STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. – The SK Light division took center stage on Friday night at Stafford Motor Speedway, with rookie Derek Debbis earning his first victory during Dunleavy’s Modifiedz Night.
In the 40-lap Dunleavy’s Modifiedz Night SK Light feature event, Debbis took the lead as the green flag waved, with Steven Chapman taking second. Wesley Prucker was third in line with Mark Bakaj going around Joey Ferrigno to take fourth. Andrew Les took fifth from Ferrigno on lap three and several other cars, including Alexander Pearl, Peter Bennett, and George Bessette Jr. were able to get by Ferrigno as he slid back to ninth place.
Josh Carey brought the first caution out with 13 laps complete with a spin in turn four with Debbis still in command followed by Chapman, Prucker, Pearl and Bakaj.
Debbis took the lead back under green with Chapman in second. Pearl worked his way into third with Prucker and Bakaj side by side for fourth place. Les and Bennett were side by side for sixth with Puleo and Bessette behind them. The caution came back out with 17 laps complete for spins in the middle of turns one and two by Nathan Pytko and Bert Ouellette.
The restart saw Pearl and Chapman touch, with Chapman going around in turn four in front of the field to bring the caution out before a lap could be completed. The next restart saw Pearl charge into the lead but by the time the cars reached the backstretch Debbis had came back strong and got back into the lead. Ouellette and Carey spun on the frontstretch to bring the caution out with 18 laps complete.
Pearl again initially got the better restart than Debbis but Debbis was back in the lead as the cars came off turn four to complete lap 19. Bakaj was third in line with Les up to fourth and Puleo fifth. Prucker was back to sixth followed by Bennett, Bessette, Nick Anglace, and last week’s winner Brian Sullivan. Puleo took fourth from Les on lap 24 while Debbis was starting to stretch out his advantage over Pearl and Bakaj out front.
Debbis led lap 33 to pick up a $333 bonus bonus that was put up by Doug Dunleavy from Dunleavy’s Truck and Trailer Repair in memory of Wade Cole with Pearl, Bakaj, Puleo, and Les still giving chase.
Debbis would go on to take the checkered flag to record his first victory at Stafford. Pearl came home in second with Bakaj, Puleo and Les rounding out the top-five.
In other action, Ronnie Williams scored his first victory of the season in the SK Modified feature. Ryan Fearn took topped the late model feature, Jerry Lavoie was the winner of the limited late model feature and Jason Lafayette topped the street stock main event.