Josh Stade Wins APC United Late Model Series at Sunset

Josh Stade tallied his second career victory with the APC United Late Model Series on Saturday night, winning the Stewart's Equipment 200 at Sunset Speedway.

Stade previously won with the series in 2022 at his home track of Sauble Speedway. However, a disappointing showing at Sauble one week ago prompted a busy week of work on the race car for Stade and his team.

That work paid off on Saturday, as Stade took the lead on lap 103 and paced the field for the remainder of the event.

"The guys standing behind me, I wish my wife and kids were here, and my mom," said Stade in victory lane. "Wow. We put a week in on this thing after Sauble, our home track. We were doing brutal.

"We cut the whole back half of this car off, re-did it, got it done in time to come here and dominate. Man, this place owes me about seven races. This is the biggest win of my career. I couldn't be happier.

"We've got a lot of really talented drivers in this field. Everyone that stands behind me, they work every day. It's all volunteer, no one's paid. We're just some small-town pavers out here showing the asphalt boys how to get 'er done."

Kyle Steckly finished second, continuing his pursuit of a second consecutive APC United Late Model Series championship. Unofficially, Steckly now leads Blair Wickett by 20 points in the title hunt.

"It was a solid night, for sure," said Steckly. "This 22 team did a great job, they gave me a great car. We unloaded really, really fast. We were close. Josh did a great job. I was saving the whole race and he never really came back to me. He had a good car."

A turning point in the race came under caution with 98 laps to go. Danny Benedict pitted from the lead, turning the top spot over to Stade.

Benedict drove from seventh after his pit stop to the third position. He believed adjustments were necessary to have a chance to beat Stade, but ultimately the adjustments he and his team made weren't enough.

"I knew Josh was good," said Benedict. "We were trying to save as much as we could there that first half. I just felt like we needed a bit more to stay in front of the 17. We made the call to pit, and I think we made the car a little bit worse, if anything.

"I'm really proud of the effort. I just said to my guys here, we took about a 12th-place car and mangled it into a third-place car. We'll take that any day."

Jo Lawrence finished fourth, with Wickett rounding out the top five.

The penultimate race of the 2024 APC United Late Model Series season is scheduled for August 24 at Sauble Speedway. After that, the championship will be decided on September 7 at Delaware Speedway in the Castrol Great Canadian 300.

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-Photo credit: APC United Racing Series

APC United Late Model Series Unofficial Results
Sunset Speedway - August 10, 2024