Bo Gunning & Jay Stuart Take Spring Sizzler Wins
Stafford Springs, CT — Two-time SK Modified champion Bo Gunning made his return to the SK Modified ranks at Stafford Motor Speedway a triumphant one, as he claimed his first SK Modified feature win since September of 1998, and the 39th of his career.
Gunning ran down early leader Eddie Spiers, and made the pass for the lead on lap-32 of 40. Spiers didn’t give up the lead easily, as he ran on Gunning’s bumper to the checkered flag, but was unable to make a pass.
Spiers collected the half-way leader bonus of $300.00 from Cliff Nelson and Electrical Contractors, as he did last Saturday, making it a clean sweep of the ECI bonuses.
Frank Wainwright, Gary Pelletier, and Ronnie Silk rounded out the top-5.
Jay Stuart, the runner-up in the 2001 Late Model championship standings at Stafford Motor Speedway, began his quest for a 2002 championship in grand fashion, as he took advantage of a late race restart to pass leader Woody Pitkat on the white flag lap of the 35-lap feature.
Marc Atkinson led for much of the feature, leading from lap-9 to lap-30, but lost the lead to Pitkat after a restart. A late race caution set up a green white checkered flag restart, and Stuart was able to get past Pitkat in turns 1+2 on the white flag lap to win the first 35-lap Late Model feature of the 2002 season. Rounding out the top-5 was Pitkat, Atkinson, Chuck Zentarski, and Carl Holmgren, Jr., who led the first 8 laps of the race.
This Friday night, the Late Model 100, the first of two extra distance events for the Late Models in 2002, will be run. Defending Late Model track champion Jim Peterson is also the defending champion of the Late Model 100.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR
Posted: May 5, 2002