(Stafford Springs, CT)—After a year away from racing at Stafford Speedway,
Norm Sears has returned to NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition at
the Connecticut half-mile, and he is currently at the top of the Limited
Late Model standings after finishes of second and first in the first 2 races
of the season. The fact that Sears and the #71 Kar Kare Collision Center
team are leading the points after 2 races is quite the feat considering how
late Sears and car owner Barry Fluckiger put a deal together to race this
year.
“I’ve always said Stafford feels like home, so it’s nice to be back home
this year,” said Sears. “I was at Thompson helping Corey Hutchings out with
his Late Model and Barry gave me a call and said he was putting a team
together and asked me if I wanted to drive a car this year at Stafford. I
said sure and Barry asked if I could meet him in an hour to go look at a
car. So I drove from Thompson to meet Barry at Rick Charette’s house to
look at the car and the next day Barry bought the car.”
Once the car was purchased, Fluckiger and Sears had to convert it from a
Stafford Late Model to Limited Late Model.
“We had to put a new rear end in it, a new motor, new transmission, and we
had to change the setup on the car,” said Sears. “We showed up for the
first race with the car looking like it was when we got it from Rick with
some duct tape numbers on it. We ended up not hurting the car the first
race so we brought the car back to the shop and painted it and we came back
the second week with my old yellow paint scheme.”
The beginning of the 2011 season has been a much better start than Sears had
in his first foray into the Limited Late Model division in 2009. Sears had
a throttle stick during his heat race and he ended up making hard contact
with the turn 1 wall, which forced him to miss that first race. Considering
the quick turnaround that they had to perform on the car to get it ready to
race, the first two races of the year have far exceeded expectation.
“It’s been a much better start to the year for us,” said Sears.
“Considering my history in the Limited division in 2009 and destroying the
car after the first race, having the car in one piece is a beautiful thing.
We had some expectations with the new spec engine and some setup help from
Corey Hutchings, so we had a good baseline, but we never expected to run
this well. I think we had a fifth place car in the first race, but things
opened up for us with a restart at the end of that first race and we were
able to get a second out of it. We never thought we’d have a first and a
second in our first two races.”
After visiting CARQUEST Victory Lane in the second race of the season, Sears
feels like there is still more performance in his car to be unlocked
throughout the course of the 2011 season.
“Driving with a locked rear end, it’s totally different than the old Limited
Late Model or DARE Stock cars,” said Sears. “The chassis are identical, but
this rear end is totally different than anything I’ve raced and worked on
before. Corey Hutchings has been a huge help for us with figuring out the
front end geometry. That stuff takes years to learn and if you don’t know
that stuff with setting up the car, then you’re going to get beat. We’re
starting a new notebook this season and having Corey helping us out has been
huge. We definitely think there is more speed in the car.”
Although the 2011 season is still in its infancy stages, Sears is currently
the Limited Late Model championship leader, which is a position that he
would like to remain in throughout the course of the year.
“As of now, we’re going to race for the championship,” said Sears. “We’ve
had two real good races to start out with and the prize money that we have
won so far will help us maintain the car. As long as we can keep running up
front and getting those prize money checks and not ball the car up, I think
we’ll be in pretty good shape. If we could find a sponsor that would be
huge for us as well. As you can see the car is pretty plain right now, so
we have plenty of room for any sponsors that would like to come on board.”
As one of only three drivers to win three consecutive track titles at
Stafford, Sears knows what it takes to contend for and win a championship.
If Sears can keep posting results like he has in the first two races of the
2011 season, he may just add another championship to his resume.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com