Buddy Battle: Cory DiMatteo Tops SK Modified Feature At Stafford Speedway



Cory DiMatteo celebrates victory in the SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford (Photo: Jim DuPont/RaceDayCT)

STAFFORD – It’s been the battle of buddies at the front of the SK Modified field the last two weeks at Stafford Speedway.

Last week Bryan Narducci passed Cory DiMatteo for the lead on lap 26 of the SK Modified feature at Stafford Speedway and went on to his first victory of the season.

Friday DiMatteo wasn’t letting Narducci by again.

DiMatteo held off the charges of Narducci over the second half of the race to win the 40-lap SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford Speedway.

It was the second SK Modified feature victory at Stafford for DiMatteo, of Farmington. He got his first win on July 13, 2020.

Narducci was there to douse DiMatteo with water in victory lane immediately following the event.

“We definitely hit on something last week and we just matched what we came with last week and the thing was on rails tonight,” DiMatteo said. “Bryan ran me clean. Hats off to him. It’s going to be fun battling with him. He’s one of my best friends.”

Narducci, of Colchester, was second and Ronnie Williams of Ellington third.

DiMatteo got by Narducci for second on lap 16 and then went under Marcello Rufrano for the lead a lap later. Narducci went by Rufrano for second on lap 19 but couldn’t find a lane by DiMatteo the rest of the way.

“I just watched a lot of film from last week, studied where I was better than him and then just made the adjustments for this week,” DiMatteo said. “Sometimes that’s what it takes is to fail and fail forward. Hopefully we get better every week.”

Narducci’s runner-up finish continues his streak as the hottest driver in the division in 2022. In six starts he has a victory, three second place finishes, a third and a fifth place. He’s the only driver in the division with top-five finishes in all six events in 2022.

“Second is real good,” Narducci said. “Keeps our string top-fives going this year. Coming off a win last week, ending up on the podium is real good. Congrats to Cory. That was a good race. He ran really hard and he ran clean. You can’t beat that.”

Narducci extended his lead at the top of the standings to 28 points over second place Stephen Kopcik, who had a fifth place run Friday. Williams is third in the standings, 32 points behind Narducci.

Comments

  1. Congrats to Cory, John and Edward… it’s been a long time since the Hummel / Raceworks 11 has been in victory lane.. tough competition out there, keep at it!

  2. Tell you what, DiMatteo is lucky Rocco is such a good driver. Earlier the 11 got into the 57, Rocco saved it but if he had spun it would have been bad. The 11 surely would have been sent to the rear.
    Narducci’s super power is at the start. He’s always been aggressive at the start only this year he’s become skilled as well. He and Kopcik started the race in proximity. Bryan navigates the traffic effective early, Kopcik not able to keep up so he ended up grinding.
    This has been coming for a while but to see the 11 car going to the front when in past years it was starting up front and going back is really something to witness.

  3. Been a long time since a Raceworks car has been this fast at Stafford. Congrats to all involved.

  4. old school best school dont overspend says

    Guess the big Dollar LFR , TFR , FURY whatever people better get busy catching up. also saw if its true according to Ben Dodge an old chassis car really tearing up the SKL. Bessette? in a backup??.. dont worry though based on how Tom Baldwin Jr is doing that will be the newest gotta have chassis for you money guys. kudos to Flemke and team that no one thought would run well.

  5. All Seeing says

    Bessette’s black car is Lloyd Agor’s SK chassis

  6. Narducci disqualified for tranny

Leave a Reply

Copyright 2018 E-Media Sports

Website Designed by Thirty Marketing