STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. — Stafford Speedway hosted Maybury Kids Night on September 22 with Stafford’s five weekly divisions in feature action.
Mikey Flynn led the field to the green flag and took the lead going into the first corner but his car briefly dropped off the pace and he slid back to 10th place as Troy Talman lead the first lap. The caution came out with two laps complete as Woody Pitkat came to a stop against the turn four wall.
Talman and Steven Chapman went wheel-to-wheel for the lead on the restart with Marcello Rufrano in third, Michael Christopher, Jr. in fourth and Anthony Flannery in fifth.
Talman emerged in the lead after his duel with Chapman and he had Rufrano on his back bumper as they completed lap five. Rufrano took the lead on lap seven but just as he took the lead, the caution came out for Flynn, who spun in turn four. This put Talman back in the lead for the next restart with Rufrano in second.
Talman took the lead back under green with Flannery moving into second.
Rufrano settled into third with Keith Rocco fourth and Todd Owen fifth. Just behind Owen in sixth place was Chapman. Flannery pulled alongside Talman for the lead on lap 11 and he took the lead by a nose at the line. Flannery cleared Talman on lap 12 but Rufrano charged by him and took over the race lead.
Rocco followed him by Flannery to take second on lap 14 and now Owen was looking to the inside of Flannery for third place. Owen took third on lap 15 with Flannery able to hold off Talman to maintain fourth place.
Talman was finally able to work his way around Flannery on lap 18 to move into fourth place while Rocco was still looking for a way to get around Rufrano and take over the race lead. Chapman spun in turn four right in front of Ryan Morgan with Cory DiMatteo also involved to bring the caution back out with 21 laps complete.
The restart saw Chapman hit the turn one wall along with John Sandberg to bring the caution flag right back out. Rufrano took the lead on the next restart with Rocco hanging tough on his outside and Owen behind him. Owen took second on lap 24 with Rocco now wheel-to-wheel with Flannery for third. Just behind them in fifth place was David Arute while Rufrano continued to lead.
The caution came back out with 24 laps complete for a spin in turn two by Curt Brainard.
Rufrano again took the lead back under green with Owen holding second. The caution came back out with 27 laps complete for spins in turn three by Jack Baldwin and John Montesanto.
Rufrano and Owen resumed their fight for the lead with Rufrano in front of Owen while Flannery, Rocco, and Arute were lined up behind him. Coming off turn four on to complete lap 29, Arute got out of shape and spun, which collected the cars of Wesley Purkcer and David Flammia Jr. to bring the caution flag out.
Owen powered his way past Rufrano and into the lead on the restart and one lap was completed before the caution came back out for the cars of Montesanto, Michael Ramos, Dylan Kopec, Jon Puleo and Sandberg piled into each other coming out of turn four.
Owen was back in the lead on the restart with Rocco taking second. Flannery was third in line with Rufrano fourth and Talman and Tyler Barry were wheel-to-wheel for fifth. Talman won the fight for fifth while Barry slid back to ninth place.
Owen led Rocco to the checkered flag to pick up his second win of the season. Rufrano finished third with Flannery and Talman rounding out the top five.
Other winners on the night were Andrew Durand in the Late Model feature, Tyler Chapman in the SK Light feature, Damian Palardy in the Limited Late Model feature, and Ryan Waterman in the Street Stock feature.
The two kids big wheel races were won by Callie Midford and Makayla Midford. Kevin Gambacorta finished second in the Late Model feature which was good enough to clinch the 2023 Late Model championship with one race to go.