Chase Dowling Becomes Youngest SK Modified® Feature Winner in Stafford Motor Speedway History
Stafford Springs, CT — In only his second season of modified competition at Stafford Motor Speedway, Roxbury native Chase Dowling has proven to be a quick study. Last season, with no modified racing experience at Stafford Speedway, Dowling found himself in victory lane in his very first SK Light Modified start, then went on to win 6 more races. Dowling narrowly missed out on winning the championship by a 4-point margin and in the off-season he made the move up the ladder to Stafford’s premier SK Modified division. Dowling showed again how quickly he adapts to a new car with a third place finish in the season opening NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler. After two finishes of 16th and 11th following his Sizzler podium, Dowling became the youngest winner in Stafford’s SK Modified® history at 16 years, 5 months, and 5 days when he took the checkered flag in the June 20 SK Modified Xtra Mart Xtra Distance feature.
“Last year our goal was to win one race in the SK Lights and we ended up winning 7 and this year I didn’t believe that would happen,” said Dowling. “I was thinking top-3’s would be awesome and I’m looking at the 4th race in and we won. I figured we’d need about 10 races or so to get settled in with the team this year. I’m still shocked.”
Dowling’s win was anything but easy. As Dowling was leading the race, he had some of the very best in modified racing behind him. Lined up behind Dowling were former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Champions Ted Christopher and Doug Coby, SK Modified® champions Christopher, Woody Pitkat, and Keith Rocco, and SK veterans and feature winners Dan Avery and Eric Berndt.
“I saw Woody Pitkat, Doug Coby, and Dan Avery up there and I didn’t know who else was behind me,” said Dowling. “I wasn’t sure if Teddy was there or not but to be able to say we won against 7 Whelen Modified Tour drivers here at Stafford, it’s a pretty big deal.”
Now that Dowling has his first career SK Modified® victory, his plans are to repeat the feat.
“Now we try to go win another race,” said Dowling. “We aren’t thinking about points or anything, we just want to win races. We come to the track to win races and hopefully we can get another one.”
Dowling has another challenge on the horizon with the NAPA Auto Parts SK 5k coming up on July 4th. While the drivers won’t know what the feature distance will be until right before the cars are ready to go racing, it will for sure be the longest race of Dowling’s short Stafford career as the top-3 vote getters thusfar in race distance are 100-laps, 80-laps, and 76-laps. The longest race Dowling has run to date at Stafford is the 45-lap feature that he won last Friday night.
“It’s more or less going to be my part than my team’s part,” said Dowling. “It’s a long race so we just have to make some small changes to the setup and I have to have patience. I think the biggest thing will be to hang on, don’t get wrecked early, and try to save your stuff for the end of the race. It’s awesome for Stafford Speedway and NAPA Auto Parts to be putting on this kind of race. Not a lot of tracks have the opportunity to race for the money that is going to be on the line so it’s pretty awesome that we have this opportunity.”
The $5,000 to win SK 5K won’t be the only entertainment at Stafford during the night of July 4th. Stafford Speedway will host Mean Gene and the Flamethrowers, a concert style party rock band that is based out of Long Island, NY. Mean Gene and the Flamethrowers will play both prior to and after the conclusion of the NAPA SK 5K racing program. Along with the band, in true Fourth of July style, Stafford Speedway will have a barbeque taking place on the midway with some great food available to race fans. The midway will also be busy during the July 4th NAPA Auto Parts SK5k event with Big Daddy’s RC Racing on hand; NAPA Auto Parts will have an Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund booth setup to sell tee-shirts with all the proceeds being donated to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund; and the Hartford Wolfpack mascot Sonar will be in the house to greet fans.
Tickets for the July 4th NAPA SK 5K are available and on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $27.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for kids ages 6-14, and kids 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at $30.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Speedway offers free parking with free overnight parking for self-contained RV’s available.
For more information on the Inaugural NAPA SK 5K, 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