Last Saturday the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour headed to “the big stage”, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, for the New England 100. Teddy lined up second on the starting grid in the #36 Al-Lee Installations Chevy and led the first 23 laps of the race, battling with Todd Szegedy and Chuck Hossfeld. A caution just past the halfway mark sent most of the leaders to pit road for service, but TC elected to stay on the track and go the distance without pitting.
In the closing laps the race boiled down to a duel between Teddy and Hossfeld in the Mystic Missile #4. The pair battled fiercely and swapped the lead back and forth. At the white flag TC was the leader but his Western New York rival made one final move off turn four and won in a photo finish. The final margin was measured at one one-thousandth of a second but looked even closer to the naked eye.
“We had such a good car all day,” explained Teddy afterwards. “Even when I fell back I never needed the draft to pull me back to the front. I got bounced back to fifth at one point and just drove my way back to the lead. On the last lap I probably should have just run the same line I had used all day but I tried to protect the bottom and it turned out to be the wrong move. He stuck his nose out front and I needed another foot of race track to stick my nose ahead.”
On Friday night at Stafford TC lined up at the rear of the field for the night’s 40-lap SK Modified feature. He drove his way to second and was ready to challenge Woody Pitkat for the lead when a drive flange cap fell off and sent Teddy into a spin. After pitting for repairs he rejoined the field at the rear and drove back to eighth at the checkered flag. It moved him to second in the point standings just 20 markers behind leader Keith Rocco.
Saturday night after Loudon Teddy and the Brady Bunch team left the big track and headed to All-Star Speedway for a 50-lap Modified feature. He lined up 11th on the feature starting grid and charged up to third before a broken rocker arm ended his night abruptly.
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