STAFFORD – In 2021 at Stafford Speedway there was nobody better at finding the path to victory lane in the SK Modified division than Stephen Kopcik.
The Newtown driver led the division with five victories in 2021. No other driver had more than three wins.
Friday Kopcik showed the way to victory lane certainly is not one he has forgotten.
Kopcik held on through a green-white-checkered finish to win the 40-lap SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford.
It was the first victory of the season for Kopcik, who had finished 9th in the season opener and fifth in last week’s second event of 2022.
“The car was on rails tonight,” Kopcik said. “It’s been tough keeping up with the track. Every season you come back and things change. We made some adjustments and I think we’ve got it back to how we want it.”
Troy Talman of Oxford, Mass. was second and Ronnie Williams of Tolland third.
Before Kopcik went to the lead on lap 16 it was a feisty battle up front.
Tyler Hines started on the pole but lost lead the on the first lap to Doug Meservey. Hines battled back to the front on lap three with Talman moving to second on lap four.
On lap six Talman got by Hines off of turn four to take over the top spot. Two laps later it was Hines getting under Talman for the lead into turn one, with Kopcik making his way to third.
Caution flew on lap 9 with Hines leading Talman and Kopcik third. On the restart it was Talman going back to the lead with Kopcik briefly losing third place to Meservey. Kopcik quickly back to third while Talman and Hines were embroiled in a side-by-side battle for the lead. Talman used the outside lane to lead laps 10, 11 and 12 before Hines cleared him for the top spot off of turn two on lap 13.
On lap 14 Kopcik got Talman for second place and quickly targeted in on Hines. On lap 16 Kopcik was able to get under Hines low into turn one to take over the lead and check out from the field. Kopcik was checked out from the field when the caution flew for the spinning car of Dylan Kopec on lap 40.
Great race and great job by the 21