Bryan Narducci Clinches SK Light Modified® Championship at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park

THOMPSON, Conn. — Even though there is still one NASCAR Whelen All-American Series race remaining on the schedule at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park this season, one championship battle has already been decided.

Bryan Narducci clinched the SK Light Modified® championship for 2019 on Sunday, September 8, becoming the first champion at the Connecticut oval for this season. Narducci also earned the right to be named the first-ever champion of the SK Light Modified division® in Thompson’s history, as the division just started running for points this year.

“It means a lot to be the first SK Light Modified® champion at Thompson. Just to add my name to the record books of all the champions at Thompson is amazing,” Narducci said. “Ted Christopher, Keith Rocco, Ryan Preece, who is now a Cup Series driver… just to add my name to that list, I could never even imagine putting my name anywhere in the same list as them.”

“Sid DiMaggio put up a photo on Facebook from 2003 when I was three-years-old at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl, I was hanging on the fence waiting for Ted to come out for driver introductions,” he added. “My dad and I would go to Thompson every Thursday night, and we’d go to watch Ted. If he didn’t go, we didn’t go most of the time. Just to be able to put my name in the record books anywhere near his is a huge accomplishment for me. No one was as good as him, and no one will be as good as him.”

For Narducci, the partnership with Todd Owen, and his drive to compete at a high-level, has elevated him to championship glory. The Colchester, Connecticut, driver has already earned himself quite the list of accolades in his racing career, even though he is still at a young age. Last year, he won the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Division III National championship. 

Between Thompson and Stafford Motor Speedway, Narducci has won 14 different races this season, including six of nine at Thompson.

“Everyone always says races are won at the shop, and I can attest to that 100 percent,” Narducci said. “Every week, we go back to the shop and scale the car, check the toe, drop it on the scales, check the heights… and maintain the car. When we get to the track, I’m confident the car is going to be fast and there isn’t going to be something wrong with it. We worked really hard in the shop to accomplish our goal of winning races and a championship, and this year we were able to do both.”

For now, Narducci’s goals for the remainder of the season still include what he hopes will be plenty of winning. He’s fourth in Stafford’s championship battle, hoping to close the gap in their final two races. He also leads the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Division III National Championship battle with just about a week remaining, and it looks like he is well on his way to two straight. 

“It’s pretty amazing, when we won last year, it was really cool to be able to go down to Charlotte and be honored on the stage,” he said. “Hopefully we can finish well and close it out and make it back to back Division III championships.”

His major goal related to Thompson in the final month of the season? Capture the victory in the SK Light Modified® division as part of the 57th annual running of the Sunoco World Series for the second straight year.

“Hopefully we can close it out at the World Series. It was satisfying to win the title, but I would have liked to have finished on Sunday just to give me more satisfaction, if we would have won both the race and the title, it would have been better,” Narducci said. “But we just have to go out at the World Series and try to win another one.”

Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park returns to competition for the 57th annual Sunoco World Series, where 20 different divisions will compete in racing over the course of three days from October 11-13. The full schedule for the weekend will be available soon.

For more information on Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, fans are encouraged to visit www.thompsonspeedway.com and follow the track on social media via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.