Dan Flannery Takes 2010 Limited Late Model Championship at Stafford Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — After being in position to win the Limited Late Model championship a season ago only to have a flat tire shatter his championship hopes, Dan Flannery came into the 2010 season as one of the championship favorites. After leading the championship standings for much of the year, Flannery and the #41 TSI Columbia Harley-Davidson/LaRosa Earth Group team punctuated their championship season with a thrilling victory in the season ending CARQUEST Fall Final feature.
“That’s the way to do it, it’s hard to lose the championship if you win,” said Flannery.
Flannery and the #41 TSI Columbia Harley-Davidson/LaRosa Earth Group team showed that they were once again going to be contenders for the championship with a strong showing in the season opening CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler practice sessions and heat races. But a spin in the Sizzler race left Flannery with a 13th place finish and the team spent the next month digging out of that hole, not taking the points lead until the conclusion of the May 28th feature event. After 10 consecutive top-5 finishes following his disappointing Sizzler finish, Flannery finished 8th or worse in 4 of the next 5 events, which allowed Dave Yardley, III and defending Limited Late Model track champion Andrew Durand, to claw their way back into championship contention. But Flannery made sure he was going to take the championship with a thrilling 3-wide pass on green white checkered restart to win the final race of the season.
“I don’t really know what happened, those guys washed up the track, I just drove through, and here we are,” said Flannery. “The car started to go away a little the longer we went, it started to get a little loose, but the car was a rocket during the middle of the race. I have to thank Steve McCarthy, he threw so much stuff at this car and it worked really well. I was checking my mirror and saw that Dave [Yardley] was right there with me and he wasn’t going away. We struggled the last couple of weeks with this car, but it was fast [at Fall Final]. This is cool for everyone and the crew. We’ve finished second in the championship a couple of times, but we’ve never won a championship. This makes up for last year, we’re about even now. I have to thank Steve, Billy the Kid, Magnus Transmissions, my Grandfather, my Grandmother, Devin, TSI Columbia, Ultimate Oil, LaRosa Earth Group, we couldn’t have done any of this without them.”
Flannery will officially be crowned the 2010 Limited Late Model track champion at the 41st Annual Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards Ceremony on Friday, November 19, 2010 at the La Renaissance Banquet Facility in East Windsor.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR