STAFFORD – Coming into Friday’s racing card at Stafford Speedway there had been six different winners in six Late Model events in 2023 at Stafford Speedway.
Kevin Gambacorta changed that statistic in streaking style in a drama filled feature Friday.
Gambacorta drove away from Adam Gray over the closing laps to win the 30-lap Late Model feature Friday at Stafford.
It was the second consecutive victory for Gambacorta, who became the first repeat winner of the season.
“I’m not upset that I was the one that broke the streak,” Gambacorta said. “I did not expect this tonight. We ran old tires last week. We had to do it again tonight just to keep on our program and stay on sequence. So we were just hoping to manage. I guess we managed pretty good.”
It was the 14th career Late Model win at Stafford for Gambacorta.
Adam Gray of Belchertown, Mass. was second and Tom Butler of Stafford third.
“:We definitely worked out butts off tonight,” Gray said. “I hate to talk like a jerk, but you’ve got a moron like [Andrew Durand] out there. If it weren’t for him we’d probably be where [Gambacorta] is. Other than that, good hard racing. A podium again, turned the car around, we’re way better than we’ve been.”
Said Butler: “It feels good. We weren’t quite sure that that was the way it would turn out. But a few things happened during the race, the guys were getting after it out there and a few holes opened up and I was able to get in there when I needed to. The car is fast. I’ve got a few more tweaks on it to make it a little bit better because these guys up front I’m racing with now, they’re race winners and champs and they’re hard to beat. But we can.”
Jacob Perry went to the lead on lap one with caution quickly flying on lap two. Perry held the lead through the lap two restart and checked out from the field by lap four.
On lap five Tom Fearn moved past John Blake to second place. By then Perry had opened a two and a half second lead on the field. Caution flew again on lap seven. On the ensuing restart Perry got the jump out front. When Fearn tried to slide in behind Perry into turn one he made contact with Paul Varricchio in third. Varricchio’s car drove over the side of Fearn’s with multiple cars then piling into Fearn in turn two.
The restart put Gray outside of Perry on the front row. Gray used the outside lane to cruise into the lead through turn one at the green. On lap 12 Perry was able battle back and regain the top spot, but a lap later Gray went back by Perry to go to the lead again.
On lap 14 the car of Andrew Durand slowed through turns one and two, forcing Gray and to take evasive action. Perry capitalized and went back to the lead with Gambacorta moving to second.
On lap 23 Gambacorta got under Perry into turn three and came off of turn four with the lead with Butler following to second place. In turn one on lap 24 contact between Perry and Gray and sent Perry spinning.
On the restart it was Gambacorta getting away leaving Gray and Butler to fight for second.
Why is Adam mad at Durand the 00 of Perry ran him hard early in the race and sent him high causing him dropping back in the field Durand just did what others did trying to get back on the track and make up positions?
Congrats to Kevin and the #23 team for your 2nd consecutive win, becoming the first repeat winner of the season. Great job.
The23 ran me clean,he’s fast
Adam gray is such a crybaby
You can think Gray is a cry baby but you’d be upset if a lap car came back out and got in your way, too. After Durand took out Wray, I thought he would’ve gotten a black flag but didn’t see one displayed.
What was up with Tom Fearn trying to get down when he was nowhere near clear? So much damage from that, but no one will complain about him. Even the announcers said “he was in the right place on the track”… another week that Paul V. is wrecked for no reason.
Congrats to Kevin!
Sounds to me that there was some aggressive driving going on. Tom Fearn seems to have gotten the worse of it, and Perry probably drove way too deep into the corner causing it. As far as Adem Gray being mad at Andrew, don’t understand why. Andrew is a multi time limited late model champ, and has a win this season, he belongs out there. There are reasons a driver returns to competition after a wreck. Adams spotter should have warned him about the slow car.