Former 3-Time DARE Stock Champion Norm Sears Ready to Make SK Light Debut at Stafford Motor Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — Stafford Speedway’s SK Light division is set to add a brand new car to its ranks this Friday night when Norm Sears makes his debut. Sears is a former 3-time DARE Stock champion at Stafford (2006-2008) and he was a full fender standout with 10 career DARE wins to go along with his three championships as well as 5 career wins in the Limited Late Model division. Sears says he is realizing a childhood dream by climbing behind the wheel of a modified at Stafford.
“Sitting in the grandstands as a kid watching the SK Modifieds®, I always wanted to drive one,” said Sears. “With this opportunity, it’s the next thing on my bucket list to do in racing.”
Sears will drive a car that was a former Mark Aspinall owned SK car. It will carry sponsorship from Fluckiger Race Chassis, Bobtails Auto Body, Sears & Son Landscaping, and Aspinall Electric and it will have a familiar look with a yellow paint scheme and the #8 that he used during one of his DARE Stock championship years.
“Mark Aspinall and I live in the same town and we were talking one day and I told him that I had a motor and I asked him about his car,” said Sears. “After a couple weeks of bugging him about the car, we made a deal where he’s going to supply us the car and Barry Fluckiger and myself have the engine. I remember back when I first started racing DARE Stocks around ’97 or ’98 I would scale my car at Mark’s house. We got the car from Mark and we put things back together and we’re looking forward to making our first start.”
Being a lifelong full fender competitor, Sears knows that he faces a steep learning curve and his plans are to use the final 4 races of the 2015 season to acquire as much knowledge as he can in an effort to go full time SK Light racing in 2016.
“It’s going to be a big-time learning curve for me,” said Sears. “There’s so many more things you can do with these cars than you could do with a DARE Stock or Limited Late Model car. Our plan is to use these last 4 races of 2015 to get some seat time and learn as much as we can about the car and what we need. The biggest thing for me will be to get comfortable in the car. If everything works out good, we plan on being back at the 2016 Spring Sizzler and running for Rookie of the Year. The main thing for us this year will be to keep the right front tire on the car and learn as much as we can. We don’t want to get in anyone’s way, especially the guys who are racing for the championship. If any of those guys come up on us, I’m going to get out of their way and let them go by. The intention is to run hard and see what the car has and if we can get a good finish then we’ll go for that.”
This Friday night is the 6th Annual VMRS 80 Modified Racing Series event at Stafford. Tickets for the VMRS 80 are on sale now and are priced at $27.50 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 seat tickets are $30.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Motor Speedway offers plenty of free parking along with overnight parking for self contained Recreational Vehicles.
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