Fast but Unlucky: Tyler Chapman Hoping Speed Translates to Results in Lincoln Tech 80 at Stafford
Column By: Scott Running / STAFFORD SPEEDWAY- STAFFORD SPRINGS, C.T. – When Tyler Chapman last competed in an open modified race at Stafford Speedway, he showed impressive speed—but a heat race incident set back the #06 Glastonbury Oil / The Wheel Shop team, owned by Les Hinckley, for the remainder of the night.
Chapman rallied from a 28th-place starting position to finish 19th, a result that doesn’t fully reflect the performance and potential of the car. After clocking the third-fastest time in practice, a mistake during time trials placed him deep in the field for his heat race, where an on-track incident further hampered his night. Now, Chapman is focused on bouncing back this Friday, August 15th, in the Lincoln Tech Open 80 at Stafford.
“We’re feeling pretty good about the race,” said Chapman. “We had some problems in the first race at Stafford. We were third fastest in practice so the car was great and the team was great, but we made a mistake in qualifying and then we had a problem in the heat race that put us in the back for the race and we got behind. With a very fast racecar and a great team I think we can do pretty well this Friday. Other than the mistake in the heat race, I couldn’t have asked for much better of a car. We had a great car for a great track at Stafford, it was just a bad scenario for us. Thanks to Glastonbury Oil, The Wheel Shop, Chapman Apartment Homes, Jim Parker, and Les and the whole crew.”
“We’ll be coming back pretty similar to how the car was for the Tri-Track race so we’re expecting good things this Friday,” said Hinckley. “With Tyler’s experience at Stafford plus the speed the car showed, I wouldn’t be at all surprised that we could be in the top-10 and I would say the top-5 wouldn’t be out of the question for us either.”
The Lincoln Tech 80 will mark the third race that Chapman and the #06 Hinckley team will be working together. They finished 19th at Stafford last month and followed that up with an 11th place run at Seekonk. Despite being together for only 2 races, both Chapman and Hinckley say that the team is working well together and everyone is having a good time going to the racetrack.
“We’re still learning something every time we go to the track,” said Chapman. “For the most part we have things figured out but we’re always learning something new. With being third fastest in practice last time at Stafford I’m hoping we can get a good top-5 finish or having a non-wrecked racecar at the end of the night would be real nice. Looking at the entry list there’s probably 8 or 9 cars that could win the race so it should be a very fast and very competitive race. Les has a great car and a great crew and I’m looking forward to the race.”
“We’ve run a couple races together now and Seekonk was uneventful for us while Stafford had some drama to it, but we showed speed in both races and Tyler adapted to the car pretty quickly,” said Hinckley. “Everyone is getting along really well,it’s been a good fit for us, and everyone is having fun and having a good time.”
Chapman will be performing double duty this Friday, piloting his #41 Chapman Apartment Homes car in the 40-lap SK Modified® feature along with the #06 car in the Lincoln Tech 80 feature. Chapman made the move to the SK Modified® division after winning the SK Light championship last season and his rookie campaign has been a mixed bag of great results along with several crashes.
“We’re definitely struggling with the SK car,” said Chapman. “It seems like we either wreck or finish in the top-5. Every time we wreck the car we have to put it back together and start from square 1 so it’s been a struggle but we’re hoping we can overcome that. We had a really bad wreck a couple weeks ago so the car has a new clip now and we’re hoping we can get a couple more top-5 finishes before the season ends.”
The Open Modified cars will be joined in this Friday’s Lincoln Tech 80 by Stafford’s five weekly divisions. Tickets are available now online at StaffordSpeedway.com/tickets and can
also be purchased at the admission gates. 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.
