Yesterday was April 24th, yesterday was race day at Stafford Motor Speedway, but it wasn't any race day, it was opening day.
Stafford Speedway opening day is always intense as this is the first time since October that drivers will be racing each other on the track. Last Saturday we saw drivers and cars hit the track for open practice, but it was very hard to actually get a feel of the track due to poor conditions, with that said drivers where going into opening day not exactly knowing how the car would handle. Nevertheless though there was still a lot of great racing at the end.
SK Modified Race Recap
We saw great racing by the SK Modified division, the field was stacked with over 20 cars taking the green at the small track. One of the biggest notables taking the green was Keith Rocco who was involved in a heat race crash, in a span of just 45 minutes the no.88 team rebuilt the rear end. Keith Rocco would start in the back of the pack and would end up scoring a top five finish. Overall though that is not the biggest story, the SK Modified feature is 40 laps and for those 40 laps we only had 1 leader, and that leader was Tyler Hines.
Tyler Hines would absolutely dominate as he held off the likes of Ronnie Williams, Keith Rocco and Todd Owen to get his first ever SK Modified win, this is also the 699th SK Modified feature that Stafford has held. Hines fought for this win as he had to battle not only with the drivers behind him to stay up front, but he also had to battle with the restarts. The feature had several cautions with most coming within the final 10 laps of the race.
About half way though the race though we saw a horrific crash involving several key cars. One driver went airborne and that driver was Jonathan Puleo who was making his Stafford SK Modified debut after winning 5 SK Light races last season. Jonathan was transported to the hospital, our thoughts and prayers are with Jonathan and the Puleo family.
Street Stock Race Recap
As usual the Street Stock division provides us with intense 20 lap racing as we saw a flashback to how last season ended as Travis Hydar and Frank L'Etoile Jr battled it out. coming to the end of the feature we saw a crash so with that there was a green, white, checkered. Going on the restart four cars got a jump, those cars being Travis Hydar, Nick Hovey, Frank L'Etoile Jr and Chris Meyer. As the drivers approached the white flag we saw four wide across the line, something unimaginable at Stafford, going into turns one and two Hydar and L'Etoile Jr made contact so going into turns three and four only two drivers were still within a car length. Those drivers being Nick Hovey, who won the 2020 Rookie of The Year and Chris Meyer, who got second in points standings in 2020. In the final turn Hovey gave Meyer a bump, but the bump was not enough as Chris Meyer would win it.
Limited Late Model Race Recap
The Limited Late Model feature went by fast as we saw Jeremy Lavoie battle it out against Alexandra Fearn. At the end though Alexandra Fearn would end up holding Lavoie off to start 2021 off the same way she ended 2020 and that was with a win.
Late Model Race Recap
The Late Model division is always intense with about 10-15 cars able to win every week. Over the off season we saw a very big driver change for the no.31 Rob Russell Racing late model as Michael Bennett announced departure from the team with Andrew Molleur taking over the seat. For almost all of Michael Bennett's career he was been a contender, but for the past several years he has gone winless. Overall though Bennett always got great consistent finishes to stay in contention for championships, going into this race Bennett has not won since 2017, going out of this season with a brand new team and car he would also have a brand new trophy as for the first time since 2017 Michael Bennett has won a race.
Pro Stock Series Race Recap
For the first time in Stafford Motor Speedway history the Granite State Pro Stock Series was on the track. We saw several Stafford regular on track in the series as well as the likes of SK Light driver Alexander Pearl and Adam Gray battled it out. Overall we saw a smaller field then what was expected from the pro stocks' but that doesn't mean he didn't see good racing. At the end though we saw the no.97 of Joey Pole pull his car into victory lane.
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