better feeling then hitting the road with a friend on an adventure just after you accomplish a huge life goal and before you start the grind of real life work.
For now I’m congratulating AF on her degree. Well done.