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(Stafford Springs, CT)—After racing in Stafford Speedway’s premier SK Modified® division either part or full-time for 8 seasons, Troy Talman and the #3 Casella Waste Systems team were able to notch their first three feature victories during the 2024 season. The three wins helped steer Talman to a career best fourth place finish in the SK standings and he is looking forward to once again being a contender for the SK track title in 2025.
“Last year was my best year in racing with the most fun and the most success I’ve had,” said Talman. “All the guys are very excited. First, thanks to my parents. I’m really happy for my mom, who is the car owner. It was her vision to have a winning SK team and she’s given us the tools needed to do that, so I’m happy for her and she is thrilled. Thanks to my father, Lee, John, Scott, and Shane Hopkins. I also have great sponsors supporting me with Casella Waste Systems, Reworld, M&M Auto Body, NAPA of Ayer, Erich’s Cutting Edge, Vandi Auto Supply, P&D Pizza, JDB Lawn Service, Harvest Moon Healthfoods, KAMO Motorsports, Northeast Racecars & Speed, Pettit Racing Engines, and Waddell Communications. I’m pretty fortunate to have good people surrounding me and I’m happy for them to be able to enjoy the success since a lot of the guys have been with me for a while. I think we have all the parts and pieces of a winning SK team in place and we’ll let the points fall where they may but I think we’ll be a contender every time we hit the track. We’re super confident with what we have.”
Following the completion of the 2024 season last October, Talman and the Casella Waste team went right to work on getting their #3 car stripped down and put back together with fresh parts and pieces. The result is the #3 car is ready to hit the track right now, which Talman says is the earliest he can remember having his car ready to rock for an upcoming season.
“This is the quickest we’ve ever had the car ready to go for a season,” said Talman. “As soon as the season ended we stripped the car down, took the motor out, and sent it to Pettit to get refreshed. We stripped the chassis down, put it on the jig, and this past weekend we got the car all put back together and it’s ready to go. My Dad works his butt off, Lee and John come to the shop at least once a week to help out, and the fact that we have the car ready to go now just speaks to the enthusiasm of the team. Everything was perfect on the car and we’re all really excited to get started.”
Not only did Talman secure his first three wins last season, but he also set career highs in top-5 finishes with 8 and top-10 finishes with 13. Talman won his three races in different months of the season, demonstrating that he and the #3 crew had a car that was fast in all conditions and the key will be to maintain that level of consistency for the 2025 season while keeping the same approach that led them to their first wins.
“I’m really happy that we found some consistency last season,” said Talman. “We won in April, in June, and then in August, so that was pretty spread out. Towards the end of the year we were pretty consistent with a stretch of 6 or 7 races from mid-August to the end of the year that we were always a threat. We’re going to try to approach things the same way and take it one race at a time. The success we had was awesome and you definitely want to feed off of that, but you don’t want to let it go to your head. You also don’t want to take winning for granted because in racing you never know when that next win might come, especially with how tough the SK Modified® division is at Stafford. We set a good benchmark last season with 3 wins and we’d like to try to at least match that or do a little better as well as continuing to build a notebook and not be an error repeater.”
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.
