Troy Talman Enjoying Rookie Season That Almost Didn’t Happen at Stafford Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — For Oxford, MA native Troy Talman, the 2013 SK Light season at Stafford Motor Speedway has gotten off to a great start. Talman has 1 win and he has finished in the top-10 in each of the first 8 races during his rookie season, but it is a rookie season that almost didn’t happen for the 18-year old.
“We went into the season thinking we were going to run Thompson for the full year,” said Talman. “We were planning on coming to the Sizzler just to try Stafford out. We really liked it and we’ve worked from there. We weren’t planning on running the full season at Stafford until a couple of weeks ago. We started off with a fourth and we thought let’s go back on May 10th and we won the race. That was the best way you can win, it was great. It’s been a lot of fun racing at Stafford. The facility is very nice and things are done on a very professional level. Racing with more cars and having to go through heat races is pretty cool. It’s proven to be a challenge for us being our first year because we don’t have the setup notes that some other guys have. So we’re trying to learn and build a notebook and come out on top all at the same time.”
Talman comes from a background of Quarter Midgets and Legends cars and he feels like he is right where he expected to be in his rookie season with the #13 Digital Federal Credit Union machine.
“I expected to be right up among the top-5, but I think my Dad and the crew were thinking more like top-10,” said Talman. “Going into the year I was pretty confident in the piece that we had that we could compete with those guys. We ran Thompson last year and it was a good learning experience for me racing with only a few other guys. Our plan this year was to race as many tracks as we could and pick the one we liked the best. The competition at Stafford was one of the main reasons why we chose to race at Stafford. Stafford definitely reminds me of the Legends with 20 plus cars around you and the one way communication on the radio.”
Although Talman and the #13 Digital Federal Credit Union team may lack the notebook that some of the other SK Light teams have, Talman has two excellent resources of information he can lean on for advice and setup help in his uncle Tom Tagg, who raced SK Modifieds at Stafford, and Brad LaFontaine, who has helped numerous drivers win modified races at SMS. Talman also carries sponsorship from Napa of Ayer, B&G Toys and Trains, Harvest Moon Health Foods, M&M Autobody, and Max’s Motor Sales.
“We came to Stafford with a pretty basic setup idea and we’ve had a lot of help from Brad LaFontaine,” said Talman. “My uncle raced at Stafford in the 90’s and he’s helped me a ton with driving at Stafford. His help has been priceless, you can’t buy the kind of knowledge that he’s given me. It’s definitely been an advantage for me since he’s been there and done that in a lot of things.”
At the midway point of the 2013 season, Talman currently sits 3rd in the points standings behind fellow rookie driver Chase Dowling and 3rd year driver Tony Membrino, Jr. With a victory already under his belt this season, Talman’s goal for the second half of the year is to take things one race at a time and not worry about where he is in the standings until the end of the season.
“Last week we kind of fell off the boat a little with our setup,” said Talman. “I’d like to be a contender, take things week by week and get a couple more wins and see where things fall at the end of the year. I’d be lying if I said points weren’t in the back of my mind, but I’m not really worrying about it too much. I’d like to think we could get a couple more wins. The track really seems to change a lot during a raceday with the day to night transition. We’re still trying to get that figured out because it’s thrown us a bit of a curveball the last couple weeks. Our main goal is to keep running up front and let the pieces fall into the puzzle.”
As Matt Galko proved in 2010, a rookie driver can win the championship in the SK Light division. With Talman joining Chase Dowling as rookie winners during the first half of the 2013 season, he will certainly be among the contenders if his second half performance can match and exceed his first half performance.
For more information, 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