Tom Fearn and #92 Late Model Team Welcome Sarat Ford as Sponsor
Stafford Springs, CT –After a dismal start to the 2015 Late Model season at Stafford Speedway, East Longmeadow, MA native Tom Fearn has turned his season around with 2 consecutive victories, which coincides with the #92 team adding Sarat Ford as a sponsor. Fearn has ties with Sarat Ford that date back to his ProStock days in the early ‘90s when he was winning championships at Stafford.
“Sarat Ford was on the ProStock I drove back in 1993 through my car owner Marvin Prosco and it’s a relief to have them back on board with us this season,” said Fearn. “We went to Sarat with a proposal back in January and we were able to get everything worked out and they were on the car for the first time 2 weeks ago. Bill Kushin, from Sun Valley Fire Equipment, which is another one of our sponsors, was instrumental with getting Sarat Ford on board as a sponsor. We left the back panel on the car black because we were hoping to be able to add Sarat in that space and we were able to win our first 2 races with them on the car.”
Fearn had a bad wreck on May 1st that sidelined him and the #92 team for a week before he returned on May 15th. Fearn won his first race of the season on May 29th with Sarat Ford just added to the car and he won again last week to bring him up to 7th place in the point standings. Fearn’s early season misfortunes have him and the #92 team changing their mindset from racing for points to flat out going for wins for the remainder of the 2015 season.
“We’ve had a real fast car all year long but circumstances have kept us from getting the finishes that we wanted,” said Fearn. “Luck is a small part of racing but it is a part of it. When we added Sarat to the car I said I hope this changes our luck and it seems like it has. We had terrible finishes the first 3 races of the season which put us way behind in the points. As far as I was concerned, the points were over with and we were just going to go for wins. If we can win 5 or 6 races like we did a couple of years ago, maybe that will be as satisfying as winning a championship. I know it won’t be exactly, but for team morale and all of our sponsors on the car there’s nothing like winning races. We still have a long way to go this season and hopefully we can continue this good run and we got our bad luck out of the way at the beginning of the season. It’s going to be tough to make up points but we’re looking to win some more races and maybe at the end of the year we can say we had a successful season. When you win races, sometimes the points come to you.”
In addition to Sarat Ford, Fearn and the #92 team carry sponsorship from SAFCO Foam, King Ward Coach Lines, Sun Valley Fire Equipment, several sponsors that have special meaning to the team.
“We have great sponsors with King Ward, SAFCO Foam, and Sun Valley Fire Equipment that give us the ability to have what we need to perform and win races,” said Fearn. “We also have a couple of special sponsors with Whip’s Sporting Goods and Magic Enterprises. Whip’s Sporting Goods is Jim Whipple and he was a former racer at Riverside. He comes with his father, who is in a wheelchair, every Friday night to the track and they come through the pit area before going into the grandstand to watch us race. It’s really great for us to be able to give a little back to them and see the smiles on their face when we win. Jim sponsored me and he spotted for me back in the ‘80s when I ran Late Models and it’s really nice when everything comes full circle. Lenny from Magic Enterprises in Enfield, he had some health issues last year and ended up having to have his leg amputated. He told me that no matter what he wanted his name on the car so we said we’d have him on the car as a way to say thank you for supporting the team for the past 4 or 5 years. He doesn’t get out to the races much but he always asks how we did and anytime we can get him a picture from victory lane it puts a big smile on his face.”
With two consecutive wins under his belt, Fearn will look to keep his good times rolling for the remainder of the 2015 season. Although he faces an uphill climb in the race for the championship, if Fearn can keep on winning races, he may just force himself back into the thick of the championship race by the end of the season.
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