![\"Stafford\"](\"http:\/\/maineracer.com\/images\/stafford.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
(Stafford Springs, CT)—For Stafford Motor Speedway Limited Late Model
\ndriver Kevin Gambacorta, the 2011 season played out like d\u00e9j\u0105 vu all over
\nagain. After winning the DARE Stock track championship in 2004, Gambacorta
\nclaimed his first Ltd. Late Model track title in 2006 by the narrowest of
\nmargins, 2 points ahead of George Nocera. When the final checkered flag of
\nthe 2011 season fell on the Ltd. Late Model cars at the CARQUEST Fall Final
\nWeekend, Gambacorta was again the champion, but by a 4 point margin over
\nNocera and a 6 point margin over Shawn Thibeault.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels pretty good to be champion again,\u201d said Gambacorta. \u201cIt feels
\njust as good or even a little better than the last two championships. This
\nwas the best year I\u2019ve ever had, our worst finish all year long was 7th
\nplace and the fact that we only won by a couple of points just shows how
\ntough George and Shawn were this season. They had 4 or 5 wins each and we
\nonly had one win, but I figured they were both due for a bad race or two and
\nas long as I didn\u2019t have a bad race, we were going to be ok. This
\nchampionship is more special because it\u2019s the first championship I\u2019ve won
\nwith a sponsor on the car who puts money and time into the car. I can\u2019t
\nthank Kurt and Rhonda Rafferty enough for their support and I\u2019m really happy
\nwe were able to win this championship for them. We won the first DARE Stock
\nchampionship and to be the first one to win two Limited Late Model
\nchampionships is pretty neat.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Gambacorta was in the thick of the championship race all season long,
\nhe didn\u2019t spend much time at the head of the standings. Gambacorta took the
\npoints lead for the first time at the midway point of the 2011 season
\nfollowing the July 1st feature event, and from there to the end of the
\nseason, it was a see-saw duel between himself and Thibeault with each driver
\ntaking turns at the front of the standings. Nocera put himself in the thick
\nof the championship race with five top-2 finishes in the final 6 races of
\nthe season, but he came up just short of Gambacorta at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed like it was between me and Shawn for most of the season and no
\none was talking about George, but once the track started impounding tires,
\nit seemed like George was the car to beat instead of Shawn,\u201d said
\nGambacorta. \u201cIt was back and forth between us for most of the season, but I
\nwasn\u2019t really nervous about it at all. I remember in 2006, I was nervous
\nevery week and that experience probably helped me stay calm this time
\naround. We felt pretty good going into the last race, we had a 14 point
\nlead, which is 7 spots on the track and we hadn\u2019t finished worse than 7th
\nall year long.\u201d<\/p>\n
As consistent as Gambacorta was all season long, he points to the Friday
\nnight of May 13th as a key to his championship effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to thank Bill Davis and Marshall Usher for letting me use their
\n car,\u201d said Gambacorta. \u201cIt was real early in the season and we had broke
\nthe rear end in our car and we didn\u2019t have a spare or enough time to fix the
\ncar if we did have a spare. They let me drive their car in the feature and
\nwithout them giving me their car, we wouldn\u2019t have won the championship.\u201d
\nGambacorta will officially be crowned the 2011 Limited Late Model track
\nchampion at the 42nd Annual Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards
\nCeremony on Friday, November 18, 2011 at the La Renaissance Banquet Facility
\nin East Windsor.<\/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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Stafford Springs, CT)—For Stafford Motor Speedway Limited Late Model driver Kevin Gambacorta, the 2011 season played out like d\u00e9j\u0105 vu all over again. After winning the DARE Stock track championship in 2004, Gambacorta claimed his first Ltd. Late Model track title in 2006 by the narrowest of margins, 2 points ahead of George Nocera. When […]<\/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":[196,197],"tags":[62,72],"class_list":["post-8230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-late-model","tag-stafford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8230","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=8230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}