Michael Christopher, Jr. Seeking 1st Win of 2025 in Casella Waste SK 80
(Stafford Springs, CT)—After 3 races, the 2025 SK Modified® season at Stafford sees Michel Christopher, Jr. and the #82 New England Turf / Eastport Feeds / P.T. Watts / Constantine Paving / McKinney Construction team sitting atop the points. Christopher has been consistent as well as fast in 2025, being one of only 2 drivers to record a top-10 finish in each of the first three events. Although Christopher is leading the standings for the first time in his 11-year SK Modified® career, he is still looking for his first win of the season.
“I’d say it’s been a good start for us so far,” said Christopher. “A crazy stat is this is the first time I’ve ever led the points before so this is a new thing. We’ve been close before at the end of seasons, but I can’t think of a time when I was leading the points. It’s a nice feeling, but we want to get a win. We’ve been consistent this season so that’s been nice and we’re working on making small tweaks to the car to make it more competitive so that we can race for wins.”
A perfect opportunity for Christopher to take home his first win of the season will be this Friday night’s rescheduled Casella Waste SK 80. Christopher was a top-10 car during the practice session last Friday night and he outdueled Mikey Flynn to capture the win in his qualifying heat. Christopher will start the Casella Waste 80 from 4th place and he is feeling good about his chances after learning about his car during his heat race duel with Flynn.
“I thought we were going to have a pretty good piece last Friday for the 80-lapper,” said Christopher. “I feel like we learned some things during our heat race, racing against Mikey Flynn. Our two cars were pretty comparable on speed but I noticed a few things that could be better. Sometimes it takes a cat and mouse game like that where you have equal cars racing against each other to see where I’m losing or gaining time and then piece all those things together to make the car better as a whole. The heat race showed me a few things so that was a good judgement for us and we’re going to apply those lessons to this Friday night. I think the longer races play into my driving style where everyone settles in and finds their own pace. I like the longer races where things are more drawn out so I’m looking forward to the extra distance. I think 80 laps is a good distance for us.”
If Christopher or any of his team members are superstitious, they can look back to last season’s Casella Waste Open 80 program, which had the same set of circumstances as this year’s Casella Waste SK 80. The SK Modified® cars qualified during heat races on June 7th before rain postponed the SK Modified® as well as several other feature events to June 21st. The June 21st program was the extra distance 50-lap CBYD Senator’s Cup race that used the starting lineup from the June 7th qualifying. With no heat races or practice that night, Christopher unloaded his #82 and drove to NAPA Victory Lane for his first of three wins during the 2024 season.
“I remember last season we had a rainout and there were no heat races,” said Christopher. “We left the car in the trailer until it was time to go and we won the race. The less the better for me so maybe we should cancel practice this week and just go racing.”
When it comes to extra distance racing at Stafford, Christopher’s results have been a hit or miss prospect. Christopher has had several finishes outside the top-15 in extra distance events, but he also has a victory in the 2021 NAPA SK 5k on his resume as well as two 80-lap Open Modified victories, so he knows what he needs in order to win the Casella 80.
“It’s basically all the same with the biggest difference being adding fuel,” said Christopher. “You have to add at least double what you normally put in for fuel plus a little extra just to be on the safe side. That adds weight to the rear of the car, so you have to change a few things around. For the race, we have to stay up front. Once everyone gets strung out, we all seem to run the same lap times. If it gets strung out and you’re running like fourth or sixth, that’s probably where you’re going to stay unless there’s a caution. What would be ideal for us is to get up front, stay up front, and set the race pace ourselves.”
The Casella Waste SK® 80 takes center stage this Friday night with Stafford’s Late Model, SK Light, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions joining the SK Modifieds® in feature action. Tickets are available now online at StaffordSpeedway.com/tickets and can also be purchased at the admission gates. General admission tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the gate for adults, while all kids 6-14 are $10 and kids 5 & under are free. Reserved seating is priced at $30 in advance and $35 at the gate for all ages. Pit passes are $45 with a valid 2025 Stafford Competition License and $50 without. All rain checks from June 6th will be honored. If you can’t attend in person, don’t miss the action—tune in to the live stream on FloRacing, the official streaming partner of Stafford Speedway.
For more information, visit staffordspeedway.com, follow Stafford Speedway on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.
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