Double Duty for Veteran Driver Christopher
Focused On Whelen All-American Series & Whelen Modified Tour
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ted Christopher is excited by the potential he sees in his 2013 NASCAR Modified schedule. He has two focuses: Friday night NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified racing at Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, Conn., and driving the famed Jan Boehler No. 3 car in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
Christopher, 54, of Plainville, Conn., has championships and race wins that certify his status as one of the all-time greats in NASCAR competition. After 27 years in the Modifieds, he’s still driven to win.
“I don’t go racing to make laps. I don’t need any more laps. I go to win,” Christopher said. “It’s harder nowadays because it’s such a competitive division.”
Christopher is the 2001 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national champion and 2008 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion. He’s already made two starts this year. In the Boehler car he placed third in February’s 150-lap Whelen Modified Tour portion of the UNOH Battle At The Beach at Daytona International Speedway. And he was fourth in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour season opener, driving the No. 00 for Joe Brady and Scott Anderson at Caraway Speedway near Asheboro, N.C., on March 16.
His NASCAR Whelen All-American Series schedule is tighter for 2013 season after a three-track, two-state campaign last year. He’ll drive his own No. 13 car on Friday nights at Stafford, where he won his eighth SK Modified track title last year. He’ll throw in some starts at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway and Waterford (Conn.) Speedway. Last year he competed regularly at Thompson on Thursdays, Stafford on Fridays and Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway on Saturdays. That schedule helped him to a sixth place finish in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national point race, third in Connecticut points and fifth in New York points. His overall record in 48 starts was seven wins, 40 top fives and 43 top 10s. He has four track titles at Thompson and one at Waterford.
“I’m pretty happy with what we did last year,” Christopher said, “but it was just too much time traveling. We’ll be at Stafford every week this year and probably pick up some races at Waterford and Thompson. Your best 18 finishes are what count to be in the national point race. You can have a good season racing at one track and be a contender. I won the 2001 national championship based on my record at Thompson… 15 wins in 18 starts.”
Christopher has two opportunities to set milestones this year. He enters the season with 98 SK Modified career wins at Stafford. At Thompson, his combined performance in several divisions adds up to an unofficial win total of 97. He could hit or surpass the 100 win mark at both tracks this year. In addition, two more tour wins will tie him with Reggie Ruggiero for second on the all-time win list at 44. Mike Stefanik is the tour’s all-time leader with 72. Christopher is aware of the opportunities to increase his totals this year.
“When you get older, you look for records to shoot for,” Christopher said.
As youngsters Christopher and his twin brother Mike raced go-karts. They’d been to Stafford and were eventually interested in racing Modifieds but the engines being used were too costly. The door to Modified racing opened for them after Jack Arute Sr. introduced SK Modifieds at Stafford in 1982.
“We bought our first car from Randy LaJoie for $6,500 and raced it for three years,” Christopher said. “We couldn’t afford to buy a racing engine but I could build a stock engine. My brother and I didn’t know much about racing cars. We knew how to set the toe and that was it. We didn’t know anything about scaling a car and we didn’t do very well. During the week I’d put white paint on each letter of “McCreary” (the tire brand) on our tires so people would think we had new tires and they’d look nice. One time we did the car set-up on jack stands and when we put it on the ground the front end was higher than the rear, and we raced it like that.”
Three cars later, Christopher got his first win at Thompson and his first SK Modified championship at Stafford in 1987.
“Nobody ever told me how it all worked,” he said of Modified racing. “I had to make myself into a driver, a car builder and an engine builder.”
Mike Christopher had a good NASCAR racing career as well. He crewed for Ted for three years before getting his own car. He won Stafford championships in 1989-90 and 1993, and a Thompson title in 1991. His son Mike Jr., 14, has been racing go-karts and plans to move into Legends cars at Waterford this year, Ted said. Mike still enters tour events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon where he’s finished as high as second twice.
Ted also has six NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour wins and 10 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East wins. He’s a nine-time Modified division champion of New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway’s February World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. He won the prestigious Richie Evans Memorial race there five times. He also won in Midgets and Supermodifieds and competed in all three NASCAR national series. He raced on Daytona’s road course in the Rolex 24 twice, and in the track’s December KartWeek. In 2006 Christopher was named as one of the All-Time Top 25 drivers in NASCAR Whelen All-American Series history.
Now in its 32nd season, the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is NASCAR’s national championship program for weekly short track auto racing. More than 50 tracks throughout the United States and Canada participate.
In NASCAR Division I, a driver’s best 18 results through the Sept. 15 closing date count toward their state and national point totals and the champions are decided on overall point total. Once a driver reaches 18 starts, their point total increases incrementally as they replace some poorer runs with better results.
Under the point structure for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, a race winner receives two points for every car in the event up to 20 cars. Second place receives two fewer points and so on through the field. Race winners receive an additional five points. For example, if 20 cars are in the field, the winner receives 45 points, second place 38 and third 36. If there are 15 cars, the winner receives 35 points, second 28 and third, 26.
Track operators also designate support classes as NASCAR Divisions II-V and drivers in those divisions compete for points in the NASCAR Finalist program. The program brings added recognition to support division drivers. Points are kept separately for asphalt and dirt tracks.
Pavement Late Model driver Lee Pulliam, 24, of Semora, N.C., won the 2012 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship.
More information on the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is available at http://hometracks.nascar.com.
Sources: Paul Schaefer/NASCAR Whelen All-American Series PR