(Press release from Stafford Speedway)
Stafford Speedway officials have released the 2020 rules for its premier full fendered Late Model division.
For the 2020 season, the Late Model rules will remain unchanged from the 2019 season.
Stafford’s Late Model division currently sees Tom Fearn with a commanding 112 point lead in the championship standings and ready to claim his 3rd Late Model track title and his 6th overall at Stafford.
Fearn leads all drivers with 7 wins this season but there have been 7 different Late Model feature winners this season. Michael Wray, Kevin Gambacorta and Al Saunders have each won twice while Cliff Saunders, Adam Gray, and Ryan Fearn each have a single win to their credit.
Paul Arute, Michael Bennett, and Darrell Keane, who have all won races in previous seasons, are still in search of their first win this season.
Teams are encouraged to contact the track via phone, email, or social media with any questions relating to rules or track procedures.
2020 Late Model Modified Rules Available Here
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Arent they kind of contradicting themselves in this article
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For the 2020 season, the Late Model rules will remain unchanged from the 2019 season.
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2020 Late Model Modified Rules Available Here
Anyway, I wasn’t expecting much in the way of change. They seem quite content with their late models. Admittedly it has gotten better this year compared to last year. I think Fearn probably clinched by now last year, they didn’t put a bounty on him this year. I doubt it will trend much better as there isn’t much in the way of limiteds to move up and honestly a move up just makes the limited field worse. Most of the other area tracks are on ACT rules so you cant really pull from other tracks. When you are on an island rules wise you have to grow car count organically not through acquisition and who wants to build a car that you can only run or sell to someone to race at Stafford.
What is the plan with the Limited Late models? Did they announce anything on them? Perhaps folding them into the late models to create a full field of late models, They cant be happy with their current field of limiteds, they cut feature laps and qualifying for them.
Great to see no changes for 2020. Building a Stafford Late Model is expensive ( ask Stuart Fearn). So no changes is a good thing. They need to do something with the LLM class. One idea is to do like SCCA does and run the limiteds with the street stocks. This would put more cars on the track and you could have a winner in each class, and maybe an additional award for the overall winner. Or they should come up with a 2 year plan to merge the limited with the late models for 2021.
This will be interesting won’t it. Seeing what Stafford does with the LLM’s.
Smart money says nothing. No heats, 15 laps with 7 to 9 pretty good cars is painless. Sometime the race is pretty good.
Folding them in with another division has been mentioned more times then we can count. It’s risky, neither the LM’s or LLM’s would appreciate it and it shortens the show Stafford seems to like to have go to 10ish. Folding the LLM’s in with the Streets would be a disaster. Streets have one drive wheel and are groove cars in the extreme. LLM would wreck havoc on them.
LM’s may be the premier full bodied division but it’s the third division in terms of fan interest. Biggest problem and strength is the Fearns. Strength for having such an influential well funded, multi car operation deliver great cars every year to the program. Problem because Tom just wrings all the excitement out of the division with his perpetual excellence. Perfection can be boring.
The status quo is a powerful magnet and Stafford tends to limit their changes to incremental rather then sweeping.
I personally think the big thing next year will be what they do with the Open shows and VMRS. My view is the future is about the Opens. Weekly attendance for the regular shows has not been that good has it even with ideal weather? Or has it? NWMT, Opens and specials…….those are the big money makers. Or are they?
Stafford’s Late Models used to be one of the most competitive second divisions but in recent years car count and real competition is lacking. It has become boring to watch Tom Fearn dominate and win 10+ races every year. Nothing against the Fearn team but if they utilized ACT rules they would attract more competitive cars. They could still allow current cars to compete and use weight to compensate. No track using ACT rules has a racer winning 10+ races a year. The number of ACT cars prohibit this. I doubt this would ever happen as Stafford seems to like having their own support divisions with rules that don’t allow you to race at other tracks. Unfortunately, this does not support full fields and good racing in the Late Models or Limited Late Models at Stafford.