STAFFORD – Darrell Keane went by Adon Burrell from the outside of the front row at the drop of the green flag and never looked back on the way to victory in the 30-lap Late Model feature Friday at Stafford Speedway.
It was the eighth career Late Model win at Stafford for Keane, of Enfield, and his first since Aug. 8, 2025.
“I had to use my mirror the last four laps because I was not losing that race,” Keane said. “I fell out of my tree there for the last five or six laps. I was making mistakes and let them run me down. I was trying to be conservative.”
Chris Buffone of Belchertown, Mass. was second and Josh Wood of Palmer, Mass. third.
Buffone moved past Josh Wood with seven laps remaining to take over second. Buffone closed to Keane’s bumper at the white flag, but couldn’t find a way to make a move for the lead on the final circuit.
“The car just came to me the whole race,” Buffone said. I just rode. We just bided our time and got by Josh. Darrell did a great job. Couldn’t get him, but it was close.”
Said Wood: “It feels like a win, even third place.”
Coming to the checkered, contact between sixth place running Kevin Gambacorta and seventh place Paul Varricchio Jr. sent Gambacarto hard into the wall. Varricchio then spun after contact with Gray. Varricchio, the reigning division champion, was penalized for the incident.
Stephen Kalogiannis proved survivor in a crash marred SK Light Modified feature.
Kalogiannis held off a charging Chris Matthews over the final lap to score his first career victory in the 20-lap SK Light Modified race.
“We’ve waited a long time for this,” Kalogiannis said. “We put so much work into this every day. I loaded this up at 3 am this morning and then went to work at 5 [am]. Not knowing anything that we were going to have because we were totally wrecked last week. Put the whole thing together. I’m speechless.”
Chris Matthews of Stafford had a day full of mechanical issues, but came from a 20th starting spot and made a eye-opening dash to second over the final six laps. It was the fourth consecutive second place finish for Matthews, the division’s all-time winningest driver.
“This is as good as a win,” Matthews said. “To struggle like we did all day with mechanical issues and to come back and finish second after all that, that’s huge. … I mean, I was just taking what I could get in the beginning, it was no worries, you got to relax and just try to get what you can salvage out of a night when you’ve got issues and … we just kept gaining spots. It was incredible, I have no other words for it.”
Jake Hines of North Haven was third.
“This week’s been a rough week for us,” Hines said. “We had to go from not making the race last week to ending up on the podium, so it’s pretty good. We stripped down a whole car, put this one together, got here and it was just a fast one to start. Just really confident in the car this week and I guess a couple of bounces went our way at the end and got it on the podium, which is nice.”
Jason Lafayette of Somers scored his second victory of the season in the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature.
Lafayette, who leads the division standings, went by Kyle Theriault for the lead with 15 laps remaining and never trailed again.
Theriault, of Three Rivers, Mass., was second and Duane Provost of Palmer, Mass. third.
Ryan Waterman of Danielson scored his third win in five starts in the 20-lap Street Stock feature.
Brandon Warren of Chicopee, Mass. was second and Matthew Lowinski-Loh of Thompson was third.
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