STAFFORD – Coming into the 2024 season veteran Modified driver Troy Talman was still looking for his first career SK Modified victory at Stafford Speedway.
Talman checked off that winner’s box in the season opening event on April 28. Talman got his second win on June 28.
And Friday Talman put himself in contention to be the winningest driver in the division in 2024.
Talman, of Oxford, Mass., drove away from the field over the final 10 laps to win the 40-lap SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford.
It was his third win of the season and matched Cory DiMatteo for the most SK Modified division wins in 2024.
“It’s so unreal,” Talman said. “Three-time SK [Modified] winner. I’ve got the best team behind me. I’ve got a load of help behind me. I’ve got the best team. I’ve got to thank them so much. First of all [crew chief] Shane Hopkins. He’s made me an SK [Modified] winner three times. He’s the man. This car was perfect tonight. We were a little bit off in the heat race and we made an adjustment for the feature and she was pretty awesome. I’m just so happy I don’t know what to say. Three wins, holy cow.”
DiMatteo, of Farmington, was second and Mikey Flynn of Hampden, Mass. was third.
“It was a long night for us,” DiMatteo said. “The beginning of the race we got all the bad lanes. Then I almost at one point lifted just to get out there because it looked like there was going to be a big wreck. And they didn’t wreck. Then they wrecked. So it was an up and down race. I really thought I had a race winning car. I got put three-wide off of [turn] two and knocked the [suspension] out of it pretty good. Then I still thought I had a shot at it, but when [Marcello Rufrano’s] motor let go off of [turn] two I ran through the oil and just got sideways and lost a ton of ground to [Talman].”
The initial start was called back for second place R.J. Marcotte getting the jump on pole-sitter Tyler Hines.
Anthony Flannery moved past Marcotte for second place on lap three. Caution flew on lap four for the slowed car of Wesley Prucker.
Hines held the top spot on the lap four restart. By lap seven Talman had moved by Flannery to second.
With Hines leading, Talman in second and Flannery in third, caution flew again on lap 12 for the stopped car of Prucker.
On the lap 12 restart Talman used the outside lane to overtake Hines for the lead. Caution was back out on lap 16 with Talman leading, Hines in second and Flannery third.
Under caution issues erupted on track with veteran driver Chris Jones. Officials had ejected Jones from the event for over aggressive driving following the previous caution, but Jones did not leave track. Jones then spun Curt Brainard in turn four to bring out the caution on lap 16. Jones continued to refuse to leave the racing surface. The field was stopped on the backstretch under caution so track officials could go to Jones’ stopped car. Jones then drove to the start/finish line and blew a donut. He then went to pit road, stopped briefly and then returned to the track to pace with the field again before then returning and parking on pit road. [Video of Chris Jones Incident]
Talman held the the top spot on the lap 16 restart. On lap 19 caution was back out when Todd Owen and Mike Christopher Jr. got hooked together on the frontstretch battling for eighth place. The carnage continued following a lap 25 restart when fourth place place Marcotte and fifth place Flannery got together in turn two, also collecting division points leader Andrew Molleur.
Marcello Rufrano was up to second behind Talman for the lap 25 restart. Talman used the outside lane to get by Talman for the lead off of turn four on lap 26. Talman fought back in the side-by-side battle on lap 27. On lap 28 Talman was able to clear Rufrano off of turn two.
On lap 31, with Talman checked out, Rufrano slowed on the backstretch with motor issues, moving DiMatteo to second and Flynn to third.
So they threw the 36 out of the race, he refused to get off the track so they just restarted the race anyway? And I wonder how many races the 5 will be suspended for. Talk about not holding his race line 🤣