Barry Becomes Track Champion At Stafford

STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. — Stafford Speedway hosted its final night race program of the season with NAPA Auto Parts Championship Night on Friday, playing host to a series of battles for track championships.

Taking down feature wins on the night were Ronnie Williams in the SK Modified feature, Wayne Coury, Jr. in the late model feature, Tyler Chapman in the SK Light feature, Alexandra Fearn in the limited late model feature and Bobby Stirk, III in the street stock feature. 

With NAPA Championship Night serving as the final race of the season, track championships were clinched by Tyler Barry in the SK Light division and Rich Hammann in the limited late model division as Todd Owen, Adam Gray and Travis Hydar clinched the SK Modified, late model, and street stock championships respectively a week ago.

In the 40-lap SK Modified feature, Tyler Leary led the field to the green flag and he took the lead on the opening lap. 

Behind Leary, Ronnie Williams took second from Michael Gervais, Jr. and he took the lead from Leary at the line as they completed the second lap.  Williams cleared Leary on lap three with Troy Talman and Gervais wheel-to-wheel for third and Todd Owen in fifth.

By lap nine, Owen had worked his way through traffic to move up to second behind Williams with Marcello Rufrano up to third, Leary fourth and Bryan Narducci in fifth. Narducci took fourth place from Leary on lap 12 while Owen was still trying to close down the gap to Williams for the race lead. 

Rufrano looked to take second from Owen on lap 17, but he got sideways, which slowed him enough to allow Narducci to catch him and take over third place on lap 19. Michael Christopher, Jr. took fifth from Leary on lap 20 while Williams was still leading Owen at the front of the field.

Owen was starting to slowly reel Williams in with 10 laps to go, but he ran out of time and came up just short as Williams took down his third win of the season. Narducci finished third with Rufrano and Christopher rounding out the top 5.

In the 30-lap late model feature, John Blake led the first lap before the caution came out for Adon Burrell, who came to a stop at the entrance to pit road. 

A melee broke out on the restart with Michael Bennett getting sideways in front of the entire field, which collected the cars of Alexandra Fearn, Dave Wray and Adam Gray. Andrew Durand spun in turn three to bring the caution right back out before a lap could be completed. 

Bennett took the lead on the restart with Wayne Coury, Jr. and Darrell Keane racing door-to-door for two laps before Coury cleared Keane and took second place.  Michael Wray was fourth with Kevin Gambacorta in fifth. The caution came back out with three laps complete as Gambacorta, Andrew Molleur, Josh White and P.J. Zarrella all got into the turn one wall.

Bennett took the lead on the restart but he was under heavy pressure from Coury in second with Keane in third. 

Tom Butler was now up to fourth with Fearn streaking into the top five on the restart. Coury made a move to the inside of Bennett on lap six, but Bennett was able to maintain the lead by a nose at the line. The two cars touched on lap seven with Coury falling back to fifth behind Bennett, Keane, Butler and Fearn. 

Coury and Tom Fearn both went by Alexandra on lap 11 to move into fourth and fifth and drop Alexandra back to sixth in line as Bennett continued to lead Keane and Butler. The top five remained the same when the caution came back out with 21 laps for debris on the frontstretch.

Keane took the lead from Bennett on the restart with Coury in third behind the two leaders.

The caution flag came back out with 21 laps complete as Butler stopped in turn four.

Keane took the lead back under green with Coury behind him, but the caution and red flags came back out with 23 laps complete as Bennett got sideways and collected the car of Michael Wray, who climbed up and over Bennett’s car before coming back to a rest on the ground with Gambacorta’s car also collected.

Keane took the lead on the restart with Tom nearly taking second from Coury before getting back into line in third behind Coury. Wayne Coury, Sr. was now up to fourth with Alexandra in fifth. Coury, Jr. took the lead from Keane on lap 26 with a pass in turn two and Tom followed him by Keane to take second and drop Keane back to third place.

Coury, Jr. lead Tom to the checkered flag to pick up his first win of the season. Keane, Alexandra and Gambacorta rounded out the top five.

In the 20-lap SK Light feature, Frank L’Etoile, Jr. took the lead at the green flag and he led the first lap before polesitter Amanda West retook the lead on lap two. Ron Midford, Jr. took second behind West with George Bessette, Jr. taking third, Bob Charland fourth and Chris Matthews fifth as L’Etoile fell all the way back to 10th place. 

Bessette took second from Midford on lap five and he nearly took the lead from West on lap six before he fell back to third behind West and Midford.  Just behind the lead trio, Tyler Chapman was now up to fourth and Charland was fifth with L’Etoile in sixth. 

Bessette was able to pull alongside West for the lead on lap 10, but he couldn’t complete the pass as the two cars raced wheel-to-wheel. West cleared Bessette on lap 12 while Chapman was now alongside West for the lead.

He took the lead as the field completed lap 13. Tyler Barry made a three-wide move on lap-14 to get by both West and Bessette and move into second behind Chapman.

With four laps to go, Tyler Chapman was in the lead with Barry and Bessette battling closely for second, Midford in fourth and Derek Debbis and West wheel-to-wheel for fifth. Tyler Chapman led Barry to the checkered flag to notch his fourth win of the season, but Barry’s second place finish was good enough to make him the 2022 SK Light champion. 

Bessette, Midford, and Debbis rounded out the top five.

In the 20-lap limited late model feature, Jeremy Lavoie put up a fight to take his third championship, but misfortune struck, giving Rich Hammann the track championship.

Alexandra Fearn picked up her third win of the season in the division. 

In the 20-lap street stock feature, Bobby Stirk, III flew to the checkered flag to take his sixth win of the season ahead of Travis Hydar and Adrien Paradis, III.