With piles victories come milestones and that has been the case regularly for Late Model driver Tom Fearn this year at Stafford Speedway.
On July 8 Fearn got his first Late Model win of the season which marked his 75th career feature win at Stafford.
Friday night a second consecutive Late Model victory for Fearn meant another milestone for the veteran from East Longmeadow, Mass.
Fearn got his second consecutive victory in the 30-lap Late Model feature Friday at Stafford.
It was the third victory of 2022 for Fearn and his 77th feature victory overall, moving him into a tie with Keith Rocco for third place on the track’s all-time win list. The late Ted Christopher leads the track’s all-time win list with 131 victories. Woody Pitkat is second with 80 wins.
Fearn is the track’s all-time winningest Late Model driver with 60 wins in the division since 2004. He also had 17 victories in the old Pro Stock division from 1992 to 2000. Fearn has three Pro Stock championships and three Late Model championships at Stafford.
“That’s in the back of your head all the time,” Fearn said of the milestones. “When I’m ready to stop we’ll worry about the numbers I guess.”
It proved a very short celebration of being tied for third for Fearn. Later in the evening Rocco won the 40-lap SK Modified feature to take back sole possession of third place on the all-time win list with 78 victories
Michael Bennett of Willington was second and Darrell Keane of Enfield third. Adam Gray was fifth, snapping a streak of 10 consecutive podium finishes dating back to the first Friday in June.
Rookie Kevin Cormier of Agawam, Mass. scored his first career victory in the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature.
“This is amazing,” Cormier said. “I’m at a loss for words right now. I can’t believe it. … I came here with the intention of winning and no one was going to stop me. We came here and got it down. It’s about time. We came so close to many times. To finally get it down, it feels amazing.”
Matt Scappini of Litchfield was second and Devon Jencik of Canton third.
Bobby Stirk III of Naugatuck scored his fourth victory of the season in the 20-lap Street Stock feature.
Travis Hydar of Woodbury was second and Adrien Paradis III of Plainville third.
George Bessette Jr. of Danbury got his third victory of 2022 in the the 20-lap SK Light Modified feature.
Nick Anglace of Ansonia was second and Amanda West of Colchester third.
Great skl race, tough night for the point leaders, great run for the top 3. Amanda West was coming at the end. The Pup showed the crowd how it’s done!!!
Two images come to mind with Debbis. The first after getting his first SK Light win after only a few races. The wonderment of winning so new he could barely cobble together words at the time he was so surprised. The other last night. Arguing with an official it appeared who would not let him re-enter the race after making his own repair. Pretty agitated which is understandable. After so much success early in his career blasting through traffic on his way to the front this year he’s been a jingle magnet.
Another image comes to mind. Megan Fuller commenting in a break under red early in the season. Talking not about her prospects for a strong finish nor having a good season but for that one race simply surviving. Forth last night and 7th in points that I believe includes a missed feature she’s battling like heck in each race now. West as well. Third last night, forth in points. Seems like a sweety pie when she’s interviewed belying a competitive fire that sees her battling for every position on the track either taking or giving. It shouldn’t make a difference they being woman but you know as well as I do in the testosterone fueled world of auto racing it’s special to see.
30 cars starting the feature this late in the season imagine what that’s like for the drivers. There is never an easy week, not ever. And you only get 20 laps to do what you have to do to meet your goal for the race making risk/reward choices all that more critical. They are the real second division in my view. Underpaid, under rated and nearly the perfect division in all of racing in the Northeast near as I can figure. Balancing affordability, youth vs experience, parity, top male and female drivers and consistent full fields.
Pearl a long shot for the championship when the night began now within striking distance. That’s the SK Lights in a nutshell.
Zoom, zoom!
Affordable Doug? Can’t agree with you there.
Context please. Affordable in relationship to all the alternatives. Come on man….30 cars…..in August. Doesn’t that count for anything.? Throw the old man a bone for Pete’s sake.
I admit I have glazed over Fuller for awhile as a good SKL driver but Friday night she looked “racey”. When I saw Nichole Morgillo win against Teddy it was an awesome night of racing. (except Doug probably does not count the win and still has not forgiven her for punching Teddy on the back stretch at the Speedbowl opener a few years ago; what a career faux pas! ). I will have to pay closer attention the next few weeks and looking forward to a win by Fuller or West.
