(Stafford Springs, CT)—Since notching his first career win back in 2019, Matt Clement has twice come very close to winning a championship in Stafford Speedway’s Limited Late Model division. Both seasons saw Clement finish behind Jeremy Lavoie with the margin 20 points this past season and only 4 points in 2019. Clement is ready to once again be a championship contender in 2024 with his #59 Utility Service New England team.
“We made a few mistakes last season that cost us a few points so we’ll learn from that and we had a bad fast car the second half of the season,” said Clement. “If you look back at 2019 and this past season, we started out strong but in 2019 we didn’t quite keep up with the tuning on the car where last year we did a much better job of keeping up with the track and the competition. That allowed us to really take some swings towards the end of the year and not rest on our laurels. If I can get away from making some of those same mistakes, we should have a great opportunity to be a contender for the championship again. I have to thank all our sponsors, David and Anglea from Utility Service New England, Ron Merker from Ron’s Automotive, everyone at Elmo’s Dockside Restaurant, Derek from Aquatic Wildlife, DMW Vinyl Graphics, and Wayne’s Auto Body.”
In addition to his #59 machine, Clement will be joined on the track by his brother Scott in the #18 and his brother Jay in the #95 on a part-time basis. Clement will also continue his family tradition of wrapping his #59 car with a throwback scheme that will be familiar to race fans with plans for this season calling for a black and gold car.
“We’re picking Scott’s car up from the chassis builder very soon and his car got a new front clip and had a bunch of suspension work done on it so his car should be a heck of a lot faster than it was last season,” said Clement. “Jay will be back, we’re planning on 4 races for him, and we freshened the motor on my car, so we’ll have some fresh power under the hood. We’re going with a throwback scheme this year with a little bit of our own flavor mixed in. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag just yet but we’re going with a black and gold scheme from probably around 20 years or so ago. Unfortunately for my fellow competitors, I’m going to say it’s a winning black and gold paint scheme.”
While a championship can’t be won in the first few weeks of a season, a poor start can heavily contribute to not winning a championship. Clement and his team have been notoriously strong starters but tend to fade away towards the end of seasons. Clement says the 2023 season saw his team pick up their second half performance and now his main focus will be to keep himself out of any potential bad situations on the track.
“It all comes down to confidence so if we can kick some butt the first few weeks of the season, that really lifts everyone’s spirits and gets everyone focused on pushing on deeper into the season since it’s a long season,” said Clement. “I feel like we’re the car to beat, our lap times and finishes show that, and some other people outside our team also think we’re the car to beat. If I can stop putting myself into situations where someone else is going to drive over their head or get into a situation where I end up going backwards down the backstretch, we should be near or at the top of the leaderboard every week.”
Clement racked up four wins last season, his best showing since the 2019 season that saw Clement win 7 times, including his very first Stafford victory. Clement has since won 16 Limited Late Model races and he has his eyes set on winning much more in 2024.
“My mindset going into the season is to be up front battling for the win and to win every week,” said Clement. “I know that’s not very feasible but if you don’t think that way, then I don’t think you’ll be as successful as you want to be. I said at the end of the year last year the championship is the ultimate goal but once you start winning races and having good runs, I’m more of an immediate gratification guy, so it’s hard for me when I see an opportunity for a win to not go for it and take the points and finish second or third.”
Clement’s first opportunity to drive his #59 car into NAPA Victory Lane be the 52nd Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler®, set for April 27-28. The NAPA Spring Sizzler® kicks off on Saturday, April 27th and will consist of two 40-lap NAPA Duel qualifying races for the Open Modified division. The 40-lap races will each pay $3,500 to win and will set the field for Sunday’s NAPA Spring Sizzler®. Stafford’s Late Model, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions will complete Saturday’s racing program with qualifying and feature racing.
Order 52nd NAPA Spring Sizzler® Tickets
Sponsor a NAPA Spring Sizzler® Lap
Sunday, April 28th will play host to the $20,000 to win 52nd NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler®. Filling out Sunday’s racing card will be qualifying and feature racing for the SK Modified® and SK Light Modified divisions along with last chance qualifiers for the NAPA Spring Sizzler®.
For more information, visit staffordspeedway.com, follow Stafford Speedway on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.
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