2014 Ltd. Late Model Season at Stafford Speedway a Tale of Two Resurgences for Norm Sears
(Stafford Springs, CT)—After taking the 2012 and 2013 seasons off, former 3-time DARE Stock Champion Norm Sears returned to competition in the Limited Late Model division at Stafford Speedway this year. As the 2014 season has played out, the year has become a tale of two resurgences for Sears.
Sears raced in the Limited Late Model division from 2009-2011 after winning 3 consecutive DARE Stock track championships, and his 2014 season was on track to match or even better his best season of 2011 when he finished fourth in the points standings. But a wreck that left his car heavily damaged on July 25th threatened to bring his season to a premature halt. Enter the #36 Don’s Home Improvement team, which originally had DARE Stock graduate Kelsey Rottino as its driver. They offered Sears the seat in their car for the remainder of the 2014 season, and Sears’ championship aspirations were immediately put back on track.
“Norm and I actually live about 2 minutes apart from each other and he helped us out last year when we had a second DARE Stock car put together towards the end of the season,” said Michael Cote, who along with his father Don, own the #36 Limited. “I called Norm the next day after he wrecked and I spoke with my father and Kelsey [Rottino] about Norm taking over the driving duties. The three of us decided to put Norm in the car and he finished second his first time out. At that time we thought that Norm would only be out for a week or two before he got his car put back together but after our first race he told us he was most likely going to scrap the season because his car was too heavily damaged. So we all sat down again and talked it over and decided to try to help Norm win the championship because he was so close to the points lead. The rest has been history.”
“I’ve known those guys through racing when Kelsey was running in the DARE Stocks, and they gave me a call the next day after I balled my car up and said if I wanted the car, it was mine,” said Sears. “I think we were fourth in points at the time so I still had a shot at the championship and I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to drive the car.”
With Sears taking over the driving duties of the #36, it left Rottino without a ride for the remainder of the 2014 season. As disappointing as it may be for Rottino to not be driving, he is taking things in stride and he’s excited about the opportunity the team has now with Sears behind the wheel.
“Obviously you always want to be driving the car and I love racing as much as anybody,” said Rottino. “But Norm was one of the guys that I looked up to when he was winning his championships in the DARE Stock division. Both he and our crew chief Joe Brocket have had a great amount of input into getting the car handling right to run at the front. It’s a great feeling for me to be able to help Norm out by trying to keep him in the thick of the point’s race this year.”
In only three races with the #36 team, Sears has finished second, was leading late and spun out, and then he won last Friday night. Although Sears now has a second chance at racing for the championship, that opportunity almost didn’t materialize. Rottino’s best finishes through the first 9 races of the season were two 9th place finishes on May 23rd and July 18th and Cote says the team was ready to junk the car because they couldn’t figure out what was keeping them from making the car good enough to race at the front of the pack.
“I was ready to cut that car up and put it in the scrap pile,” said Cote. “We found the rear end was tweaked in the car and quite a few other things that were wrong. With Norm coming on board plus all the hard work that Joe Brocket has put in both at our shop during the week and on Friday nights at the track, we finally have the car handling properly and we can see what the car is actually capable of on the track now. I really can’t say enough about everything that Joe has done for us with the car. It’s been a big morale booster for the whole team and Kelsey will be back behind the wheel next season.”
One week prior to the wreck that knocked his #71 car out of commission, Sears was third in the point’s standings; only 18 points out of the lead. After his wreck, Sears fell down to fourth and was 34 points out of the lead. But his results with the #36 team have helped him trim the deficit back down to 22 points and he is currently tied with David Arute for third in the standings heading into the Aug. 22 feature event.
Sears can also lean on his experience of winning three consecutive track championships as the point’s race heads into the homestretch leading up to the season ending NAPA Fall Final on Sept. 27-28.
“I think my experience gives me a little bit of an advantage,” said Sears. “I’d like to think I’m pretty good at points racing from my time in the DARE Stocks. I think it was in 2007 we were 50-something points behind at one stage and we were able to come back from that deficit. I think I’m a little bit more relaxed in the car now then I was back then and we just need to keep finishing up front. I think it’s pretty cool to be racing for the championship and if we can pull it off, it would be pretty neat to do it with two different teams. That fact definitely gives me a little more incentive to try to accomplish that goal.”
The 2014 season has 6 events remaining on the schedule at Stafford. With Sears 22 points behind Andrew Hayes in the current standings, he would only have to gain an average of 4 points or two positions on the track each Friday night to erase that deficit. And in the world of NASCAR Whelen All-American Series short track racing, anything is possible. Sears and the #36