Santos Aim To Extend Stafford NEMA Streak
Brockton, MA — The Santos family hopes to extend a win streak Tuesday night in the Northeastern Midget Association segment of Stafford Motor Speedway’s Xtreme Tuesday.
The family will be looking for a fifth straight Stafford win.
Bobby Santos III, currently the hottest driver in the tough USAC Midget ranks and coming off a win Friday night at Toledo, has four of those wins. Sister Erica has the other.
Erica, who became NEMA’s first female winner at Stafford in ’07, will be in the Breault #44. Bobby is expected to be in the family-owned 98s that he has driven to a pair of wins over the past two weeks.
“We took the car home from Toledo and put the wing on,” said Bob Santos Jr. “We’ll see what happens.”
Defending champion Randy Cabral, undefeated in both NEMA starts this year, tops the list of contenders aiming to end the Santos’ run. Cabral and car owner Tim Bertrand, second at Stafford last year, added Monadnock and Lee USA Speedways to the vanquished list so far in ’09 They would love to include Stafford as well.
Other than the Santos siblings only Jeff Horn and Nokie Fornoro, among current competitors, have tasted wins at Stafford. NEMA returned to the storied half mile in 2004 after a 23-year absence.
In addition to being one of the fastest stops on the NEMA agenda, Stafford is one of the most challenging. ”There are tracks with a definite mystique, with so much history, where winning is really special,” offers Horn. “Stafford is one of them.”
“It is a quick joint,” says Fornoro. “You have to want to go fast.”
Russ Stoehr (Angelillo 45), Mike Keeler (KGR #63) and Adam Cantor (Cantor 7ny) all come to Stafford off strong efforts at Lee USA Speedway. Other contenders include William and Aaron Wall in the Wall Motorsports cars and Greg Stoehr in the Stoehr 26b.
NEMA NUGGETS: Bobby Santos III calls NEMA “one big happy family where everybody truly cares about each other. All racing people are family but most organizations including NASCAR and USAC are nowhere as close as NEMA.”…
A charter member of NEMA (Johnny DeLeo was the first winner way back in 1953), Stafford has hosted some historic open-cockpit battles. Included on the list are Santos’ $50,000 payday for winning both the Midget and Big Car features on Aug. 15, 2006 and Jerry Wall’s win in the rear-engine “Yellow Jacket” back in 1971.
Nokie Fornoro’s two Stafford wins were 23 years apart. After he won in 1981, NEMA did not return until 2004 when he won again.
In addition to Toledo, Bobby Santos III has won in the Midget at Iowa Speedway and in the Sprint at Kalamazoo, MI and Richmond, VA. “Nothing stupid has happened to the cars,” he says. “They’ve always run well.”
NEMA Winners at Stafford Motor Speedway
No. Driver First Last
6 Dave Humphrey 1968 1973
5 Lou Fray 1967 1971
3 Johnny Coy Sr. 1967 1969
3 Johnny Mann 1972 1975
3 Bobby Santos III 2006 2008
2 Nokie Fornoro 1981 2004
2 Ben Seitz 2005 2006
2 Jerry Wall 1971 1972
One-time Stafford winners: Johnny DeLeo (1953), Ronnie Evans (1955), Jeff Horn (2005), Ray Roberts (1970), Erica Santos (2007).