Tommy Barrett Earns Third Stafford VMRS Win
Stafford Springs, CT — 19-year old Tommy Barrett, of Millis, MA, used a daring three-wide pass on a lap-57 restart, to go on and win the Valenti Modified Racing Series sanctioned 80-lap race Friday night at Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford, CT.
The win was Barrett’s third series victory at Stafford and his second win this season. He won at Thompson, CT, May 29th
Justin Bonsignore, of Holtsville, NY, led the field to green from his pole starting position and topped the 24-car lineup over the first five circuits.
Fast closing Keith Rocco, of Berlin, CT, started fifth, and promptly chased down the leader to take the lead for two laps starting a race long flip flop of the lead with Bonsignore.
Seven lead changes between the two leaders over the first 56-laps ended when Barrett made what proved to be the race winning move
“ I really didn’t think I had much of a car to get by Keith and Justin. I thought I could have maybe caught them. Getting under them was a different thing,” said Barrett. “On that last restart I got a good start behind Keith and he washed up the track a little bit. I stuck my nose in there. The car stuck on the bottom and we just pulled away after that. The car was really good tonight. Can’t thank the guys enough.”
Rocco hung on to finish second. “ The car was awesome the whole race even after Barrett got by me. I really didn’t have many complaints about the car. It was still pretty good and I still had a lot of tire under me. He was fast at the end,” Rocco explained.
Bonsignore nailed another podium finish,“ We had a good car on the long runs. We were making a move to go for the lead with Keith and the yellow came out. The restart the (9) just came on strong and he was definitely the class of the field at the end of the night,” stated Bonsignore.
Rowan Pennink, of Huntingdon Valley, PA, finished fourth with Woody Pitkat, of Stafford Springs, rounding out the top five.
Chris Pasteryak, Richard Savary, Norm Wrenn, Mike Holdridge, and Eric Goodale finished sixth through tenth.
Four caution flags were displayed over the 80-lap run. The race was completed in 46 minutes. 13 cars finished on the lead lap.
Heat wins went to Rocco, Pennink, and Max Zachem.
Airborne Speedway, Plattsburgh, NY, will host the VMRS Saturday, Sept 6.
Race Summary:
Stafford Motor Speedway
August 29, 2014
Race # 13
Entrants (24)
Distance: 80-laps
Time: 46:36:289
Margin of Victory: 1.360
Best Speed: 96.051 (Rocco)
Best Lap Time: 18.740 (Rocco
Lead Changes: 8
Lap Leaders: 1-5 (Bonsignore) 6,7 (Rocco) 8 (Bonsignore)
9-21 (Rocco) 22 (Bonsignore) 23-49 (Rocco) 50 (Bonsignore)
51-56 (Rocco) 57-80 (Barrett)
Cautions: Laps- 50,50,50,57
Unofficial Order of Finish: (1) Barrett (2) Rocco (3) Bonsignore (4) Pennink (5) Pitkat (6) Chris Pasteryak (7) Savary (8) Wrenn (9) Holdridge (10 Goodale (11) Medeiros (12) Lashua (13) Meservey (14) Galko (15) Bakaj (16) Seidell (17) Zachem (18) Christopher (19) Kopec (20) Charlie Pasteryak (21) Willis (22) Malave (23) Preece (24) Masse
Sources: John Spence, Sr./VMRS PR