Unfortunately, both have in common that their competitive endeavors have - for now at least - been wiped out. Ted Christopher is perhaps the most exciting and successful racer in the history of New England motorsports. The Danbury Trashers are a hockey team, competing in the United Hockey League; they won the UHL's Eastern Division but bowed out in the league's Colonial Cup playoffs.
For myself, both converged in a conversation with a fan at New Hampshire International Speedway before the September 2005 NH 300. The fan, a lady from Danbury, wore a Trashers jersey and noted how the Trashers were a strong local draw and played hard every game. Being an AHL fan with years of attendance at the Providence Bruins, Worcester IceCats (soon to be Sharks), and Manchester Monarchs, I can identify with the lady's love of the Trashers.
The Trashers, however, will not play in the UHL's 2006-7 season, and for Ted Christopher, "I guess I'm retired now," he said when federal agents arrived and seized his racecars.
Both the Danbury Trashers and the Mystique Motorsports race team are casualties of the indictment of Jim Galante, a Danbury, CT businessman with a large garbage-collection company among other businesses. Galante is one of some 29 people indicted in a federal sting of area businesses involved with Organized Crime. Although Christopher's own auto repair business has worked with Galante's trash-collection company by fixing truck transmissions, Christopher's own business is not part of the federal indictment.
It's a little hard to describe the emotion that Ted Christopher has sparked among New England race fans. In many years at Stafford Motor Speedway I was witness to many a night of booing of the driver nicknamed Terrible Ted, and also a witness to numerous controversies between Christopher and drivers such as Chris Jones and Bo Gunning, none more spectacular than the race in early 1998 where Christopher got into Jones and under caution Jones roared through the field and plowed over Christopher's left front wheel. This got Jones suspended for most of the season, but he was able to race in that year's Fall Final; asked about that May 1998 contretemps, Jones deadpanned, "I gave it all I had."
Love him or hate him - and there is legitimate reason for both - no one can deny that Christopher has been perhaps the biggest name in New England racing, especially for NASCAR's Whelen Modified Series. If I were asked by team owners looking for a driver, I'd say, "Sign Christopher." The Modified Tour and Busch East definately need him.
As for the Danbury Trashers, I am hoping the UHL can find a legitimate owner in the Danbury area to relaunch the team. Racing and hockey are two passions of mine and they're passions of a lot of people, and both areas are worth helping out right now.
FOLLOW-UP - The Winston Cup level now has a similar problem with the indictment of Gene Haas, owner of Jeff Green's #66 Chevrolet.
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