STAFFORD – After 19 events and hundreds of laps, the battle for the Late Model championship at Stafford Speedway in 2021 came down to a pass for third place with just over a mile of competition left in the season.
The 2021 championship battle in the division came down to a heads up battle between Michael Bennett and Adam Gray Friday at Stafford Speedway.
When the final checkered flag flew it was Adam Gray of Belchertown, Mass. celebrating victory and Michael Bennett of Willington celebrating a championship in the closest way possible.
Bennett came into the final event of the season holding a four-point lead in the standings over Gray. With Bennett’s third place finish the pair ended up tied at the top of the standings. Bennett won the championship on a tiebreaker based on his five wins to Gray’s three victories.
Bennett passed Andrew Molleur for third place off of turn two on lap 28 to get himself in the position to win the title.
“I was a little off tonight, but we’re champions,” Bennett said.
It was the second Late Model title for Bennett, who won his first in the division in 2015. He also won a Limited Late Model title at Stafford n 2005.
Bennett was in his first season returning to running a family operated team after competing for Rob Russell Racing in the division in 2019 and 2020.
“I am stoked,” Bennett said. “This one has been a lot of hard work. I can’t thank my wife enough. This was her idea. It was about this time last year that she said ‘You can’t drive for somebody anymore, you’ve got to go back to driving for yourself.’ And I don’t drive for myself, I drive for a ton of people. My entire crew, my family and all of our sponsors.”
Bennett finished the season with 13 top-fives in 19 starts and 17 top-10’s. Gray had 14 top-fives and 17 top-10’s.
“Last week we kind of struggled a little bit and we thrashed on this thing all week and if it weren’t for [my crew] we wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t even have a shot at a championship,” Gray said. “Those guys are everything. They’re the best guys in the world.”
All I can say is thanks to the Late Models for a great, great season. They truly are the second division now, are loaded with battle hardened drivers with good cars and put on a show most races with the points battle ending in a tie breaker between two great teams. Bennett takes a lot of heat for his driving style and maybe it’s deserved but still you have to give him credit for coming back in his own car and winning the championship. The his own car part his wife’s idea so you win the spouse of the year award as well it would appear.
Alexandra Fearn rightfully got her full gamut of accolades for winning the LLM championship. What was really intriguing was seeing her in her initial outing swimming with the sharks in the Late Models with the 12 car fresh out of mothballs. Qualified well starting back in the heat making it into the handicap then turning a 15th place start in the feature into a 10th place finish avoiding some mayhem in the process. Not bad young lady.
Those LLM’s have a pretty fair bunch of drivers that for the most part know each other and race each other well on a weekly basis. The Late Models are no where near as well mannered nor wide open spaces to hit your marks uncontested as easily attained.
I hope the move up is permanent I’ve been waiting for it to see if she really has the goods to take on the big boys on a weekly basis. Initial indications are yes indeed. Whether it’s the LLM’s or Late Models acknowledgment to Stuart Fearn who makes it all go for Fearn Motorsports from making sure the drivers have quality equipment to making the resources he provides turn fast laps on the track.
Moeller not qualifying for rookie of the year but certainly earning the pleasant surprise of the year with some darned good hard nosed, full body rutting and grinding.
Congrats to both Gray and Bennett. I agree, Bennett’s style is certainly “aggressive”, just like last night where he moved Moeller for the pass, but at least he didn’t wreck him. Great season for the LM’s
Congrats to Adam Gray and the whole #97 team for the win. You did all you could do trying to win the championship.
Congrats to Micheal Bennett for winning the 2021 Stafford Motor Speedway Late Model Championship. Great job.
We hope Moeller returns to the 31 late model next year and remembers those who ran him clean and those who didn’t. Congrats to Adam Gray on another win. It sure was a great season for the late models. Both the rookies winnings races and running up front weekly. We think the 19 and the 5 must have got their shocks from Koptcik.