Champ Trail - January 16, 2018

  The countdown to speedweeks in Florida continues. As of this Friday, Jan 12 only four weeks remain before the green flag drops for Modified racing at the Bronson Speedway. Bronson Speedway owner Ann Young announced recently that "Racin" Bobby Mason and his Ace's Landscaping will be returning as a sponsor for the February 10th Kick Off To Speedweeks Tour Type Modified 50.
  Modified racing at New Smyrna begins on Monday, Feb 12. Action at Daytona begins in two weeks at Daytona with the running of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
  One of the annual highlights of Speedweek is the Annual Modified Reunion that is hosted by the New Smyrna Speedway on Friday, Feb 16 in conjunction with the Richie Evans Memorial 100. Northeast competitors from years gone by plus present day competitors mingle in the all-day affair.

  Coming up this Friday, Jan 19 will be the Ninth Annual NASCAR Hall of Fame induction’s in Charlotte, NC. Inductees include former NASCAR Champion Red Byron, Championship Crew Chief and car owner Ray Everham, driver, Ron Hornaday Jr, broadcaster Ken Squire and engine builder Robert Yates. Also to be honored will be Jim France for Outstanding Contribution to NASCAR and Norma Brandel with the Squire-Hall award. The ceremony will feature presentations about inductees from prominent members of the NASCAR community, with the evening culminating in their official induction.

  The legend of the late Ted Christopher will live on thanks to his widow Quinn and his brother Mike Christopher Sr. The pair announced that Mike Christopher Jr will be the driver of the M&T Motorsports SK Modified racing team. Teddy’s cars will be re-numbered to 82 as the number 13 has been retired. Christopher will race at Stafford and in selected events at Thompson.
  Mike Jr has some big shoes to fill but he has couple of good teachers in the form of his dad, Mike Sr. and Mike O’Sullivan. Ted Christopher, with 374 career wins is the Stafford Motor Speedway all-time winningest driver with 131 feature wins, 109 of them in the SK Modifieds. He is also the winningest driver in NAPA Spring Sizzler® history with 6 wins. He also accumulated nine SK Modified championships at the Arute family owned track. In addition to his SK accomplishments at Stafford, the man known simply as “TC” also picked up four track championships and 99 victories at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (CT) and one SK Modified championship at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl where he recorded 47 victories over all.
  In addition to his many SK Modified wins Christopher recorded one NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship and 48 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victories between the northern and southern tours. He also scored 10 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East victories in 92 starts. Christopher was named one of the top 25 drivers in NASCAR's weekly series in 2006, when the series celebrated its 25th anniversary. In 2008, Stafford named a section of its grandstand in his honor.

  Call Before You Dig’s sponsorship of the August 17th CBYD Late Model 50 continues a partnership with Stafford Speedway that dates back to the 2010 season. The $1,811 to win the Late Model 50 is another opportunity to promote 811. The 811 message will have strong presence in the month of August at Stafford. Along with the Late Model 50, the CBYD 811 Challenge, which starts at the NAPA Spring Sizzler, will culminate on Friday August 10th.
  In other news from Stafford, the 2018 season gets underway at the 47th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler on April 28th and 29th. Since the speedway was paved in 1967 the racing in Stafford’s Modified divisions has been second to none, with weekly excitement and jaw dropping finishes. The 2018 season promises to be much of the same with a driver roster full of young talent and crafty veterans. New for the 2018 season, Starrett Tools has signed on as a contingency partner for the entire season, awarding a $150 bonus each week to the winner of each SK Modified® feature.
  Founded in 1880, Athol, Massachusetts based Starrett Tools has set the standard for fine precision tools for over 138 years. Starrett Tools is best known for their wide product line of precision measuring tools, levels, electronic gages, dial indicators, gage blocks, and custom engineered products. For more information about Starrett Tools, please visit them online at www.starrett.com.

