DAN FLANNERY TAKES 2010 LIMITED LATE MODEL CHAMPIONSHIP AT STAFFORD SPEEDWAY
(Stafford Springs, CT)—After being in position to win the Limited Late
Model championship a season ago only to have a flat tire shatter his
championship hopes, Dan Flannery came into the 2010 season as one of the
championship favorites. After leading the championship standings for much
of the year, Flannery and the #41 TSI Columbia Harley-Davidson/LaRosa Earth
Group team punctuated their championship season with a thrilling victory in
the season ending CARQUEST Fall Final feature.
“That’s the way to do it, it’s hard to lose the championship if you win,”
said Flannery.
Flannery and the #41 TSI Columbia Harley-Davidson/LaRosa Earth Group team
showed that they were once again going to be contenders for the championship
with a strong showing in the season opening CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler
practice sessions and heat races. But a spin in the Sizzler race left
Flannery with a 13th place finish and the team spent the next month digging
out of that hole, not taking the points lead until the conclusion of the May
28th feature event.
After 10 consecutive top-5 finishes following his disappointing Sizzler
finish, Flannery finished 8th or worse in 4 of the next 5 events, which
allowed Dave Yardley, III and defending Limited Late Model track champion
Andrew Durand, to claw their way back into championship contention. But
Flannery made sure he was going to take the championship with a thrilling
3-wide pass on green white checkered restart to win the final race of the
season.
“I don’t really know what happened, those guys washed up the track, I just
drove through, and here we are,” said Flannery. “The car started to go away
a little the longer we went, it started to get a little loose, but the car
was a rocket during the middle of the race. I have to thank Steve McCarthy,
he threw so much stuff at this car and it worked really well. I was
checking my mirror and saw that Dave [Yardley] was right there with me and
he wasn’t going away. We struggled the last couple of weeks with this car,
but it was fast [at Fall Final]. This is cool for everyone and the crew.
We’ve finished second in the championship a couple of times, but we’ve never
won a championship. This makes up for last year, we’re about even now. I
have to thank Steve, Billy the Kid, Magnus Transmissions, my Grandfather, my
Grandmother, Devin, TSI Columbia, Ultimate Oil, LaRosa Earth Group, we
couldn’t have done any of this without them.”
Flannery will officially be crowned the 2010 Limited Late Model track
champion at the 41st Annual Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards
Ceremony on Friday, November 19, 2010 at the La Renaissance Banquet Facility
in East Windsor.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com