It just never ceases to amaze me what RaceDayCt has done for local racing. Perhaps not noticed is the fact Shawn Courchesnes is literally writing the history of local racing for posterity a story at a time. Want the history of Thompson’s changes over the last few years you can get most of it with a few clicks. A certain popular driver from the past at the Speedbowl also has a good part of her history documented courtesy of RaceDayCt.
It’s Nichole Thibeault now aka The Mom With Twins that Wins.
Ms Thibeault is one of the highlights in the rich Speedbowl history. You may want to bust my chops invoking her name by telling me what I’m thinking about one incident in her long racing career. Rather then say something equally superficial how about we re-visit what she’s meant to local racing and what a remarkable woman she is for more then racing.
If you are a subscriber consider going to Unmuffled Episode 77 August, 24, 2020. You’ll enjoy her take on events in her racing career but may also be impressed with how she’s conformed her racing involvement to fit her life and not made her life about racing.
9 years racing an SK, one win, the continuing rivalry with Christopher, the physical confrontation, the friendship….she touches on it all. As well as the return in 2020 to the SK Lights where she wins in only her second race back the reason for the interview.
If all you can remember about Ms Thibeault is getting into it with TC you’re really short changing the woman seems to me. She was a young hot blooded competitor when that occurred, it’s racing lore now as well it should be. In the Unmuffled interview you hear a mature woman that at least as of 2020 has her priorities exactly correct…..mom first. Then wife, work and racing if she can swing it but never forgetting she’s a mom first.
So what’s Nicole up to now let’s take a look at social media. Still turning out some terrific hair stylings but looks like she’s back in racing as well. As a racers mom at Silver City looks like and a successful racer as well.
Some dot connecting for sure but the gist is mostly on point. Hopefully we can catch up with Nicole at some point and write another chapter in her intriguing story.
My apologies for my rather vague response Doug. I enjoy your comments on these boards as I feel they are insightful. Here is a bone to chew on for you. The Genesis of the SK Lite was to be an affordable option as an entry level open wheel division as we all know. In the first years the costs were controlled allowing for those smaller teams to be competitive against the larger teams, in terms of budget. But, I would argue, in recent times, the division has evolved into a big budget division.
How did this happen one might inquire. Perhaps a myriad of rule changes pertaining to chassis and motor. Perhaps the search for highly sought after expensive parts “those in the know” or ” those who have connections” or those that have the funding can obtain with ease. The affordability left this division approximately five years ago.
History is the best example to see the future. For a history lesson let’s look at the SK Modified Division. Why was that division brought about in the early 80’s? One might say because the weekly modified division was too expensive and this was an affordable option. What happened there? Money made the wins. Yes talent as well, but money was a large factor. So the SKL was born when the SK got out of control. What’s next? The SK Double Lite? Probably not because, as you pointed out, there are 30 cars running. But how many of the 30 are competitive?
For further bone chewing Doug, because I don’t want to give you a cheap Milk Bone, rather I would like to supply a T-bone for you. Let’s look at the 30 cars. For my observation, barring any anomalies, one could discuss the finishes for those cars. I would argue, on a average night cars finishing 1 – 5 have budgets in the 10’s of thousands for the season. Plus they have talent. Cars 5 – 15 have the budget and maybe lesser talent. And drivers please don’t be offended by that, we are all human and have varying degrees of talent if we are truly being honest with ourselves. Cars 16 – 25, talent might be there money isn’t. 25 -30, well…. Sorry for the harshness, Rome wasn’t built in a day and I believe hard work and perseverance pays the dividends in the end. So keep plucking I love an underdog. But to wrap up my point for Doug, money is the factor the divides. It is true in most aspects of life. I have heard people say they would not get into an SKL without a $50000 season budget. They might have been hyperbolic or peacocking at the time, but does that sound affordable? Well, I guess it is all relative and to some 50000 is nothing, but to me, I am a lowly blue collar type.
Well I have rambled long enough and probably opened a can of worms. That’s what I get for being bored on a Sunday! Cheers!
Congrats to Tom Stuart and the Gear motorsports team Great job. Hitting on all 8 at the right time of the season
I don’t particularly favor blue collar referred to as lowly but in any event that was some good writing with one request…more please.
thank you Rob
50k if you have to have to buy a race car, trailer and truck before the start of the season. To run a full SKL schedule you need approx $6k in tires, 2K in race gas, need to not work a full day on race day (lost $$$ depends on your job) tires go on sale at 3 pm on friday, practice starts at 4. This is if you do not wreck your car – throw in one accident add $1k…. average purse per race pays $120 – so you get back $2400 minus uncle sam’s cut. Much cheaper than SK