Tom Fearn Captures Late Model Track Championship at Stafford Speedway 18 Years After Last Championship Win
Stafford Springs, CT — Over the past several seasons, East Longmeadow driver Tom Fearn has proven to be one of the dominant forces in the Stafford Motor Speedway Late Model division. In the 2013-2015 seasons, Fearn had amassed 16 feature wins but his racing resume was missing the grand prize of a championship. During those three seasons, Fearn’s best championship finish was third in 2013. After winning 10 races last season and finishing fourth in the standings, Fearn decided to take a new approach for the 2016 season.
“Early in the year someone told me that if we finish every lap this season I should be in contention for the championship and we finished every lap this season,” said Fearn.
Fearn was also able to use his 10-win campaign last season as a jumping off point for the 2016 season.
“We ended up winning 10 races last season and that was kind of a kickoff to this year,” said Fearn. “A lot of people asked me what we were going to do to the car during the winter and my answer was nothing. We had the car real good at the end of last season and we carried that over into this year and we got 7 more wins. We’ll come back next season and try to get as many wins as we can again and see if we can back this championship up with another one.”
Fearn’s consistency on the track in 2016, combined with his division leading 7 wins, led to his first track championship in nearly 20 years. Fearn was a three-time champion at Riverside Park and a 3-time champion at Stafford with his last championship coming in 1998.
“It’s been a long time and we won 6 championships in 12 years so that was pretty awesome but we had to wait 18 years for another one,” said Fearn. “Every year we come to the track we’re competitive and we just kept at it and this year was our year. This one is pretty special because it’s my first Late Model championship at Stafford.”
For the season Fearn posted 7 wins, 15 top-5, and 17 top-10 finishes in 17 starts. Fearn’s worst finish of the year was a 10th place finish on July 8th but take that one race out of his season and his worst finish was sixth. Despite the consistency of finishing in the top-5 and dominance with 13 podium finishes in the 17 races this season, Fearn and the #92 SAFCO Foam team had to stay on their toes because Michael Wray was hot on their heels all season long in the chase for the championship.
“Mike Wray was with us all year long and we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes because he would have taken over the point lead from us,” said Fearn. The fact that we were able to finish all the laps this year is all down to the great crew I have behind me. I have to thank all the guys on my crew, my wife, SAFCO Foam, King Ward Coach Lines, Whip’s Sporting Goods, Sun Valley Fire Equipment, Sarat Ford, Guns N Gear, Hawley’s Auto Repair, Sunoco Race Fuels, Hoosier Tire, Independent Wheel, Joe Hamm for the chassis, R.A.D. Automachine for the power, my father does the transmission and Buzzy does the rear end on the car, it’s just a whole bunch of people who help out and get us here. It’s been a long year and it’s been a long time since I won a championship so this is pretty nice.”
Fearn will officially be crowned as the 2016 Late Model track champion at the 47th Annual Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards Ceremony on Friday, November 18 at Maneeley’s in South Windsor.
Tickets to the 47th Annual Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards Ceremony are $48 per person and can be ordered by calling the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at (860) 684-2783, or by downloading an order form from www.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