After the dust had settled on the breakup of the Mystique Motorsports team, TC was left without a ride and looking over his options for the future. With the WMT event at Jennerstown Speedway fast approaching, it looked like Ted would miss that event as he searched for a ride. But just two days before the race, an opportunity came from an unexpected source. Eddie Whelan, owner of the #36 Modified driven by Mile Andrews, Jr., contacted TC to offer him a ride at Jennerstown in a backup car as a teammate to Andrews. Knowing the quality of the equipment and the dedication of the crew, Ted quickly accepted the offer and prepared for the trip to Western Pennsylvania.
Arriving at Jennerstown Saturday morning, TC sat in the car for the very first time. He and the crew went to work getting him fitted into the cockpit and when practice began started to work on the setup. By the end of the hour-long practice they felt they were going to at least be competitive. They posted the ninth fastest time in qualifying and made a few final adjustments to fine-tune the chassis. Everyone felt they were ready to go.
TC quickly moved up to fifth in the opening laps. Then suddenly the motor went sour and TC was trying to diagnose the problem as he was losing positions. Just as quickly as it appeared, the problem suddenly disappeared and the car was back up to speed. Ted had fallen back out of the top-ten and went to work regaining the ground he had lost. One by one he was passing cars and just past the halfway mark he had climbed back into the top-five. He continued his march toward the front and with twenty laps to go he was up to third. Race leader Eddie Flemke and runner-up Tony Hirschman were well off in the distance but TC kept working at closing the gap.
He caught a lucky break when the only caution of the race was displayed on lap 86. This put TC just behind the two leaders and when the race restarted on the 91st circuit he went back to work. He moved past Hirschman for second on lap 94 and set his sights on Flemke. He was looking for an opening and finally found one on lap 98. Diving low into turn one he drew alongside the leader as they raced side-by-side through the corner. Using the preferred groove Ted completed the pass down the backstretch. From there he sailed through the final two laps and took the checkered flag to earn his first Jennerstown victory. It also moved him into the series point lead.
“It’s hard to believe how I even got to be here,” smiled TC after the race. “I didn’t think there was any way I was going to be racing here tonight. Then Eddie Whelan called me and offered a ride in his backup car as a teammate to Mike Andrews. When I got to the track the crew put a lot of work into getting me comfortable in the car and finding the right setup. Once the race began I knew we had a really good car and then all of a sudden the motor started to sputter, But just as quickly as it started it began to run on all eight cylinders again. I had lost a lot of positions but the car was fast to I just went to work. I passed every competitive car on the racetrack under green and got up as high as third. I’m not sure I had enough time left to catch Eddie and Tony before I ran out of laps but I got a caution when I needed it. I knew I had a better car then they did and just went to work. It all worked out perfectly and we ended up in Victory Lane.
“I can’t thank Eddie Whelan enough for offering me a racecar to drive here. Everyone on the crew made me feel welcome and worked very hard to give me a car capable of winning. I’m just happy to pay them back by giving them their first Tour win. It’s hard to believe everything that has happened in the past week but I’ll savor this win for a long time.”
On Friday night TC drove the NDS Motorsports/Waste Management Recycle America Ford in the TSI Harley-Davidson 150 for the Busch East Series at Stafford. Starting in fourth, he quickly raced up to third before running over some debris on the track. After pitting for some quick repairs he once again raced his way up to third and back into contention. A broken rear end caused him to lose control in the first turn on lap 122 and he spun out in front of the field. The resulting damage sidelined the #35 and he was credited with a 23rd place finish in the final results.
Look for announcements here on TC’s plans for the rest of the 2006 season in the coming days.
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