Ted Christopher Looking to Continue Good Fortunes at Stafford in TSI Harley-Davidson 125
Stafford Springs, CT — After joining the #3 Boehler Enterprises team for the final few races of the 2012 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, Ted Christopher has kicked off the 2013 season with back to back top-5 finishes in the #3 and sits only points behind Rowan Pennink and Doug Coby in the championship chase. Christopher is coming off an excellent run in the CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, where he raced from 15th to 3rd and he is looking to continue his good fortunes at Stafford next Friday night in the TSI Harley-Davidson 125 Presented by G-Oil.
“Things are great, those are great guys to work with and I really enjoy it,” said Christopher. “I think we’re only like 3 points out of the lead for the couple races we’ve ran so far. I know the potential we have once we can get to that point. Until we get our motor situation settled, we’ll see what happens. As a driver I know there’s more in the car and they’re a really great bunch of guys to go racing with.”
With the TSI Harley-Davidson 125 Presented by G-Oil being only 125 laps in distance, getting a good qualifying lap is going to be at a premium and with the NWMT field so close together, a tenth of a second can make all the difference. The short race distance will also open up the possibility for various pit strategies to come into play.
“That race is a weird race because some people will try to go the whole way, and some guys will pit,” said Christopher. “If you pit, you have to pit early because you can’t pit late around lap 100 because you won’t have 50 laps to get back to the front. I think we’ll end up pitting, I like doing that. But we’ll see how the car is and where we’re at. If you get a bunch of cautions, it will play to you and help you out, and if you don’t it doesn’t help. The field is so close right now, if we had another tenth of a second at the Sizzler, we would have been fifth instead of 15th. We’re at a bit of a disadvantage with our motor right now but that’s the situation. Everybody has really good stuff and until we can get to the point where we’re with everybody else, we’ll see where we’re at, but I don’t think we’re at that point just yet. The guys made some changes on the motor this week, so we’ll see how it works next Friday night.”
One factor that Christopher will have in his favor is his experience at Stafford. Christopher is the winningest driver in SMS history with 118 feature wins, including 12 NWMT wins at SMS. Christopher, along with Bobby Santos, III and Doug Coby, have combined to win 11 of the last 13 NWMT races at Stafford dating back to the 2010 CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler.
“Stafford has always been good to me,” said Christopher. “I’m hoping it’s good to me again next Friday night.”
Christopher will also be behind the wheel of his #13 SK Modified® as he chases a ninth track championship. Christopher is currently second in the SK Modified® standings, 14 points behind Ryan Preece.
“Right now the SK car isn’t at its full potential yet either,” said Christopher. “In practice and the features, we’re usually one of the fastest cars, but we’re not where we want to be with longevity. The car goes good for about 20 laps and we made a bunch of changes we were hoping to try out. We have a real good game plan and we should be pretty good once we get the car where we want it to be. The night we had a motor issue is really hurting us right now, we should probably be leading the points by now, but coulda, woulda, shoulda.”
Tickets for the 23rd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125 Presented by G-Oil are available and on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $33.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at $35.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax.
For more information on the 23rd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125 Presented by G-Oil, or to order tickets, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR