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(Stafford Springs, CT)—Since beginning his racing career at Stafford Speedway in the Legend Cars division in 2014, Danbury, CT native Teddy Hodgdon has enjoyed more than just a small amount of success. Hodgdon won 5 races in the Legend Cars division before moving into the SK Light division, where he won 6 races in 2 seasons along with the 2019 track championship. Hodgdon began racing his family owned #55 Montanari Fuel open modified car in 2022 and in 17 starts at Stafford, Hodgdon has 8 top-5 and 10 top-10 finishes. But with finishes of 16th, 16th, and 24th in his 3 career NAPA Spring Sizzler® starts, he has yet to taste success in “The Greatest Race in the History of Spring.”
“It’s really just how things have played out for us,” said Hodgdon. “The first year we raced the Sizzler® it was one of our first races with the open style car so you can chalk that up to beginner’s luck and then the last couple races have just been wrong place, wrong time for us with incidents or we had a bad pit stop. The cards have definitely not fallen our way the last couple years so hopefully we can get that turned around this season.”
Hodgdon appeared to have his Sizzler® luck turn for the better in the 2024 edition of the race by winning his 40-lap NAPA Duel qualifying race that put him on pole position for the 100-lap main event. A mid-race incident that collected Hodgdon relegated him to a 24th place effort after running in the top-10 for the first half of the race.
“It definitely stinks not having a good showing at the Sizzler®, especially last season when we won the Duel race,” said Hodgdon. “We thought we were going to have a good shot at winning the race last season, but for whatever reason we can’t seem to capitalize on the big races at Stafford like we can with the races in the summer months. We have a little different game plan on what we’re going to do this year and with the Sizzler® format changed from the last couple years, the race will be more like a standard show and we’re better at those.”
The 2025 edition of the NAPA Spring Sizzler® will see the race format go back to being a one-day event with qualifying heat races setting the starting grid. Hodgdon thinks going back to the one-day format will be a benefit for him and his team as well as other drivers who will make up the starting field as well as the fact that he and his team skipped out on traveling to New Smyrna in Florida to concentrate on their northern racing efforts.
“With the old race format, you had to focus on the Duel race one day and then the Sizzler® on the second day where this new format is just one day with standard heat races and then go feature racing,” said Hodgdon. “I think the newer format works a lot better for a lot of the drivers, myself included. I think this year by not going to Speedweeks and focusing on the northern part of our schedule, we won’t be rushing anything and we’ll be able to pinpoint some details in order for us to have success at the start of the season.”
Like much of the field, Hodgdon has an extensive background at Stafford that he can lean on in terms of putting the correct setup in his #55 car. While Hodgdon and the #55 team have showed that their car is quick at Stafford, they’re still searching for ways to make their car even faster while trying to eliminate an issue they had with long run speed.
“Everyone is striving to be better and we certainly are hoping we can make the car better,” said Hodgdon. “It seems like our long run speed last year didn’t seem quite as right as it had the last couple seasons at Stafford, so that’s what we’re working on. If we can have a good long run car, then we should be right there at the end of the race. We were great in time trials and in heat races, but it would seem like always right around lap-40 the car would start to fall on its face. Stafford has been my home track forever and I have a million laps there and I love the place, it’s just getting there and executing on all fronts. We need to make sure the setup and the tires on the car are good and our pit stops are where they need to be. Hopefully everything can come together for us and we can knock one out this year.”
Hodgdon has recorded a total of 11 feature wins in his Stafford career with 6 SK Light wins and 5 Legend Cars victories. Hodgdon is still in search of his first open modified victory and he says winning the Sizzler® would be by far the biggest win of his young career.
“Obviously I’d like to win the race just like I’m sure every other driver wants to win the Sizzler®,” said Hodgdon. “It would be for sure the biggest win of my career but I would like to really just have a solid run because our previous finishes don’t exactly scream great results. There’s only been a select few of great historical drivers who have won the Sizzler® before and some of the greats of modified racing haven’t won the Sizzler®, so to put my name up there would be pretty unbelievable. I’ve been going to the Sizzler® pretty much every year since I was a little boy and just to be able to race in the Sizzler® has been a dream come true and I still get goose bumps every time I go out on the track for driver intros on the frontstretch. It’s a great honor to race the NAPA Spring Sizzler® and to add my name to the winners list would be very special for myself and my entire family. I have to give thanks to Montanari Fuel, Gator Sport Fishing, Business Time Motorsports, Creative Racing, Bagelman, Airgas, Brookfield Glass, Pixie’s Pop Shop, my family, my mom, dad, and sister, and all my crew guys, Max, John, Derek, my spotter Lucas, Rob, and all my friends and family who have supported me over the years. Hopefully this year will be a good one and we definitely want to turn our results around for sure.”
The 53rd Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler® is set for April 26-27. The NAPA Spring Sizzler® kicks off on Saturday, April 26, with feature events for the Late Model, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions, along with SK Light qualifying duel races that will set the field for an extra-distance 30-lap feature event on Sunday, April 27.
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Sunday, April 27, will play host to the 53rd Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler®. Filling out Sunday’s racing card will be qualifying and feature racing for the SK Modified® division, the 30-lap SK Light Modified feature, plus the NAPA Pit Party.
For more information, visit staffordspeedway.com, follow Stafford Speedway on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.
