STAFFORD SPRINGS, Ct. — Stafford Speedway hosted weekly racing action on Friday night with all five of its divisions in feature action and two champions crowned.
Marcello Rufrano used a last lap pass on Troy Talman to claim his second SK Modified win of the season, Tom Fearn notched his fifth late model win of the season and Tyler Chapman took down his third SK Light win of the season. Kevin Cormier scored the second win of his rookie limited late model campaign and Travis Hydar locked up his fifth street stock win of the season.
Hydar’s victory allowed him to clinch the street stock championship a week early while Adam Gray’s third place finish in the late model feature was good enough to clinch his fourth career Stafford Late Model championship.
Gray and Hydar will be honored next Friday night, Sept. 30, as Stafford’s other track champions will be decided during NAPA Championship Night.
In the 40-lap SK Modified feature, Michael Gervais, Jr. took the lead at the green, but he only led the first lap as Troy Talman moved to the point on lap two. David Arute was third in line behind Talman and Gervais with Tyler Hines in fourth and Anthony Bello in fifth.
The caution flew with five laps complete for Anthony Flannery, who came to a stop in turn three after sparks flew from under his car with several other cars also involved.
Talman took the lead on the restart with Arute and Gervais wheel-to-wheel for second and Bello and Hines wheel-to-wheel for fourth. Behind Talman, there was a total of five rows of cars all jockeying for position. Arute got clear from Gervais on lap nine to take over second, but the caution flew as John Montesanto spun on the frontstretch.
On the restart, R.J. Marcotte got into the frontstretch wall to bring the caution flag right back out. Talman took the lead on the next restart with Arute nearly taking the lead from Talman before slotting back into second. Gervais was still third with Hines fourth and Marcello Rufrano up to fifth.
Dylan Kopec spun in the middle of turns three and four, which collected the car of Teddy Hodgdon and brought the caution back out with 12 laps complete.
The restart saw Tyler Jones and Montesanto spin through the frontstretch grass to bring the yellow flag right back out. Talman took the lead back under green with Arute right behind him in second. Hines worked his way up to third with Bryan Narducci taking fourth and Rufrano fifth. Gervais slid back to seventh as Cory DiMatteo took sixth.
Narducci took third from Hines on lap 17 and Rufrano followed him by to take fourth and drop Hines from third back to fifth. Jon Puleo spun on the backstretch to bring the caution back out with 18 laps complete.
Talman took the lead on the restart while Narducci got to the inside of Arute and took over second. Rufrano followed Narducci by Arute on lap 20 to move into third and drop Arute back to fourth with Hines and DiMatteo wheel-to-wheel for fifth place.
DiMatteo took the spot on lap 21, with Hines sliding back to seventh place as Todd Owen moved into sixth.
Narducci was now applying heavy pressure to Talman’s back bumper with Rufrano right behind Narducci in a three-car train for the lead. Rufrano got around Narducci on lap 26 to move into second as Talman continued to lead.
Rufrano took the lead from Talman on lap 30 just before the caution flag came out for a spin by Rich Neri in turn two.
Rufrano took the lead back under green with Talman, Narducci, DiMatteo and Owen lined up behind him, but the caution came back out with 32 laps complete for a multi-car incident on the frontstretch as Puleo spun and collected several others.
Talman streaked his way by Rufrano on the restart to take over the lead with Arute third, DiMatteo fourth and Narducci fifth. Narducci took fourth from DiMatteo on lap 36 while Rufrano was all over the back bumper of Talman looking for the lead.
Rufrano made a move to the inside of Talman as the leaders took the white flag. Rufrano was able to complete the pass in turns three and four and he led Talman to the checkered flag to pick up his second win of the season.
Arute finished third with Narducci and Owen rounding out the top five.