STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. — Stafford Speedway hosted another round of Weekly Racing with twin late model feature events on Friday night.
Cliff Saunders and Paul Varricchio Jr. were the winners of the late model feature events with Saunders picking up his first win of the season and Varricchio using a last lap pass to record his second win of the season.
Troy Talman was victorious for the third time this season in the SK Modified feature, Tyler Chapman notched his sixth win of the season in the SK Light feature, Jeremy Lavoie took down his first win of the season in the limited late model feature and Travis Downey scored win No. 2 of the season in the street stock feature.
In the first 30-lap late model feature, Chris Buffone led the field to the green flag and he took the early lead in front of Tom Butler, Saunders, Al Saunders and Bobby Stirk III.
Buffone led the first two laps before Butler charged into the lead on lap three. Cliff Saunders followed him by to take second and drop Buffone back to third with Chris Meyer and Stirk side by side for fourth place. Meyer won the duel with Al Saunders and emerged in fourth place on lap five with Kevin Gambacorta moving into fifth place.
Al Saunders slid back to sixth with Buffone in seventh place as the field completed lap 10.
At the halfway point of the race, Butler was still in command but he nearly had a scare as he came upon the lapped car of Adon Burrell the two cars touched with Burrell doing a 360 spin and continuing in the race. The race stayed green with Cliff Saunders right on Butler’s back bumper in second with Meyer third, Gambacorta fourth and Al Saunders fifth.
Cliff Saunders made a move to the inside of Butler coming out of turn four to complete lap 23 and he took over the race lead. Meyer was holding off Gambacorta for third with Al Saunders still in fifth. Adam Gray was sixth and he was followed by Varricchio, Stirk, Buffone and Darrell Keane.
Cliff Saunders led Butler to the checkered flag to pick up his first win of the season. Meyer finished third with Gambacorta and Al Saunders rounding out the top five.
Second Late Model Feature
In the second 30-lap late model feature, Tom Fearn took the early lead with Buffone settling into second. Stirk was third in the early going with Wayne Coury Jr. fourth and Alexandra Fearn fifth.
Stirk took second from Buffone on lap seven and that allowed Coury to take third and drop Buffone back to fourth while Tom Fearn was still holding the lead and Alexandra Fearn was fifth in line.
With 14 laps complete, it was still Tom Fearn out front followed by Stirk, Coury, Buffone and Andrew Durand. Stirk was starting to apply heavy pressure to Tom Fearn for the lead and he was able to make the pass on lap 17.
Varricchio moved into second on lap 22, going around Coury who had several laps earlier displaced Tom Fearn from that position.
Varricchio was right on Stirk’s back bumper with four laps to go but Stirk was able to hold Varricchio off for the time being. Varricchio made a move to the inside of Stirk as the cars came to the white flag and he held off Stirk to the checkered flag to pick up his second win of the season.
Stirk finished second with Gambacorta, Coury, and Tom Fearn rounding out the top five.