STAFFORD – Mike Christopher Jr. was playing the numbers game Friday at Stafford Speedway.
Christopher drove away from Max Zachem over the final 20 laps to win the 50-lap SK Modified Senator’s Cup feature Friday at Stafford Speedway.
It was the second consecutive victory for Christopher, who won the 80-lap Casella Waste 80 on June 13. And it was the third consecutive year that Christopher was victorious in the Senator’s Cup event.
“Really excited to get back to victory lane,” Christopher said. “Two in a row for 2025 is great, but this Senator’s Cup, I don’t know, something about it. I like the gold. Another great night at Stafford.”
It was the second victory of the season for Christopher, of Wolcott, and his 19th victory overall in a division.
“These past two weeks have been really good. I think we had the fastest lap of the race, but it really didn’t feel like it. We were struggling with it after the second round of practice and into the heat race, after we put the new tires on it we were like ‘I don’t know, the car was good in the first round of practice and then it was bad in the second, it’s gotta be the tires.’ But, it all worked out in the end. I think the race played into my favor at the end there going green to the end. We just didn’t have it on the short distance. … I found a groove on the bottom lane and the thing maintained drive pretty well.”
Max Zachem of Preston second.
“I can’t thank [car owners] Ryan and John Morgan enough, they gave me an absolute hot rod,” Zachem said. “We’ve been good the two weeks we’d been here and just didn’t have the finish to show for it. We’ve been working on it, working on it, working on it and to end up here on the podium … [Christopher] has been the best in these long distance races and you know we’ll take it.”
Keith Rocco of Wallingford was third.
“I was kind of hoping for a late race caution with a few to go, that’s where we were definitely shining tonight,” Rocco said.
Troy Talman and Tyler Chapman dueled for the lead in the opening laps.
Wesley Prucker went for a ride through the frontstretch infield on lap two, but was able to keep rolling to avoid caution flying. Chapman used a lap five run to get by Talman for the lead.
Dylan Kopec moved past Talman for second on lap seven. Kopec got by Chapman for the lead on lap 12. Behind them Mikey Flynn moved to third past Talman.
On lap 16 Chapman got a run under Kopec into turn three. Contact between the two sent Kopec spinning. Replays seemed to indicate that Kopec came down on Chapman in turn three, but Chapman was penalized for the contact, moving Mikey Flynn to the lead with Christopher going to second.
On the restart Flynn was able to control at the front.
The red flag came out for a scary incident on lap 18. Contact between eighth place Jon Puleo and ninth place Cory DiMatteo sent Puleo up the backstretch wall. With nowhere to go, 11th place Andrew Molleur ended up driving over the top of DiMatteo’s car.
On the restart Christopher was able to overtake Flynn for the lead. Behind them Zachem made the jump to third.
Caution was back out on lap 20 when Matt Vassar drove through Steven Chapman into turn three, also collecting Todd Owen in the resulting pileup in the wall.
After an extensive delay for cleanup, the race restarted with Christopher continuing to control at the front. Zachem moved by Flynn for second with Rocco following to third.
On lap 22 Zachem got under Christopher in turn two and again in turn three, but Christopher was able to fend off the challenge.
By lap 35 Christopher had built about a three-car length lead over Zachem with Rocco a distant third.
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