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(Stafford Springs, CT)—Coming off of a career best season in Stafford Speedway’s Street Stock division, Somers, CT native Jason Lafayette is set to make the move up to the Limited Late Model division for the 2025 season. Lafayette matched his career bests with two wins and eight top-5 finishes and set a new personal best with 17 top-10 finishes while contending for the championship all season long before finishing a career best 3rd in the Street Stock standings.
“I’d say it was probably my best season,” said Lafayette. “I’ve had some good seasons finishing 6th in the points and there were a few years where I didn’t run the full season. Before last season, I had never really considered points as a focus and our goal for 2024 was to run for points and to see what we could do.”
Lafayette got a head start on his transition from the Street Stock division to the Limited Late Model ranks by making two starts in September, following his purchase of the #78 car from his longtime friend Mike Hopkins. Lafayette finished 7th on his Limited Late Model debut on September 20th and he followed that finish up with a 10th place effort in the season ending NAPA Championship Night on October 4th.
“Mike and I have been best friends forever and he was the person who got me to switch from racing SK Lights over to the Street Stock division and full fendered cars,” said Lafayette. “When Mike was getting serious about selling his car we came up with a deal and I bought it from him. The two races we ran were a great experience for me. My first race I finished 7th with the car on old tires, but I feel like we had a top-3 car that night. Then we were concentrating on our Street Stock stuff and we didn’t make the right adjustment on the car for my second race and we finished 10th. We were actually second fastest in practice that afternoon, but we went the wrong way with the car for the feature that night.”
Fresh off a career-best season in the Street Stock division, along with two top-10 finishes in the Limited Late Model division, Lafayette is setting his sights on learning as much as possible in 2025. His goal is to be a competitive top-5 car as quickly as he can.
“We want to be able to contend for wins this season,” said Lafayette. “That division is super tight and all the cars seem really close, so top-5 finishes would be great. If we could sneak out a win, that would be even better. A lot of the drivers have been in that division for a long time and they know their cars and what to expect so we need to learn and see what we can do. It’s all a matter of attention to detail and I think we learned a lot. I was talking with my crew chief Eddie about some of the tire program stuff and how to pick tires and coordinate having the right tires on the car for the end of the season. There’s a lot of stuff we can put into play for this season. I have to give a thank you to BFR and Bob Fill, he does a great job with chassis setup and this new car is absolutely beautiful. Also thanks to Tri-State Equipment Repair, Gene’s Ford and Chevy, Tavano and McCouin Law Offices, McKinney Construction, Beaver Campers, R.A.D. Auto Machine, Eddie Cousineau, David Martin, my daughter Meghan and my son Thomas.”
In addition to the #78 car that he purchased from Hopkins, Lafayette will also have a brand new BFR chassis car in his garage to give himself two cars to attack the 2025 season with. Alternatively, Lafayette might put his son, Thomas, in the second car for a few races.
“For this season I’ll have Mike’s old #78 car as well as a brand new car from Bob Fill,” said Lafayette. “I’ll start the year off with the new car and I’ll have Mike’s old car as a backup or my son, Thomas, is starting to look at getting into racing so maybe we’ll put him in the car a few times and see what he can do.”
The first Limited Late Model feature of the 2025 season will be part of the 53rd Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler®, set for April 26-27. The NAPA Spring Sizzler® kicks off on Saturday, April 26, with feature events for the Late Model, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions, along with SK Light qualifying duel races that will set the field for an extra-distance 30-lap feature event on Sunday, April 27.
Order 53rd Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler® Tickets
Sunday, April 27, will host the 53rd Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler®, featuring qualifying and feature races for the SK Modified® division, a 30-lap SK Light Modified feature, and the NAPA Pit Party.
For more information, visit staffordspeedway.com, follow Stafford Speedway on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.
