The Stafford Speedway logo features the words “Home of the SK Modified”.
They may want to update that logo and add, also the home of the SRX Series.
It was announced today that the SRX Series will return to Stafford Speedway for the fourth consecutive year in 2024.
“The return to Stafford was a decision that was easily agreed upon by owners, drivers, ESPN and sponsors,” SRX Series CEO Don Hawk said. “They do it right, they pack the place out and the fans come early, stay late and sell the place out. The Arute family and I have done deals over a 20 year span they’re very good people to deal with and a great race track to run on”
The series will return to the track on July 11, 2024. It will mark the third time in four years that the series will kick off its season at Stafford. Stafford has hosted four SRX Series events since the series debuted in 2021 and is the only track that has been on the SRX Series schedule each year the series has been in existence.
“This is a testament to the Northeast race fans,” Stafford Speedway CEO Mark Arute said. ““We were honored to host the SRX series the first time in 2021, now we are on SRX’s fifth visit to Stafford. Our fans continue to show how much they love short track racing. Each time the SRX series has come to town the atmosphere in the stands is incredible. The Northeast has always been overlooked when it comes to the national auto racing spotlight but SRX has proved that these fans deserve events like this.”
The track hosted the first event in series history on June 12, 2021. That event was won by former Stafford regular and six-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby.
The series returned to Stafford in its second season, with the track hosting the third of six events that year on July 22, 2022. Ryan Newman won the 2022 event.
Last year Stafford hosted the division’s season opener again, with Denny Hamlin scoring victory in the July 13, 2023 event. The second event of the 2023 season was scheduled to be run at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt., but due to catastrophic flooding in central Vermont, SRX Series management was forced to cancel the event. Stafford stepped in to host the second event of the 2023 season with Newman winning the July 20, 2023 event.
The driver lineup for the Stafford event is expected to be announced in January.
“So does Hamlin come defend, or Newman continue to be hot there or do we see a reappearing of a Coby or a [Ryan] Preece?” Hawk said. “It’s SRX, you just never know.”
Tickets for the event will go on sale on Jan 6, 2024. Season ticket holders can purchase SRX tickets now as an add-on with their annual season ticket renewal.
The SRX Series event will kick off a busy stretch of varied events for Stafford Speedway. The track night after the SRX Series race the track will host its regular Friday night racing card on July 12. On Wednesday July 17 the track will host the inaugural GAF Roofing Modified Masters event. On July 19 and 20 the track will host the Cleetus McFarland New England 900.
The Stafford event is the second 2024 event announced by the SRX Series. It was announced recently that the series will return to Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan on Aug. 1, 2024. Berlin hosted the series for the first time last season. The series is also expected to have Thunder Road on its 2024 schedule.
Awesome! And no conflict with Loudon. Love it!
Awesome news – hopefully it will be on ESPN
Steve,
The series will have all their events on ESPN once again this season.
What is the Cletus McFarland 900?
Sorry ….. but I don’t find it that compelling, in the Racing department…. Cars run out of brakes too soon , lots of sandbagging early on , then a yellow drops whenever they choose, to tighten up the spread out 12 cars to set up a semi – dramatic finish … not a fan… more of and event than a race, but hey , people seem to be entertained… so good for Stafford to fill the stands to capacity and make some Bank to keep the Facility in tip top shape …So they can keep Stafford open for years to come… Having the BOOKEND Tri-Track events of The Sizzler & Fall Final really make up for the loss of Mod Tour …. I would like to see at LEAST one Nascar Modified Tour Race in the Summer Months.. I think it would be great to keep the TRADITION ALIVE at Stafford ….Just my Humble Opinions….
👆 Virtually every word immediately above right down to the one NWMT race at Stafford I couldn’t agree with more.
Suitcase Jake,
The Spring Sizzler is not a Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series event.
What is the Cletus McFarland 900?
Rob P.
This video from the Cleetus McFarland YouTube channel might help explain what it’s all about.
