Movin’ On Up: Alexandra Fearn Heading To Late Model Division At Stafford Speedway For 2023 



Alexandra Fearn (Photo: Jim DuPont/RaceDayCT)

In late October veteran Stafford Speedway racer Alexandra Fearn founded out she passed the bar exam to officially become an attorney. When it comes to setting the bar on her racing career, the East Longmeadow, Mass. driver will look to continue setting that higher in 2023 with a new endeavor at Stafford Speedway. 

After spending the last six seasons competing in the Limited Late Model division at Stafford, Fearn will make the jump to compete full-time in the Late Model division at the track in 2023. 

“I’m excited,” Fearn said. “I’m a little nervous about it. I thought about it for a while after the end of the year, even before the end of the year. So I’ve been thinking about this for a while, mulling it over. 

“Just a little nervous because it is a lot to learn. Yes, I’ve driven the cars before and I have ideas how to drive them. But it’s different. And I also like winning. Not to sound arrogant or full of myself or entitled or anything, but I do like winning and I realize that there will be a learning curve. I’m not going to go out there and burn the world down and win everything. But I think it’s a chance to learn. Every time I drove a Late Model it made me better at driving. So hopefully it will improve my overall driving skill.” 

Fearn is the winningest female driver in Stafford Speedway history with 25 career feature wins at the historic half-mile. In 2023 she will be looking to become the first female driver to record a win in Stafford’s Late Model division. 

“She said that she was really interested in moving up to the next challenge,” said Stu Fearn, Alexandra’s father and the owner of the Fearn Motorsports team. “She’s always up for a challenge. I said, ‘Ok, that’s what we do so let’s do it.’” 

Alexandra Fearn graduated from law school in May, took the bar exam in July and found out in late October she had passed the bar. She is now working full-time as an attorney.

Alexandra Fearn will be part of a stable of three full-time teams in the Late Model division at Stafford in 2023 for Fearn Motorsports. The team will also include her cousin Tom Fearn and her brother Ryan Fearn. Tom Fearn is the all-time winningest Late Model driver at Stafford with 62 victories. He also has championships in the division in 2016, 2018 and 2019. Ryan Fearn, who has three Late Model victories at the track since 2019, returns to the division full-time after running a part-time schedule at Stafford in 2022. 

Alexandra Fearn made one start in the Late Model division at Stafford in 2021 and three starts in the division in 2022. She finished fourth in the final Late Model event of the season at Stafford in 2022. 

“I’m excited because the last race we did pretty good,” Alexandra Fearn said. “I started last, passed the whole field, basically got up to fourth and was racing with the top three guys. It was so much fun. Literally got driven over by somebody, then hit the wall on my own later and still finished fourth.” 

Alexandra Fearn had seven wins in the Street Stock division at Stafford from 2014-2016. She recorded 18 victories in the Limited Late Model division from 2017-2022. In 2021 she won the Limited Late Model division championship, becoming the second female driver to win a track title at Stafford. Shelly Perry was the first to accomplish the feat, winning an SK Light Modified title in 2006. 

Ryan Fearn returns to the Late Models full-time after recording four top-fives in six starts in 2022. 

“Very excited about that,” Stu Fearn said. “And I know he’s excited too.”

Tom Fearn had five wins and 14 top-fives in 19 Late Model starts at Stafford in 2022 and finished second in the division standings. 

“We experimented a little bit last year in the Late Model and figured some stuff out,” Stu Fearn said. “By the end of the year we were a rocket ship.” 

Comments

  1. Suitcase Jake says

    Good luck Alexandra… You will be fine…. Your in great hands with the Knowledge of set ups and solid team behind you… Stu will get you to the Winners Circle…Just don’t force anything .. let the race come to you, make good decisions behind the wheel and before you know it you will get comfortable with the faster speeds and closing rates.. Exciting times…

  2. Stuart A Fearn says

    Thanks Suitcase. Really looking forward to having all three Fearns on the track going to the front. It should be exciting!

