{"id":6976,"date":"2011-08-26T11:59:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-26T15:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2011-08-25T21:59:56","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T01:59:56","slug":"shawn-thibeault-kevin-gambacorta-locked-ultra-tight-championship-race-stafford%e2%80%99s-limited-late-model-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/shawn-thibeault-kevin-gambacorta-locked-ultra-tight-championship-race-stafford%e2%80%99s-limited-late-model-division\/","title":{"rendered":"SHAWN THIBEAULT AND KEVIN GAMBACORTA LOCKED IN ULTRA TIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP RACE IN STAFFORD\u2019S LIMITED LATE MODEL DIVISION"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stafford\"
\nSHAWN THIBEAULT AND KEVIN GAMBACORTA LOCKED IN ULTRA TIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP RACE IN STAFFORD\u2019S LIMITED LATE MODEL DIVISION<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Stafford Springs, CT)—Along with their SK Modified\u00ae division, Stafford\u2019s
\nLimited Late Model division features a championship battle that currently
\nhas Shawn Thibeault leading Kevin Gambacorta by only 8 points, or 4
\npositions on the track. While Gambacorta has won track championships at
\nStafford in the DARE Stock division in 2004 and the Limited Late Model
\ndivision in 2006, Thibeault is experiencing a championship chase for the
\nfirst time in his racing career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like being ahead, but I wish we had a little bigger lead,\u201d said Thibeault
\ndriver of the #58 Enterprise Rent A Car Chevrolet. \u201cKevin has won a
\nchampionship in the DARE Stocks and the Limiteds, so he knows what it takes
\nand what to do and what not to do in these last 5 races. We\u2019ve both been
\npretty consistent this year, we usually start right around one another, and
\nour focus is to keep Kevin in sight and try to finish ahead of him. If we
\ncan get a couple more wins, the points will take care of themselves.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019d like to think I have a bit of an advantage,\u201d said Gambacorta, driver of
\nthe #23 Rafferty Fine Grading Dodge. \u201cThis year I feel more relaxed than in
\nprevious years. Usually we\u2019re in the lead of the championship at this point
\nof the season, and now we\u2019re behind, so it\u2019s a different feeling. I always
\nfigured that when I was leading the points I could control my own destiny.
\nI\u2019d rather be leading, but there is a lot less stress where were are right
\nnow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Thibeault and Gambacorta have been a model of consistency this season.
\nWhile Thibeault holds the edge over Gambacorta in feature wins by a 4 to 1
\ncount, Gambacorta has finished in the top-5 in 13 of 14 races this year with
\nhis worst finish being a 7th place finish on August 5th. While Thibeault
\nhas 2 less top-5 and top-10 finishes than Gambacorta, his 4 wins have made
\nthe difference so far this season in the points standings as Thibeault\u2019s
\naverage finish for the season is 3.3 while Gambacorta\u2019s average finish
\nstands at 3.6.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur plan is to keep the same strategy and try to let the races come to me
\nand try to keep the 23 in sight,\u201d said Thibeault. \u201cWe want to win races,
\nbut it all depends on how the car is and how I\u2019m feeling behind the wheel.
\nWe already had one incident earlier this year where we were going for a win
\nand we were put to the back and we lost some points, so we should have a
\nbigger lead than we do. I don\u2019t want to jeopardize myself anymore this
\nyear. We usually start behind Kevin, so our focus is to keep him in sight
\nand if we can get by him, we can try to win the race. Last week Kevin
\nfinished one spot ahead of us, and as much as I hated doing it, I stayed
\nbehind him. We loosened the car up for the feature and we might have gone a
\ntick too far, I didn\u2019t have the forward bite I needed to get by him.\u201d
\n\u201cIn all honesty, I think I\u2019m going to go points racing these last 5 races,\u201d
\nsaid Gambacorta. \u201cWe still have to keep an eye on George [Nocera] because
\nhe\u2019s close, but we got a couple of points on Shawn last week and if we can
\ndo that the rest of the year, we\u2019ll be ahead. I would say that this is the
\nbest season I\u2019ve ever had. We only have one finish outside the top-5 all
\nyear long, so we\u2019ve had a strong season, but that just shows how tough Shawn
\nhas been to beat this year. Some guys can go out and blast off a fast lap
\npretty quick, but then their car falls off by 4 or 5 tenths at the end of
\nthe race. Our car seems to stay pretty consistent throughout the race from
\nstart to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

With only 8 points separating them from each other in the standings,
\nanything can happen over the final 5 races and both Thibeault and Gambacorta
\nfeel good about their chances of taking home the championship this season.
\n\u201cWe feel pretty good,\u201d said Thibeault. \u201cI feel like the car has been good
\nand I feel like I\u2019ve gotten better behind then wheel in relaying information
\nto the crew about what the car is doing and what kind of adjustments we need
\nto make. It would mean the world to everyone if we are able to win this
\nchampionship. As the season has gone on, more of my family has been coming
\nout to the track and helping out in the pits, so I\u2019ve had great support this
\nseason and winning a championship would really be icing on the cake for me.\u201d
\n\u201cI feel pretty confident and everyone on the team feels confident,\u201d said
\nGambacorta. \u201cI don\u2019t want to jinx myself by saying this, but this season
\nhas felt like years past when we\u2019ve won the championship. We\u2019ve had little
\nthings, I guess you\u2019d call it luck, that have happened this year that haven
\n\u2019t been happening for the past few years. Last week I was checking my air
\npressures in the tires and I noticed that one of the spokes on my wheels was
\nbroken all the way through and one night at the shop I was underneath the
\ncar doing some routine stuff and it was just right that I noticed my clutch
\nwas broken. I\u2019ve always said that to win a championship, you have to win a
\nrace. We\u2019ve won a race this year and I like winning championships and
\ngetting to come out on stage at the banquet at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
\n860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com
\n.<\/http:><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHAWN THIBEAULT AND KEVIN GAMBACORTA LOCKED IN ULTRA TIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP RACE IN STAFFORD\u2019S LIMITED LATE MODEL DIVISION (Stafford Springs, CT)—Along with their SK Modified\u00ae division, Stafford\u2019s Limited Late Model division features a championship battle that currently has Shawn Thibeault leading Kevin Gambacorta by only 8 points, or 4 positions on the track. While Gambacorta has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[196,126,197],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-6976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-new-england","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}