Pro Late Model Race Cancelled At Stafford; Weekly Divisions Join the Lincoln Tech Open 80 Event


(Press release from Stafford Speedway)






The Pro Late Model 81 scheduled for Saturday, August 22nd has been cancelled due to the number of Pro Late Model teams that are not able to attend the August date.  The event was originally scheduled for May and the postponement to August was a result of the Covid-19 delayed opening. The Late Models, Limited Late Models, and Street Stocks will now join Friday’s Lincoln Tech Open 80 event.

“We had strong interest in this event when it was scheduled earlier in the season but with the date change being so close to the Oxford 250, the scheduling didn’t work,” explained Stafford Speedway President Mark Arute. “It’s a tough decision but we decided to cancel this event as it would not have lived up to what our race fans expect from a Stafford Speedway show. We won’t rule out trying a similar event in the future but 2020 was not meant to be for the Pro Late Model division.”

Stafford’s Late Model, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions that were scheduled to run alongside the Pro Late Model division on Saturday night have been moved to Friday, August 21st along with the Lincoln Tech Open 80, SK Modifieds®, and SK Light Modifieds. 

“We’re back to our classic Friday night event pairing the Modifieds with our 5 weekly divisions,” continued Arute. “We’ve said this a few times this year but we want to thank all the fans and race teams for working with us through the ever changing 2020 season. We appreciate all the support we’ve received.”

All tickets purchased for Saturday’s events will be refunded.  The weekly teams that have purchased their tickets for Saturday’s event will be changed to Friday.

General Admission tickets and Paddock passes for Friday’s Lincoln Tech Open Modified 80 are now available online. Capacity is limited to 25% per the State of CT mandate, once tickets are sold out additional tickets will not be available. We recommend fans and teams order tickets in advance. 

For more information, visit www.staffordspeedway.com, checkout Stafford Speedway on Facebook or Twitter, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.

Comments

  1. Suitcase Jake says

    That is Totally understandable with the Oxford 250 conflict for most of the top runners.. We will look forward to the Pro Late Models on the 2021 Stafford Schedule, I believe it will be a great show with some surprise drivers jumping in a seat aka Doug Coby if the tour is not racing on the same date ….that would be FUN!!

  2. Well…That Sucks, especially for the Stafford regulars who built or purchased cars and motors for the event. They could have postponed it rather than cancelling it. Probably a few very pissed off Stafford regulars.

  3. Ken Latham says

    Unfortunate, but makes sense. Oxford 25 is THE event for LM’s. Curious as to wht the TTOMS is NOT on Staffords Schedule yet

  4. Is the Oxford 250 the same weekend?

  5. Bill Realist says

    The writing on the wall was authored for this when only 12 cars showed up at Claremont for a $3k to win granite state race last month

  6. 🌈🦄2020 says

    Was the Oxford 250 just scheduled this week?

  7. Fast Eddie says

    2020 the Oxford 250 has always been in the schedule around this time. However, I think the qualifying events that were last weekend and this coming weekend were supposed to happen earlier in the year. But of course the virus kept those from happening as originally scheduled. .

  8. Dear God, would it kill you guys to use Google every now and again. Type Oxford 250. Hey, look at that. There’s the date.

    The Oxford 250 is scheduled a year in advance. The week before the Oxford 250 is also a big week for SLMs at the track. I don’t think the cars were the issue. It was ticket sales. Trying to do this with no mods on the schedule was not smart. Stafford rescheduling it for this weekend was also not smart. This is the third schedule makeover Stafford has had to do for this upcoming weekend. A SLM event would work best on Sizzler or Fall Final weekend. Or make it part of the Haunted 100 weekend like Seekonk. Maybe a 35 lap Pro Stock race on Oct 24th?

    Bill, GSPSS had 27 Pro Stocks at Beech Ridge last weekend. That included home track guys as well as a few Seekonk guys.

  9. I think it’s another demonstration of how Stafford cares about the quality of the product they present.

    It would have been just as easy, maybe easier, to go ahead and run the event with a crappy Pro Stock car count and collect everybody’s $30 ticket payment, sell some refreshments, and collect PPV purchases. They chose to verify who was still coming and prevent a low value event.

