{"id":14409,"date":"2013-09-03T18:00:01","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T22:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=14409"},"modified":"2013-09-03T06:50:06","modified_gmt":"2013-09-03T10:50:06","slug":"travis-stearns-wins-labor-day-classic-200","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/travis-stearns-wins-labor-day-classic-200\/","title":{"rendered":"Travis Stearns Wins Labor Day Classic 200"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Travis<\/a>First Career ACT Late Model Tour Victory For RGR Driver<\/em><\/p>\n

SOUTH PARIS, Maine \u2013 After the way the first half of the season went, Travis Stearns never imagined being able to call himself an ACT Late Model Tour winner in 2013. Well, he was wrong.<\/p>\n

Stearns ran away with the second half of the Labor Day Classic 200 at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt., on Sunday, September 1, to win his first career ACT event \u2013 and do so in one of the tour’s marquee events on the schedule each season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a good one to win, that’s for sure,\u201d said Stearns, of Auburn, Maine. \u201cThe last 30 laps were the longest 30 laps I’ve ever raced. It honestly felt like it was 300 laps. I didn’t think it was ever going to end.\u201d
\n
\nBut when it did end, it was Stearns who held off eight-time ACT champion Brian Hoar to beat everybody to the checkered flag. It as the first ACT win for Richard Green Racing.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Hoar) closed a huge gap up on us late,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cI had a good 10 car-length lead for a while, and I maintained it. He started to close at one point, and then I’d open it up, and he’d close again. We did that for a little but, and I just figured he was just waiting to pounce. He’s been there a thousand times. I was watching him to see where his line was, and he needed to be right where I was. I wasn’t giving it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stearns took the lead shortly after a round of pit stops under a caution flag on Lap 116. His No. 16 LaQuinta Inn & Suites Chevrolet emerged from the pits in second place, and it took him just one lap to clear to the lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody just did an awesome job on that,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cThat pretty much set us up and put us in position to get the lead. It would have been totally different if I didn’t get out of the pits where I did. I really owe a ton to the crew, to (crew chief Mickey Green) and to everybody at Crazy Horse Racing. It was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stearns cruised away to the win, using the high-side on the tricky quarter-mile to drive to victory. He’s now able to call himself a winner on the ACT Late Model Tour \u2013 though he has a hard time believing it just now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a total shock. We didn’t expect to be anywhere near winning one of these things just yet,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cI had to look around and ask, ‘Is this really happening?’\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Career ACT Late Model Tour Victory For RGR Driver SOUTH PARIS, Maine \u2013 After the way the first half of the season went, Travis Stearns never imagined being able to call himself an ACT Late Model Tour winner in 2013. Well, he was wrong. Stearns ran away with the second half of the Labor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55,14972],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-14409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-act","category-touring-series-news","tag-travis-stearns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}