Ltd. Late Model Championship Offers Tightest Championship Race at Stafford Motor Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — The 2012 Limited Late Model season at Stafford Motor Speedway has seen two drivers, Josh Wood, and Cory Casagrande, turn the race for the 2012 championship into a mono-e-mono duel. Both drivers have won races and they both have consistently finished races near the front of the field all season long. Wood and Casagrande head into this Friday night’s Limited Late Model Double Duty feature events separated by only 6 points, or three positions on the race track.
The season began very strong for Wood, who won 6 of the first 8 feature events held this season. And although Wood has posted 9 consecutive top-5 finishes, he has yet to reach CARQUEST Victory Lane again in the 6 races since his last victory.
It took Casagrande until the 12th race of the season to pick up his first win of the year, but up to that point, he had been amazingly consistent, finishing second or third in 10 of the first 11 races of the season. Casagrande has some momentum on his side as he has won two of the last three features and he has cut Wood’s point lead from 16 points at the beginning of August down to 6 points heading into September.
Both Wood and Casagrande have only finished outside the top-5 once this season and they offer their thoughts on the championship race.
Wood: “We just need to take it easy. If I start the race behind Cory, I need to stay with him. We need to avoid the wrecks as much as possible, don’t let the stress get to us, and have some fun like we’ve been doing all season long. We’ve been trying to go out and win races and worry about points second. Cory and me have swapped the points lead back and forth a couple times, it’s been a fun battle. It would feel great to win the championship. It’s always a bonus to get that little extra after going out and having fun and winning a lot of races and the championship would be a big bonus for us. Cory and I both race clean, and we both seem to get to the front no matter what. So we’ll both go to the front and we can battle it out there and see how it goes.”
Casagrande: “We need to go out and win every race, that’s the only way we can beat [Josh]. If we don’t win the race, Josh will probably win or finish second or third. Our plan is to win every race we can. Josh is the one that’s in the position that it’s his championship to lose and ours to win. We just have to do everything we can to win races and if we win enough races, the championship will be there. He’s won a bunch of races and he is the points leader. We have good momentum, we finally got the car to where it’s good and hopefully we can keep it up. We just have to keep beating him. We bent a few bars in the PASS race, but it’s not going to hurt the performance of the car. We’re only 6 points behind or 3 spots, so we could come out of the next race with the points lead. But we don’t look at it like that, we see it as him and me are going to be racing for the win or close to the front. This would be our first championship ever, so it would be pretty big. I’ve never won one for my dad and my brother hasn’t won one yet, so it would be pretty big for us.”
Can Casagrande maintain his recent winning ways and use that momentum to leapfrog Wood in the standings? Or will Wood return to his dominant form that saw him win 6 of the first 8 races this season and cement his name on the championship chase? With 100 points on offer in this Friday night’s Ltd. Late Model Double Duty, the chase for the Limited Late Model championship will ratchet up the intensity.
Tickets for this Friday night’s Ltd. Late Model Double Duty event are available and on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $17.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at $20.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.
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