STAFFORD – The numbers are the theme this year at Stafford Motor Speedway for Ted Christopher.
Ted Christopher (left) celebrates Friday at Stafford Speedway with his nephew Mike Christopher Jr. (Photo: Nicholas Teto)
The 54-year old driver is staring down the century mark when it comes to SK Modified victories at the track .
Friday Christopher’s No. 13 Modified might not have been the best on the track, but the 13th caution proved most lucky for him.
Christopher inherited the lead after the 13th caution and then held off a charging Woody Pitkat over the closing laps to win the first 75-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series feature on CarQuest SK Modified 150 night at Stafford Speedway.
“Nothing like winning with a 70 percent car,” Christopher said. “Sometimes the fastest car doesn’t always win.”
The race was slowed by 15 caution flags. Pitkat, of Stafford, was second and Ryan Preece of Berlin rallied for a third place finish.
It was the 98th career SK Modified victory at Stafford for Christopher, of Plainville, and his all-time track leading 118th victory overall.
“It’s looming now,” Christopher said of the possibility of becoming the first driver to reach 100 wins in an SK Modified at Stafford. “It’s close.”
Halfway through the event Christopher was going backward through the top-10, but he rallied back and found himself in a most fortuitous spot on a lap 56 restart.
Christopher was fourth for the restart with Ryan Preece leading, Frank Ruocco in second and Sean Foster in third. At the green flag Ruocco seemed to turn into Preece, sending the top three spinning. Christopher came out of the melee in the lead.
“It looked like Frank was crowding him and they jumped wheels and I was already on him,” Christopher said. “Sure enough they jumped wheels.”
Pitkat looked like he was going to make the outside work to get by Christopher on the final restart with four laps remaining, but he couldn’t make it happen.
“I tried to give Woody as much room as I could,” Christopher said. “I was like loose in and everything. I’ve got to thank him for running me clean. … It’s so weird. The car was was good in the beginning, then it was so freaking loose then all of the sudden it started coming back around. … Then it was horrible the last four laps. The thing was so inconsistent.”
Pitkat beat Preece to the line for second by inches.
“[Christopher] was really tight there at the end but there’s a reason why he has the most wins,” Pitkat said. “He’s definitely tough to beat. I want to congratulate him, that was a tough run.”
Preece was running 15th with 19 laps left after the wreck that took him out of the lead.
“I’m pretty sure I probably put a show on for everybody,” Preece said. “It sucks when you go from the lead to last but this car is so good we can do it as much as we want.”
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