STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. — For Jeremy Lavoie and the No. 6 Rosati’s Limited Late Model team, this season at Stafford Speedway was all about one thing — redemption.
The 2022 season saw Lavoie go into the final race of the year with a 16-point lead in the championship standings. Lavoie was poised to win the championship, but a faulty lower control arm with three laps to go in the final race relegated Lavoie to a 13th-place finish and he ended up losing the championship to Rich Hammann by two points.
Lavoie headed into the final race of this season once again with a 16-point lead over Matt Clement, only this time Lavoie would go on to win the final race to claim his third championship in grand style.
“Going into the year our mood was to come back for redemption,” said Lavoie. “We were bummed about what happened in the last race of last year and we wanted to come back and win right away. We thought we had the car to do so and we wanted to come in strong right off the bat. I was keeping tabs on where Matt [Clement] was and I’ll admit I was a little nervous.
“I had one goal for the last race and that was to win and I gave it my all. The car was a rocket ship that night and it went right to the front.”
The limited late model championship is the third title of Lavoie’s career, making him the first driver to win three championships in the limited late model division.
“I was super ecstatic,” said Lavoie. “I watch a lot of racing on YouTube and you see drag races getting hyped inside the car anytime they put down a fast pass and that kind of came out of me winning the race and the championship. It was pretty cool to be the first driver to win three limited late model championships and we celebrated even harder and everyone was really happy as we were spraying the champagne all over.
“I’m still the only one in my family to have won a championship and to now have three is a huge accomplishment for us.”
Lavoie opened his pursuit of his third championship with two second-place finishes and a fifth-place finish before winning his first race of the season on June 9, a 30-lap extra distance race sponsored by Riley Generators, also one of Lavoie’s many sponsors on his No. 6 machine.
As good as Lavoie was at the start of the season, Clement was just as good or even better than Lavoie, scoring two wins, two second place, and a third-place finish in the first five races of the season. Lavoie took control of the points race following the June 30f eature event where he finished 2nd compared to a 12th-place finish for Clement.
The championship raced ebbed and flowed from that point to the end of the season but Lavoie’s consistency kept him at the front of the table until the season came to a close.
“Winning the 30-lap race was a huge boost for me, the team, and all my sponsors,” said Lavoie. “I like the extra distance 30-lap races because it’s not something that we get to do every week. To have a car that was able to win that race was huge. To get our second win wasn’t a fluke, we knew we had a good car and we knew we had to just stay consistent.
“It felt good to get a couple of podium finishes the first couple of weeks and even when we finished fifth, it wasn’t a bad week.”
Despite winning the championship with three wins, 14 top-fives and 15 top-10 finishes in 15 races for an average finish of 2.9, Lavoie thinks he and the No. 6 team could be even better in 2024 with an improved car setup.
“We were a little off with our setup stuff this year so we’re going to go through our notes over the winter and hopefully the track will stay the same for next season and doesn’t throw us any big changes,” said Lavoie. “Coming out of the hot summer nights we struggled a little bit. We knew what we had for a car and we couldn’t make too big of an adjustment because we knew how close the points were. I didn’t quite have the car and I accepted that and all I tried to do was keep Matt behind me. I feel pretty confident that we’ll be up to the task and we can go into next year on a positive note and try to do the same thing.”
Lavoie heads into the offseason looking to make a move up the Stafford ladder to either a late model or SK Light car, but will return to the limited late model division to defend his title should nothing come to fruition.
“Right now I’m looking for a ride in either the late model or SK Light division and if nothing comes through then I’ll be running my family car again in the Limited Late Model division,” said Lavoie.