Michael Bennett kept the celebration low-key after winning the 30-lap Late Model feature Friday at Stafford Speedway
STAFFORD – The mission for Michael Bennett Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway was to end his evening delivering a winner’s trophy to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford for a special little boy.
Mission accomplished.
Driving with emotions overwhelming him, Bennett raced to his sixth victory of the season in the 30-lap Late Model feature Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Though it was a purposefully muted celebration for Bennett when he got out of the car in victory lane Friday.
Missing from the celebration was his three-year old son Chace, who was diagnosed with Leukemia on Monday.
“I had an emotional 30 laps,” Bennett said. “It was hard to keep them in check. I’ve never been that emotional. Because I know my son, he loves this and he wasn’t here to grab my leg in victory lane like he has five times this year. I’m usually talking on the [microphone] and he’s grabbing my leg. That’s why I didn’t get out and celebrate, because I don’t want to celebrate without him. But it definitely feels good to win. … It’s definitely overwhelming.”
Bennett, of Willington, said he was leaving the track and going directly to the hospital to deliver his trophy and checkered flag to his son.
“I can’t wait to put that next to his bedside,” Bennett said. “This isn’t about Michael Bennett winning tonight. We race for Chace, that’s for sure. … It definitely was [a mission] tonight, but I don’t think I was driving it, that’s for sure. It seemed like somebody else was driving it.”
Kevin Gambacorta of Ellington was a distant second and Tom Fearn of East Longmeadow third in the event, which went caution free.
“Pass them all daddy,” Bennett said his son told him earlier this week and he did that in stunning fashion.
Bennett started ninth in the field and at the green flag set forth on a meteoric trip to the front of the field. He was up to third by lap two and on lap three he went under second place Gambacorta and then leader Rich Hammann in with one sweeping move to the front. From there he checked out from the field.
“I’m not sure what was going through my mind, I just knew that the car was really good and I had an opportunity to be aggressive, starting on the bottom and it was just a matter of picking them off one by one,” Bennett said. “The car’s been good all year so it wasn’t a surprise to me that we were able to drive to the front like that. But it was definitely special tonight.”
He drove the wheels off of that thing last night.
Sunoco Performer of the Week, right there!
God Bless Chace and his family