Christopher Reigns At Stafford
Veteran Wins Last Lap Battle With Rudolph For Victory
Stafford Springs, CT — In thrilling fashion, Ted Christopher won the CARQUEST Fall Final on Sunday at Stafford Motor Speedway.
On a green-white-checkered finish, Christopher, out of Plainville, Conn., got his No. 36 Al-Lee Installations Chevrolet underneath Erick Rudolph to take the lead just after the field took the white flag to collect his 12th career victory at the Connecticut half-mile track. For Christopher, it was his Tour-best fourth win of the season and the 42nd of his storied career.
On the final lap Christopher got inside of Rudolph entering Turn 1, Rudolph went to block, Christopher held his ground and the two banged nerf bars rolling through the turn. Christopher came out of Turn 1 with the lead and rode to victory.
[Photo Gallery] by Nicholas Teto
Ryan Preece capitalized on Rudolph’s misfortune to earn the runner-up position followed by Donny Lia in third. Eric Beers finished fourth and Rudolph ended up in the fifth position. Kevin Goodale, points leader Ron Silk, Matt Hirschman, Doug Coby and Justin Bonsignore rounded out the top 10.
Bonsignore, who picked up his third career Coors Light Pole Award on Saturday, had an answer for all comers over the first 79 laps when he made a trip to pit road for fuel and tires. In the early going, overtures were made by Christopher, Lia and Preece. However, after everyone cycled through pit stops, Bonsignore was not able to work his way back through traffic.
Todd Szegedy, who entered the day just eight points behind Silk, suffered an early-race spin and made multiple pit stops before climbing back as high as second in the race. Another late-race spin resulted in a 22nd-place finish. Silk’s top 10 effort combined with Szegedy’s misfortune means that Silk will take a 57-point lead to the season finale. T
he NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour closes out the 2011 season and crowns a new champion on Oct. 16 at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway in the World Series of Speedway Racing.
Sources: Jason Cunningham/NASCAR WMT PR