by

Facebook Twitter

STAFFORD – The last nine months have been an emotional roller coaster for Stafford Motor Speedway SK Modified driver Mike Christopher Jr.

On September 16, 2017 his uncle, Stafford Speedway’s all-time winningest driver, Ted Christopher was killed in a plane crash.

In April Mike Christopher Jr. returned to competition in the SK Modified division at Stafford driving for a team fielded by his uncle’s widow Quinn, in the cars his uncle drove last year.

Friday at Stafford Speedway the roller coaster of emotion for Mike Christopher Jr. took sweeps that the 19-year old from Wolcott described as surreal.

From red hot boiling fury to breaking down in tears.

Mike Christopher Jr. held off Ryan Preece to get his first career SK Modified victory at Stafford Motor Speedway in the 40-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series feature Friday.

Mike Christopher Jr. joined his uncle and his father on the win list for the division. Ted Christopher’s 109 career SK Modified victories at Stafford leads the track’s all-time list. Mike Christopher Sr. sits fifth on the division’s all-time win list with 28 victories.

“It’s really surreal,” Mike Christopher Jr. said. “I don’t know man, I knew we had the car to do it. We were fast all day. I knew we had the car to do it all year. … We’d just get caught up in stuff. I knew something about tonight. We were definitely going to have the car to do it.”

Mike Christopher Sr. fought back tears in talking about the emotion of watching his son drive his late twin brother’s car to victory.

“It’s never easy,” Mike Christopher Sr. said. “It probably won’t ever be easy. But, you do the best you can, that’s about it. … The kid did a hell of a job. He showed me tonight that he can drive a race car. It was fun to watch.”

Preece, Berlin, was second and Keith Rocco of Wallingford third.

On lap 30 of the feature the emotion between son and father burned fiery over the radio. Mike Christopher Jr. lost the lead to Preece on lap 29. On the frontstretch on lap 30 Mike Christopher Jr. got into the back of Preece hard enough to send sparks flying and cave in the left rear of Preece’s car. The emotion then boiled over between father and son.

“I’ve probably been the hardest guy because I want to kill him every freaking time because I don’t see him drive it the way I want,” Mike Christopher Sr. said. “We got into a nice heated dispute there because he drove up on Ryan on the front chute. I yelled at him. … I was yelling, I don’t know what else I said. But he did what I wanted.”

Said Mike Christopher Jr.: “We were going down the front straightway and I pulled low because I had the run and you know how it is coming down to the wire, you’ve got to block like that. He came down but I still had the run and drove up over him. I saw it like that, my dad saw it as I drove over him. So I started yelling and swearing and he didn’t like that. I guess that lit a fire under my ass and here we go.”

Mike Christopher Jr. then passed Preece back for the lead on lap 33 and never trailed again. Mike Christopher Sr. said the driver he saw the last 10 laps was the one he’d been looking for all year.

“Probably part of it was that my brother and I, we wanted to kill race cars when we drove them and I kind of can see that he can do that, but I never saw it the way I wanted it,” Mike Christopher Sr. said. “But he did a phenomenal job. When he got pissed, that’s the way I want to see a race car driven. You try to harp it into him, but when you get out there, you can’t make any friends, you’re not going to dinner with anybody at the end of the night and you need to show that you can beat these guys and he proved to me tonight that he can beat these guys.”

Preece, who competes part-time at Stafford and races on the NASCAR XFINITY Series for Joe Gibbs Racing, continued to challenge Mike Christopher Jr. right to the checkered flag.

“I knew I had to protect because Ryan had a really good car and he shows up here to win,” Mike Christopher Jr. said of the final lap. “He’s [a NASCAR XFINITY Series] winner, twice. I know he has the talent to get by me, so coming down to the last lap it was just defense at that point. I don’t know if I had to block like that, but it prevailed it so it is what it is.”

Said Preece: “He might have had Ted with him there.”

—

Do you enjoy what you’re reading and seeing here at RaceDayCT? Would you like to see continued coverage of New England short track racing? Your support can help ensure that professional coverage of short track racing can continue at RaceDayCT, and you can get some great rewards for that support. Patreon allows readers to make small monthly contributions to RaceDayCT that support the ongoing coverage of short track racing. Your pledge comes with exclusive tiered reward programs for offering that support. For just a $5 a month pledge fans can have access to the weekly Unmuffled podcast. For more information click the link here or the banner below.

—