    While some competitors are probably not happy, possibly including the local divisions who were switched to Saturday and had fans and sponsors buy tickets for Saturday, it’s worth noting this move also adds work to the track staff to issue refunds and the track eats card processing costs.

  10. As a continuation of my previous post, I’ll share an example of the opposite of Stafford’s decision…

    Back in ’08-’90, a combination of the global financial meltdown, the Japanese Tsunami, and other factors hammered sports car racing sponsorship. Many teams folded, some moved to cheaper classes, others didn’t run distant events.

    As a long-time IMSA and FIA road racing fan, I happily paid nearly $100 for a ticket to an IMSA event at Lime Rock. These events typically would feature 40-50 cars in the main event, in four classes. The top class was LMP1, LeMans Prototype 1, a super exotic class featuring cars that are built in single digit numbers with no attempt to be like a street car. They are basically Formula1 with full carbon fiber bodies. LMP1 are incredible cars, and the star of the event.

    _2_ LMP1 entries showed, the total car count was about 20 in all four classes. For a $100 ticket… Similar things have happened in the top classes of TransAm.

    In most cases, the sanctioning body had collected entry fees from teams that didn’t show, Lime Rock Park had no control, and could only go with what they were told would show. LRP made an effort to make it up to long time fans.

    This is why I appreciate the crew at Stafford making the effort to verify who is really coming for a major event and taking necessary action to prevent a completely lame event.

  11. That is a tough bid especially for Stafford teams the put together entries specifically for this race including including Owen, Fearn, Narducci and Pearl.. The entry list went from 18 to 13 in the blink of an eye so what could the track do? The Stafford LM race would have been better then the Pro Late Models.
    Not crying in their beer is what Stafford is not doing. They’re doing the next best thing piling it all into Friday and it won’t be a pandemic year light open 80. It’s the full nut and if you like late models don’t count out the Stafford Late Models that are producing good fields and the best competition in years.
    This may be the best racing value of the year. Tour mods with Preece, SK’s need no build up, a resurgent LM field and the always loaded and unpredictable SK Lights. No screwing around. All features for the under card and no lulls in the action with even the Streets and LLM’s putting on a great show.
    Only down side is the late night for folks traveling to Jennerstown and the loss of guys like Silk and Lutz. How Goodale is doing it who knows but he’s on the list and Art Berry’s entry and the 7NY as well for a total of 29 entries on paper. Then the NWMT for Saturday makes it a swell weekend of racing and by Sunday we will have forgotten about the first casualty to the year of the pandemic.

  12. The coronavirus COVID-19 #TrumpPandemic is wreaking havoc in the USA. If only the Trump Administration would do something about it. Ignoring the #TrumpPandemic is not working.

    Only when the #TrumpPandemic is eliminated can we get back to the way we Americans expect to live life in the USA.

  13. Less then 300 tickets left for Friday!

  14. JD is right, Stafford did this to PASS series the only time at the track, ran them on a Sunday with no real support divisions. Why not run on a Friday night?

  15. With a 25 percent capacity limit Stafford is not pairing two touring divisions on same day , which is understandable , they are not in business to break even at best because when it’s not profitable it will be the end of another track . I heard 10 cars had committed , there wouldn’t of been many happy fans

  16. Doug mentioned that there were only 18 teams signed up initially, and that number had shrunk to just 13. When the pro late model race was first advertised I thought for sure they’d have a full field, and would even end up sending cars home. Given that it looks like only 13 cars, with 5 or 6 being Stafford regulars, it seems a good idea to cancel. Maybe schedule a few races for 2021, with a strong purse in hopes of drawing a full field. In the meantime, maybe have a 20 lap race, for the Stafford guys who purchased cars, at the fall final, maybe give a couple hundred to win, just to show these guys that their efforts aren’t forgotten. It’s amazing though that the race didn’t draw more cars.

  17. Bill Realist says

    Yeah JD in pro stock territory. It’s been proven that they don’t travel well. Even pre plandemic see thunder road last year. Or any granite state event outside of Maine this year.

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