Stafford Speedway selling out on us! Give us something different. Like a highly promotive Asphalt sprint car series race, super late model, WMT. for god’s sake a big block super mod race. Nobody’s interested in your open mod series’, Boring! Newman , Stewart , Hamlin etc… not interested ! (Has-beens) If your going to have SRX race at least have some up and coming talent in it ! I guess it great for selfie’s with your kid’s
Hey superfan, might I suggest a screen name change with all that negative stuff against what may be the #1 track in New England? How many Midwest, Western, and Southwestern sprint car teams are going to tow to New England? There have been recent SLM events. Their Open races are at least as good and in some cases much better than the WMT. There’s not enough Supermods in the area to have a decent car count for Stafford, hopefully that might change in the future. The huge crowds for the SRX would indicate your opinion is very much in the minority on that one. Stafford has a lot of “up and coming talent” in their weekly racing with street stocks, LLM’s, and SKL’s. With that outlooks I think you might need another hobby!
To be fair he did call himself super fan. For all we know he could be a Taylor Swift super fan.
While the SRX and McFarland stuff doesn’t do that much for me personally, it packs the place. I have to believe that packed special events contribute to improvements like the new big screen, beer garden, extra Safer barriers and more. I’ll happily let those sold out events pay for improvements I can enjoy every trip to the track.
It’s not like there haven’t been events like monster trucks or stunt shows in the past. At least SRX and Cleetus won’t leave us in a dust cloud for the second half of the season like Monster Jam did.
I am looking forward to the McFarland show. I am pretty sure they just rent the place from Stafford for that show. Not sure the size of the crowd means much to Stafford other than the potential to do it again the following year. In Cleetus’s video he said Stafford was putting in a burn out pad for the show. I am guessing it would be in the middle of the mini mile. Will Stafford weekly burnout rules apply. If so, there are going to be a lot of full dogs at the local shelter. I have seen a couple of his shows on youtube. I thought they were entertaining. I found him during covid when he purchased an abandoned FL race track and started fixing it up. He packs the place for a lot of his shows.
I will watch the SRX shows on tv but really don’t have much interest in going in person. Not interested in the price, size of the crowd, and all the downtime. It does draw a great crowd, which introduces a bunch of casual race fans to the track which is great. I would really like Stafford to offer a half-price ticket to the next Friday night race event with the SRX ticket stub. Maybe you can get a few of the SRX fans to become local racing fans. Did Stafford offer any loyalty bonus to the season ticket holders last year who renewed for this season. I think they lost around a third of the schedule due to weather.
This is the first weekend all year that I don’t see any circle track racing on the Floracing streaming calendar. Maybe there were a few weekends last January but I think they had some Australian racing on there that time of year. This time of year is brutal for a race fan. especially when the football team is what it is.
Cleetus might rent the track but I’d bet stafford gets the majority of concession $$, which would definitely make crowd size important. The SRX deal might be similar. Regardless, those “shows” help pay for part of the weekly and regional events during the season.
Well OK, I suppose you can classify the McFarland shows as thinking outside the box. I sure don’t know what to make of it but in viewing the YouTube vids one thing seems perfectly clear he’ll do anything to entertain folks and attract a crowd. It’s a happening baby, pure entertainment and the young folks love this stuff.
McFarland a real entrepreneur, promoter and spectacularist. Real racing with Crown Vics not unlike the Blunderbust’s at Riverhead.
Quite the contrast is it not.? The Stafford crew very traditional moving slowly and incrementally forward. Here comes a southern boy with all kinds of ways to attract fans with multi leveled shows. Could learning be afoot at Stafford for launching their own brand down the road??
Sorry to step on your toe’s guy’s. But I tell it like i see it. Steet stocks and SK mods are the best at #1 track in new England .But why not try to pull in some new talent from ARCA . (Arutes don’t get along with Nascar ? )Bubba pollard Casey Roderick in a real super late model race ? How about Davey Hamilton jr. Swanson , Bobby santos iii in a winged sprint car ? Put up the promotion and the money $ and they will show up ! PLEASE(By the way Eddie and Doug )I have some extra tickets to the Rolling Stones concert in May that your more then likely be interested in .