Back To The Front: Tom Butler Scores Late Model Victory At Stafford Speedway

STAFFORD – On August 1 Tom Butler returned to action in the Late Model division at Stafford Motor Speedway after an extended break from competition.

But there was no triumphant celebration of return for Butler when the night was over. Instead, the driver from Stafford was going home with a wrecked racecar after a hard crash in that evening’s feature.

Butler said he was ready to return to retirement from competition that night. Then he decided to come right back and keep trying to get back to victory lane.

That decision paid off in the season finale Sunday for Butler.

Butler, of Stafford, led every lap on the way to victory in the 30-lap Late Model feature Sunday at the NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final at Stafford Motor Speedway.

Adam Gray of Belchertown, Mass. was second and Tom Fearn of East Longmeadow, Mass. third. Gray had clinched his second consecutive division championship before Sunday’s event.

It was the 24th career Late Model victory at Stafford for Butler and his first victory at the track since Sept. 4, 2009.

“I’ve got to thank the guys,” Butler said. “We came back a couple months ago. The first night out we ended up in the fence. It was heartbreaking. At that point I was ready to quit. But I’m not a quitter. My guys don’t quit. They gave me everything I needed. We’ve been fighting it a little bit, we found a couple things that weren’t quite right. Today happened to be our day. We knew we were fast enough to win every time we come to the track and that’s a great feeling.”

Butler started second in the event and went by Rich Hammann for the lead on the first lap.