THOMPSON – When it came to the SK Light Modified feature Wednesday at Thompson Speedway, an inflated purse was no matter for Tyler Chapman.
The Ellington teenager just wanted a win at Thompson no matter how much it paid.
Chapman came out on top of a race long duel with Danny Cates to win the 30-lap SK Light Modified feature Wednesday at Thompson Speedway.
It was his first career victory at the historic .625-mile oval. It also came with a winner’s purse of $750, which was increased from the normal $350 purse for winners in the division at Thompson.
“I forgot about the money,” Chapman said. “I just wanted to win the race. But now we’re going home with the win and the money and that’s cool.”
Alexander Pearl of Salem was second and Cates, of Chaplin, third.
Pearl went to the lead past Nathan Pytko on lap three. On lap four Pytko drove Pearl up to the wall in turn four, allowing Chapman to go under both for the lead with Cates moving to second. From there battle was on up front between Chapman and Cates.
On lap nine Cates got past Chapman to take over the top spot. Caution flew for a spinning car on lap 10. Cates held the top spot through the restart with caution flying once again on lap 11.
On the ensuing restart Chapman was able to find a lane under Cates to take over the lead off of turn two. Cates got under Chapman through turns three and four, but Chapman held the top spot off of turn four.
On lap 13 Cates found the low lane off of turn of turn two and carried the momentum through turns three and four to go back to the lead.
On lap 19 it was Chapman fighting to get under Cates in turn three, but Cates defended the top spot. Chapman tried the same move to no avail on lap 23.
On lap 24 Chapman made the turn three move stick, edging Cates off of turn four to take over the lead for good. By lap 26 Chapman had checked out.
“I wanted that trophy,” Chapman said. “I just wanted to win it. [Cates]
has 1,000 laps here and I don’t. To beat Danny Cates here is really cool. He’s one of the best drivers here and he gave me a run for the money.”
Cates was driving a car normally driven by Brian Sullivan at Stafford Speedway.
“Brian called me Sunday night and asked me if I wanted to race it, so why not,” Cates said. “We just got a little too free there. But we had a lot of fun.”
Pearl was able to get under Cates for second on lap 28.
“We had a great car, but not what [Chapman] had,” Pearl said. “Really nice to finish on the podium. It’s my first podium this year. … Still working out the bugs out.”
I wasn’t there but the race review sure sounded like a good race – SKL’s !!
I am wondering… Did anyone use the newly open pit road option ..???? Thought I was watching on TV but not available … Racing America ?? If I knew that I would have drove down to see it live… But anyways ,.. If someone who was there maybe they could clue me in … Was pit road used by a good number of Teams.. ???? thanks in advance… These Chapmans are a good group of Racers and Winners with talent holding the wheel…
Sk lights were able to do infield pitting. Some teams came out. There were not a lot of pit stops, basically mostly just if you got banged up.
So nice to see stafford teams running more than one track. Be cool if the skl went back to tri track or two track series like back in the day of sk racing