RGeeProductions
07-26-2013, 09:35 PM
This past Friday, July 19th marked the culmination of a 31-year journey for Stafford SK Modified® driver Ted Christopher. Christopher took the checkered flag in the 40th Annual Coors Light SK Modified® 80 to record his 120th career victory at Stafford. The victory was also his 100th career win in the SK Modified® division.
"100 wins in one division at one track is pretty good," said Christopher. "I'm glad I could do it at Stafford, I've always loved racing there. It took me like 3 years to win at Stafford. I won at Thompson before I did at Stafford. I basically started racing because I ran go-karts and I still love doing go-karts. The SK division came about and I thought it looked like a fun division. I could build my own motor and I could buy a car cheap."
That cheap car was purchased from Randy LaJoie and set Christopher's SK Modified® career in motion. Christopher's first year of SK Modified® racing was 1983 and he ran three seasons before recording his first win on May 23, 1986. Since that first win, Christopher taken 99 additional trips to CARQUEST Victory Lane and won 8 track championships in the SK Modified® division at SMS. Since capturing his first win, Christopher has recorded at least one SK Modified® victory every year since, a streak of 28 consecutive seasons. His 100 victories equate to 3.2 wins per season for his 31-year SK Modified® career.
"Not knowing anything about race cars when I started probably hurt me a bit," said Christopher. "If I ever had the stuff they have now back when I got started, I might have 200 wins because it's so different now. When I started it was a learning experience for me for a long time. I built my own motors from when I started through about '94 or '95. I got my first car from Randy LaJoie for $6,500 with the motor in it and a truckload of spare parts. He unloaded everything he had in his garage. I had spare uppers, lowers, brake calipers, and I went through it all for sure. The car was called Evelyn. It had an Evans front clip, a Lindblad cage, and a Troyer torque arm. It was the mongrel of all mongrels. I won my first race with that car at Thompson and then I won my first race at Stafford with a CD car that I got from Art Barry. I was lucky enough to win a bunch in go-karts, but car racing was way different. It took a while for me to win and I never expected that I would have won that many races at Stafford in one division and across other divisions."
With all that he has accomplished during his long career, Christopher ranks his 100 SK Modified® victories among his top-3 personal accomplishments. Making the 100 victories all the more satisfying to Christopher is racing against the high level of competition found in the SK Modified® division at Stafford.
"100 wins has to be right up there for me," said Christopher. "I don't really like to rank things and dwell on stuff, I just look at it like it's another accomplishment. But that definitely has to be in the top-3. I think right now if you look at Stafford, it has by far the best group of guys and talented individuals racing SK Modifieds®. There are at least 6 to 8 really good cars and 10 to 12 cars that can win on any Friday night with the right circumstances. There are some seriously good guys racing at Stafford right now and when you can win against the caliber of people like there is racing at Stafford, it's very satisfying."
With the 100 career SK Modified® wins box now checked off on Christopher's to-do list, he already has a new goal in mind for himself.
"The next milestone for us will be to get number 101," said Christopher. "It was really nice to get 100 wins and a lot of people called and texted me, but at 12:01 midnight I cleared the hard drive in my brain to get ready to go down to Waterford to race the next night. Win, lose, or draw I appreciate everything and it was nice, but I'm not one to dwell on what I've accomplished. It's always hard to win a championship, but I'd like to get to 10 if I can over the next couple years at Stafford."
Christopher's 100th career SK Modified® victory put him back into the thick of the chase for the 2013 SK Modified® track championship. As the season reached its halfway point, Christopher chopped 30 points off of his deficit to Ryan Preece and he now sits in 5th place, 34 points behind. Christopher's deficit reduction in the standings has him ready to be a championship contender once again.
"I was really disappointed a couple weeks ago when we went from 16th up to 2nd and the motor blew up and then the next week we didn't even make it to turn 1 on the first lap," said Christopher. "After winning that race, I was looking at the points and I thought that's doable now. I think our car has been good enough to have won a couple more races this year, we've just struggled a little bit with luck. Hopefully we'll have better luck now but that's why you go out and run the race."
