CONCORD, N.C. – Audio, story and photo by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor and SPEED SPORT Contributor Jacob Seelman —

15-year-old Connecticut driver Teddy Hodgdon’s 2015 season may not have started with a bang, but it certainly ended with one.

The rising talent parlayed a sizzling summer surge into top five points finishes at his two primary tracks during the season – Bethel (N.Y.) Motor Speedway and Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway – but also got a special cornerstone in the form of a glass guitar trophy for his mantle at home.

The unique symbol of victory came as a reward for his thrilling victory in the prestigious big-money LegendSTOCK event, held every August at Bethel and considered one of the crown jewels of Legends car racing. Hodgdon’s win in the event made him the youngest winner in the history of the race at 14.

“We were outside the top ten with 10 laps to go and ended up winning the thing,” Hodgdon recalled of the event. “[We got lucky with] a late race caution, avoiding everyone [wrecking], and then pulled off some crazy moves in the last four laps to win.  It was a really great feeling to win that race and to have all the luck on my side the last five laps. It just felt great.”

From there, Hodgdon kept rolling and nearly outgunned two very talented fields en route to double track championships. While neither scenario panned out, he did give a nod to the drivers he faced off against, as well as those he ultimately lost the crowns to – Alex McCollum (Bethel) and Devin O’Connell (Stafford).

“We had a lot of competition, especially at Stafford with Devin O’Connell and Mikey Flynn. We also had one engine failure earlier in the year that set us back in points, both at Stafford and Bethel. We just weren’t there enough. Devin had eight wins and Alex had 12, and that’s where we were lacking just a bit.”

“We need to find that little bit more, and we were able to find that at the end of the season and we picked up a couple of wins. Just if we had found that [groove] earlier in the season, we might have had a shot.”

While Hodgdon has been tearing up the Legends car ranks as of late, it was not where he began his tenure in motorsports. The teenager reflected on his beginnings in the sport, which came as many other young drivers do today – in go-karts.

“I started racing at seven years old in in the Wild Thing Karts program at Stafford Motor Speedway, it is basically a caged car with a wing, sorta like a quarter midget, but not the same. I ran those for six years, then I moved up into the Legends car in 2014 and have been racing them for two seasons now. So, it has just been a long racing career for me, and I still have a long way ahead of me.”

That long road will look down a similar path, as Hodgdon will embark on his third season in a Legends car in 2016. To prepare for the new year and break into a new side of the racing discipline, he recently traveled to Concord, N.C. to compete in a road course round of the USLCI Winter Heat Series, held on the new road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

To compound the challenge a bit more? The experience was both his first time on the track and his first time ever in racing competition on a road course.

Hodgdon said the experience was valuable to him in advance of running on several potential New England-area road course tracks this year, but also eye-opening for having never done it before.

“It was a little crazy, actually,” he admitted. “[Charlotte’s new road course] is a very technical track, with a lot of tight turns. There [are] a lot of road courses up north where there [are] a lot of straight-aways and not a lot of turns – but here, it is the exact opposite, it is very short straight-aways and a lot of tight turns.”

“It was definitely something different than if we had raced on a road course up north, but it is still a great experience and great seat time if we are going to do road courses this season; just great seat time overall. It teaches you a lot of throttle and handling control, just an overall good experience.”

The seat time will do the young star well heading into the grind of a new season, which for him will get into full swing around mid-April when Stafford Motor Speedway opens for business.

Hodgdon says his main focus in 2016 will be to capture the title that eluded him there this past year.

“We’re going to be [racing at] Stafford Motor Speedway full-time in the Legend car, sticking to the Young Lion class probably. We will be doing a lot more touring around this year, though – going to New Hampshire with the road course and the oval there, and we’ll probably do some Waterford races as well.”

“I know the team and I, both, are committed to Stafford for the points battle. And hey, if we have enough points at the end of the season, we will run for the national championship in addition to the track championships. But, mostly, we are trying to get that Stafford championship. That’s the one trophy I want.”

“We were so close last year that I’m ready to get after it that much more this time around!”

Teddy Hodgdon Racing will continue to be powered by longtime sponsor Champion Spark Plugs in 2016. For more information on the team, visit them on Facebook.

Listen in to an extended cut of Race Chaser Online’s conversation with Teddy Hodgdon by clicking on the link below:

About the Writer

Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network. Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.

The 21-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for both the United Sprint Car Series and the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.

Email Jacob at: speed77radio@gmail.com

Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77

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