Cliff Saunders Wins R.A.D. Automachine Limited Late Model Rookie of the Year Honors at Stafford Motor Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — After winning the DARE Stock track championship in 2012, hometown driver Cliff Saunders was ready to move into the Limited Late Model division in 2013. But mechanical issues with his car relegated him to making only 4 starts and delayed his full-time move to the division until this season and Saunders made the most of his rookie season by claiming the R.A.D. Automachine Rookie of the Year honors in his #4 American Sleeve Bearing Chevrolet.
Saunders’ twin brother Albert ran 15 of the 18 Limited Late Model races last season and scored 2 wins, and combined with Cliff’s 4 starts last season, Saunders had a leg up on most rookie drivers as he not only had personal experience to lean on, but his brother’s experience as well.
“It’s cool to be Rookie of the Year,” said Saunders. “It was a nice goal for us to shoot for at the beginning of the season and it’s really great that we were able to accomplish that goal and become the Rookie of the Year. I think running the couple races last year helped me a little. At the start of the season I was already comfortable in the car so I was able to have more of an idea of what I wanted in the car setup. Al ran all but 3 races last year and that was also a big help for me because he was able to figure the car out. If I needed anything that I wasn’t sure of like what line to run on the track, or what kind of changes to make to the car, he already had a year of experience so I was able to use a lot of things that he had already learned.”
Saunders got his rookie campaign off to a quick start, winning the second race of the year and he followed his win up with another top-5 finish. But the results for Saunders soured after that as he went 9 races before he recorded his next top-5 finish. Saunders finished the year with only the one victory, but he says that although the season was a bit disappointing, it was a good year nonetheless. Saunders did finish the 2014 season on a strong note, recording top-5 finishes in four of the final 6 races, which gives him a great foundation to build on for the 2015 season.
“It was a little disappointing not to win again, especially with the way we started the season,” said Saunders. “I definitely didn’t expect to win that quickly into the year. We ended up running into some mechanical problems and we had some things that weren’t working on the car. It wasn’t until about the last two months of the season that we really had the car right again. I think we had 4 top-5 finishes in the last 5 races of the season but before that, I think we went almost halfway through the season without a top-5 finish. Halfway through the year I felt like we weren’t quite where we wanted to be because we weren’t going good. But now that the season is over and I can look back on things, it was a better season than it could have been. I had a few top-5 finishes and by the end of the season we were more competitive, so it was a good year. The experience I gained this season will be a big help for next year, especially the fact that we got the car right towards the end of the year. Now we have something to work on for next season where coming into this year, I only had a couple of races of experience. Hopefully we can have a lot more consistency next season and get some more wins.”
For the season, Saunders recorded 1 win, 6 top-5 and 15 top-10 finishes in the 18-race Limited Late Model season. For winning the 2014 R.A.D. Automachine Limited Late Model Rookie of the Year Award, Saunders will take home a $1,000 bonus from R.A.D. Automachine, which will be paid in $100 increments for the first 10 races of the 2015 season that Saunders attends. Saunders will officially be crowned as the 2014 R.A.D. Automachine Rookie of the Year at the 45th Annual Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards Ceremony on Friday, November 21 at Maneeley’s in South Windsor.
Tickets to the 45th Annual Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards Ceremony are $45 per person and can be ordered by calling the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at (860) 684-2783, or by downloading an order form fromwww.staffordspeedway.com and returning the form to the track office. 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