  3. Great to see another competitor join the late models at Stafford, also good to see Alexandra has got to run a few races to get the feel for what its like .A lot more speed and contact.than the limiteds. It would be nice to see cleaner racing in this division next year. I think having full body race cars leads to more aggression on on the race track and as the champion likes to say 8 wheels corner better than 4!.

  4. Suitcase Jake says

    well Stu… You have your hands full with 3 Race Cars in the Stable… I am guessing the hard part will be pit road…Maybe have 2 pit stalls side by side and first come first serve …?? hopefully they ALL don’t have issues at the same time .. Good Luck .. You always have your Cars looking good and always highly competitive… Not an easy feat….I am sure you have your pit road strategy down on paper….it’s super tough to field 3 pit crews on pit road …

  5. First off, need to congratulate Alexandra on passing the Bar Exam.
    It’s great to see her moving up to Late Model racing. With her patience and attention to detail, I think she’ll win at least once in ’23 along with a bunch of podiums. With her Dad supplying top shelf equipment and Cousin Tom as a teammate she should get up to speed quick. Tom proves that Stu can supply fast cars that have him enjoying success well into his golden years, so giving her fast cars shouldn’t be a problem. Wish her and the whole Fearn clan best of luck in ’23 and beyond. Happy holidays.

  6. Stuart A Fearn says

    Suitcase,
    The strategy, to be honest, is to not have to pit. Very simply stay out of trouble, keep the wheels on the car, finish every lap. Take what you can, when you can.
    To answer the question, or get to the point, if there was not a question, yes we would simply get two or three spots side by side. Sometimes that might be difficult but some teams share crew resources and others have zero crew so there are empty spots at times.
    For the people that do not know, the pit spots are not selected or chosen. The spot is assigned to the car as the same spot you are starting the feature in. So, say you are starting 10th, you would be in the 10th pit stall (the one just past the huge video screen with no concrete barrier so cars can drive behind pit wall. Easily identifiable but also can be a problem when cars want to drive through to get behind the wall & off pit road.
    Last night we were actually discussing our tire transportation strategy for bringing 12 tires out onto pit road each feature.

  7. Stuart A Fearn says

    Rob P,
    thank you for the kind words and the optimism! I’ll tell you, the late model division is not easy that is for sure. The only thing I can hope for is to get lucky and find something that works and the car has some speed in it right out of the box.
    Going to have to dig deep this winter in the off season to get another car built with all the pieces and parts we prefer for our speed formula. A lot of help from Hamm’s welding, RAD Auto machine, Williams race gear, New England Gear Polishing, Schaefer’s Racing Oil, Northeast Racecars, plus others I might be missing off the top of my head, will be needed because these cars don’t build themselves. There are dozens and dozens of parts and pieces needed and every single one has to be 100% in working order and installed correctly if you want to win.
    Perhaps we will get lucky, too early to tell right now.

  8. I think it’s rather amazing that Alexandra went through all the schooling, passed the BAR exam AND is a pretty successful racer! More great things to come for that family I’m sure!

  9. JH racing should be cleaner this year Bennet won’t be banging his way to the front or at least trying to get to the front

  10. Trust me Stuart, I know how much time, money and hard work goes into preparing just 1 car. For your team to be fielding 3 cars is, well, just controlled insanity. Luckily you’ve surrounded yourself with good people like Joe Hamm and Don wood. It helps allot when you start with good parts, but it’s still allot of long nights in the shop to make it happen. Then comes the weekly maintenance for those 3 cars, and hopefully you didn’t have to repair a wrecked car. Then all the logistics to get the cars to and from the track. There are allot of people who just don’t understand what is involved.

  11. Racing is 90% preparation, and 10% at the track. But, don’t get me wrong, A good driver can make up for allot. I’ve seen good drivers hop into a back marker and drive it to the front. By the same token I’ve seen mediocre drivers put in great equipment that can’t log a top 10. It’s not as easy as it looks, and allot of what happens, happens before the car ever takes the track.

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