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Scott Running
"100 wins in one division at one track is pretty good," said Christopher. "I'm glad I could do it at Stafford, I've always loved racing there. It took me like 3 years to win at Stafford. I won at Thompson before I did at Stafford. I basically started racing because I ran go-karts and I still love doing go-karts. The SK division came about and I thought it looked like a fun division. I could build my own motor and I could buy a car cheap."
That cheap car was purchased from Randy LaJoie and set Christopher's SK Modified® career in motion. Christopher's first year of SK Modified® racing was 1983 and he ran three seasons before recording his first win on May 23, 1986. Since that first win, Christopher taken 99 additional trips to CARQUEST Victory Lane and won 8 track championships in the SK Modified® division at SMS. Since capturing his first win, Christopher has recorded at least one SK Modified® victory every year since, a streak of 28 consecutive seasons. His 100 victories equate to 3.2 wins per season for his 31-year SK Modified® career.
"Not knowing anything about race cars when I started probably hurt me a bit," said Christopher. "If I ever had the stuff they have now back when I got started, I might have 200 wins because it's so different now. When I started it was a learning experience for me for a long time. I built my own motors from when I started through about '94 or '95. I got my first car from Randy LaJoie for $6,500 with the motor in it and a truckload of spare parts. He unloaded everything he had in his garage. I had spare uppers, lowers, brake calipers, and I went through it all for sure. The car was called Evelyn. It had an Evans front clip, a Lindblad cage, and a Troyer torque arm. It was the mongrel of all mongrels. I won my first race with that car at Thompson and then I won my first race at Stafford with a CD car that I got from Art Barry. I was lucky enough to win a bunch in go-karts, but car racing was way different. It took a while for me to win and I never expected that I would have won that many races at Stafford in one division and across other divisions."
With all that he has accomplished during his long career, Christopher ranks his 100 SK Modified® victories among his top-3 personal accomplishments. Making the 100 victories all the more satisfying to Christopher is racing against the high level of competition found in the SK Modified® division at Stafford.
"100 wins has to be right up there for me," said Christopher. "I don't really like to rank things and dwell on stuff, I just look at it like it's another accomplishment. But that definitely has to be in the top-3. I think right now if you look at Stafford, it has by far the best group of guys and talented individuals racing SK Modifieds®. There are at least 6 to 8 really good cars and 10 to 12 cars that can win on any Friday night with the right circumstances. There are some seriously good guys racing at Stafford right now and when you can win against the caliber of people like there is racing at Stafford, it's very satisfying."
With the 100 career SK Modified® wins box now checked off on Christopher's to-do list, he already has a new goal in mind for himself.
"The next milestone for us will be to get number 101," said Christopher. "It was really nice to get 100 wins and a lot of people called and texted me, but at 12:01 midnight I cleared the hard drive in my brain to get ready to go down to Waterford to race the next night. Win, lose, or draw I appreciate everything and it was nice, but I'm not one to dwell on what I've accomplished. It's always hard to win a championship, but I'd like to get to 10 if I can over the next couple years at Stafford."
Christopher's 100th career SK Modified® victory put him back into the thick of the chase for the 2013 SK Modified® track championship. As the season reached its halfway point, Christopher chopped 30 points off of his deficit to Ryan Preece and he now sits in 5th place, 34 points behind. Christopher's deficit reduction in the standings has him ready to be a championship contender once again.
"I was really disappointed a couple weeks ago when we went from 16th up to 2nd and the motor blew up and then the next week we didn't even make it to turn 1 on the first lap," said Christopher. "After winning that race, I was looking at the points and I thought that's doable now. I think our car has been good enough to have won a couple more races this year, we've just struggled a little bit with luck. Hopefully we'll have better luck now but that's why you go out and run the race."
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Scott Running