STAFFORD – On May 28 Tom Butler celebrated the 30th anniversary of his first career victory in a Late Model at Stafford Speedway.
On Friday the Stafford veteran known as Turbo Tom showed at 63 years old he’s still has the speed to get it done.
Butler went past Duane Noll for the lead on lap two and never trailed again own the way to victory in the 30-lap Late Model feature Friday at Stafford.
It was the 26th career Late Model win at the track for Butler and his first since Sept. 9, 2016.
“I was hungry,” Butler said. “I didn’t run full-time the last few years, but I never gave up thinking that I could win again. We’ve assembled a really good team for this year, a group of guys that are really helping me out a lot. It made a little easier on my to concentrate more on racing car. We’ve got a good team and it feels really good.”
Darrell Keane of Enfield was second and Paul Varricchio of Berlin third.
Butler ran his first race at Stafford 48 years ago, making his first start at the track in a Street Stock at 16 years old in 1976. He has run in a Late Model at Stafford regularly since 1987. Butler ran 12 Late Model events in 2021 and three last season. He has started all five events this year and plans to run full-time.
“I guess I got to the point where I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be down here every Friday,” Butler said. “Some guys race cars or golf, whatever. I just decided to do what I was pretty decent at and here we are.”
Butler was in position to score victory last Friday before a mechanical malfunction cost him.
“I think we would have had it last week and we had that malfunction with a muffler bracket breaking off,” Butler said. “Something you can’t catch in the garage. But we knew it was a matter of time that we’d be contending to win again. This division is so equal right now. When it’s like that unfortunately sometimes you might have to move a guy to get it at the end. I’m not saying I would do that, but it might happen.”
Congratulations to Tom Butler and his #4 team for the win. Good job.
wat to go tom congratulations
thats way to go