Mike Christopher Jr.
In the chronicles that is the history Modifieds at Stafford Motor Speedway, the last name Christopher takes up plenty of room in the archives.
Ted Christopher is the track’s all-time winningest driver at the track overall with 121 career victories and the track’s all-time winningest driver in the SK Modified division with 101 wins. He also has seven SK Modified division champions.
His twin brother Mike Christopher has three track championships and is third on the divison’s all-time win list with 28 career victories. Mike Christopher retired from full-time competition at the track about a decade ago, Ted Christopher still races there weekly.
Friday the next generation of the Christopher family goes looking to add to the families legacy of Modified supremacy at Stafford.
Mike Christopher Jr. will make his debut in the SK Light Modified division Friday racing an Al Heinke owned car.
Mike Christopher Jr. worked up the ranks the Ceric Fabrication Karting series at Stafford and into Legends cars, which he has run full-time the past two seasons. This year he has 20 Legends car victories at the Waterford Speedbowl and two at Stafford Speedway.
“Now we’re moving to a Modified division,” Mike Christopher Jr. said. “Hopefully I can do as good or better – well I don’t know about better – as good as my dad and uncle did, back when my dad raced these and still my uncle now. Hopefully it goes good and I can make a name for myself.”
Mike Christopher Sr. said the plans are still fluid at this point, but right now the intent is to run Mike Christopher Jr. in the final five SK Light Modified events of the season at Stafford. It will mean the 15-year old will have to forgo running his Legends car at the track because track management will not allow him to run in the two divisions on the same night. Mike Christopher Jr. is currently second in the Legends division standings at Stafford.
“I hate to give up something like that, give up the points, but I don’t make that decisions,” Mike Christopher Sr. said.
Mike Christopher Sr. said there is a possibility that his son could move full-time in the track’s premier SK Modified division in 2015.
“We’ll have to see how everything goes,” Mike Christopher Sr. said. “I don’t know how fast he’s going to get acclimated to it. Maybe he won’t, maybe it will take a while. He’s usually the type of kid that once he gets something, he gets it. I don’t want to rush him into something, and I might not be able to go to the next step.
“I didn’t race these cars until I was 25. He’s doing it 10 years younger than I did it. Who knows what he could do.”
Mike Christopher Jr. will get his first time behind the wheel of the SK Light Modified Friday morning during an all-day track test before Friday evening’s racing card at Stafford.
“That will be real good,” Mike Christopher Sr. said. “We’ll get a bunch of time for him to be out there.”
It’s a shame the kid’s gotta relinquish his championship efforts because of a track rule that isn’t even consistent all the way through. You can race an SK and a LM in the same night, but no other division… you can run a charger division on Saturday and feature division on Sunday at the Fall Final, but not the Spring Sizzler. To this day, I don’t have a grip on the pupose of that rule. And as far as I know, the other tracks don’t have this kind of rule. In this day and age, drivers can’t afford to miss opportunities to take a step up in their careers or mark an accomplishment on their resumes such as a track championship. I hope someday the track management will see the flaws in that rule in revise it. Until then, best of luck to MCJ.
No other track has that rule. Then again Stafford has always been “interesting” in their rules, especially divisional tech rules….
The rule may be a bad one but the track would look even worse in the eyes of the proletariat if they changed the rule just in time for the King’s nephew…
It’s a shame just like the l lower divisions can’t pit for a flat tire, why waste your money to run the lower divisions idiotic rules keep car counts down
@Terry: Because Stafford only cares about modifieds, modifieds, modifieds, and occasionally late models. Just look at the purse structure. Just starting the SK feature pays more than the Dare stocks and Legends.