STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. – Stafford Speedway returned to racing action on Friday, July 8 with the 6th Annual Dunleavy’s Modifiedz Night.
Stafford’s SK Lights took center stage with a 40-lap feature that paid over $10,000 in total posted awards. Chris Matthews took home the biggest prize of the SK Light season for his second win of the 2022 season after leaders Derek Debbis and Alexander Pearl tangled with 4 laps to go.
Matthews’ victory was worth over $2,000 in purse and contingency money while in victory lane, Doug Dunleavy did his pick from the hat and the 4th and 10th place finishers, Josh Carey and Frank L’Etoile, Jr., each won a $500 bonus while the 7th place finisher, Meghan Fuller, won a $1,000 bonus.
Joey Ferrigno took the lead from Charlie McDougall at the start of the race with Cassandra Cole coming up to second behind Ferrigno. Amanda West moved up third with Bob Charland fourth and Derek Debbis fifth as McDougall fell back to eighth place. Debbis took third from West and then second from Cole on lap 5 and he continued his charge to the front by taking the lead on lap 8. The caution came out with 8 laps complete as Geoff Nooney, Ed Chicoski, and Anthony Forino all spun coming out of turn 4.
Debbis streaked into the lead on the restart with Cole taking second. West got by Ferrigno on lap 10 to move into third and Alexander Pearl and Chris Matthews went around Ferrigno to take fourth and fifth on lap 11. McDougall bounced off the turn 3 wall on lap 12 but he made it back to pit road and the race stayed green.
Pearl took second from Cole on lap 14 with West and Nick Anglace now side-by-side for fourth with Matthews and George Bessette, Jr. side-by-side behind them for sixth place. The caution came back out with 18 laps complete for a spin in turn 1 by Brandon Michael.
Pearl took the lead on the restart with Anglace nearly taking second from Debbis in the outside lane. Debbis and Anglace continued to race wheel-to-wheel with Bessette up to fourth and Matthews in fifth.
Cole spun on the backstretch to bring the caution flag back out with 25 laps complete. Under the caution, Bessette’s car came to a stop on the backstretch and he had to be pushed back to pit road, done for the evening.
Debbis took the lead from Pearl on the restart with Matthews nearly going 3-wide for the lead. Tyler Chapman spun in the middle of turns 3 & 4 to bring the caution back out with 26 laps complete.
Debbis took the lead on the restart with Matthews briefly taking second, but Pearl made a crossover move and the two cars ran wheel-to-wheel for second.
With 5 laps to go, it was still Debbis in the lead followed by Pearl, Matthews, Stephen Chapman, and Anglace. Pearl tried a move to the inside of Debbis for the lead on lap 37 but the two cars touched with Debbis spinning and backing his car into the wall to bring the caution flag out with 36 laps complete.
Pearl was sent to the rear of the field for the contact with Debbis, which put Matthews and Chapman on the front row for the restart.
Matthews took the lead back under green with Chapman all over his back bumper in second. Matthews would lead the field to the checkered flag to pick up his second win of the season. Chapman would finish second, with Anglace, Carey and Tyler Barry rounding out the top-five.
Stafford’s other four feature events all featured first time 2022 winners with Tyler Hines winning the SK Modified feature, Tom Fearn the late model feature, Jeremy Lavoie in the limited late model feature, and Adrien Paradis, III in the street stock feature.
The Finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1) Chris Matthews, 2) Steven Chapman, 3) Nick Anglace, 4) Josh Carey, 5) Tyler Barry, 6) Bob Charland, 7) Meghan Fuller, 8) Tony Membrino, Jr., 9) Norm Sears, 10) Frank L’Etoile, Jr., 11) Joey Ferrigno, 12) Casey Vogt, 13) Tyler Alkas, 14) Brandon Hunt, 15) Alexander Pearl, 16) Amanda West, 17) Cassandra Cole, 18) Derek Debbis, 19) Hailey Desaulniers, 20) Anthony Forino, 21) Chris Bagnall, 22) Ron Midford, Jr., 23) Glenn Bartkowski, 24) Alina Bryden, 25) Tyler Chapman, 26) Jason Chapman, 27) George Bessette, 28) Stephen Kalogiannis, 29) Brandon Michael, 30) Andy Marchese, 31) Charlie McDougall, 32) Geoff Nooney, 33) Ed Chicoski