  Up until last week little has been said about the future of the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. Racing news web site Speed 51 announced that among the items on the to-do list is one of the biggest makeovers in the Bowl’s history, with the construction of new grandstands and a tower. While the process of finalizing construction plans with town of Waterford building inspectors is still in progress, track general manager George Whitney is pleased with where the process is currently at.
  Whitney, who is entering his second season as Speedbowl GM, stated that the grandstands right now are 450 feet long, the grandstands that are going into place are 350 feet long, all aluminum, but they will be splitting them in the middle. If the town says it’s okay, there will be one concession stand in the middle with the tower on top of that.
  Before looking fully ahead to 2018, the New London-Waterford Speedbowl will honor its Saturday night champions this coming Saturday, January 20 with its 2017 season banquet.

  Third year Riverhead Raceway owners Eddie & Connie Partridge and Tom Gatz have released their 2018 NASCAR Whelen All American Series and Enduro race series schedule on the track's web page much to the delight of race teams and race fans alike. The 2018 season will get underway with opening weekend featuring the Cinco De Mayo opening night card for the NASCAR Whelen All American Series stock cars on Saturday May 5th while the next afternoon the Enduro racers will compete in their May Meltdown opening day program.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will again visit Riverhead Raceway twice in 2018 with the first of 200-lap WMT events set for Saturday night July 7th while the second race will unfold on Saturday September 8th. One WMT championship contending team who have already circled both Riverhead WMT dates off on their schedule is the Flamingo Motorsports team and their talented driver Timmy Solomito of Islip who swept the 2017 WMT races at the track where "The Natural" began his driving career.

  Things are not well in NASCAR land. NASCAR officially is in the hunt for a new beer sponsor, as Miller-Coors will not renew the Coors Light's deal as the official beer of the sanctioning body. The sides were not able to come to an agreement to renew the deal that expired on Sunday Jan 14 despite last-ditch efforts by NASCAR in recent weeks to salvage some form of a pact.
  In a somewhat related matter six month ago executives from NASCAR and Monster spoke positively about their still new and developing relationship that saw the energy drink maker take over entitlement sponsorship duties from Sprint, which had the role since 2004. Both sides were optimistic Monster would exercise a two-year option and remain in the role through 2020, with a decision needed by December.
  But in the months since the bloom has fallen off the rose to some degree and behind the scenes there isn't as much enthusiasm Monster will re-up its deal. In fact, Monster not only asked for an extension of the December deadline - until just after the first of the year - but also asked for a second extension until the spring, multiple industry sources told SB Nation. NASCAR granted both requests, though has quietly begun identifying new and potential replacements in case Monster doesn't renew.

  On the speedway stock market scene last week, two of the three speedway stocks were down for the week. The International Spedway Corporation went up 1.05 to 40.15 while Speedway Motorsports dropped 0.28 to 16.60 and Dover Entertainment dropped 0.10 to 1.90. NASCAR cup sponsor Monster Beverage went up 0.28 to 63.77 while NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco (Energy Transfer) went up 1.27 to 20.01 and NASCAR tire supplier Goodyear went up 1.07 to 33.91. The auto manufacturers had a positive week. Ford went up 0.03 to 13.23, General Motors went up 0.06 to 44.07 and Toyota went up 3.34 to 137.20. In the home improvement sector, Lowes went up 6.12 to 100.86 and Home Depot went up 3.92 to 196.42. In big team sponsors stocks McDonalds dropped 0.48 to 173.57 and Coca-Cola dropped 1.49 to 200.51 while Target went up 10.25 to 76.80, Aarons Rentals went up 1.19 to 41.13 and Fedex went up 5.93 to 271.85.

  On the tube this week:

  Friday, January 19
8:00 PM, NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, NBC Sports Net

   That’s about it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly, and R.I.02891. Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467.
E-mail: smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com.

Phil Smith has been a columnist for Speedway Scene and various
other publications for over 3 decades.
 

Source: Phil Smith / Champ Trail
Posted: January 16, 2018