A LOOK BACK AT THE 1979
STAFFORD MOTOR SPEEDWAY SEASON

By: Scott Running

The 1979 season at Stafford Motor Speedway was another example of slow and steady wins the race in the modified division. Richie Evans won a season high 9 modified feature events, but he could not match the season long consistency of Ron Bouchard, who took the championship by 6 points over Evans with 4 feature victories to his credit. Other modified feature winners during the year were Geoff Bodine with 3 wins, and Maynard Troyer, Charlie Jarzombek, and Jerry Cook each drove to victory lane once. Troyer's lone victory was the 1979 edition of the Spring Sizzler, his third consecutive victory in the race. Troyer remains to date the only driver to ever win the Spring Sizzler three times in a row.

In the Late Model Sportsman division, it was a young driver named Mike Stefanik who dominated the year. Stefanik won 9 times with win streaks of 5 and 4 races during the season. Stefanik finished the season 72 points ahead of Ron Cote with a young driver named Jerry Marquis finishing third in the championship. The only other drivers to win besides Stefanik during the year were Cote, Gary Stavens, and Gary Dufries, who each scored a single victory.

In the Street Stock division Tony Modena took home the championship honors by a 36 point margin over Wayne Bellefleur. Tom Bolles was the big winner of the Street Stock season with 4 feature victories. Other feature winners from the Street Stock ranks were Modena with 3 wins, Scott Bauder and Bellefleur with 2 wins each, and Jim Ward and Gary Zelonka each won a single race.