WATERFORD — Ray Christian III gave the New London-Waterford Speedbowl’s Late Model division a difficult target to catch in 2026. The Uncasville driver finished with seven victories, 12 top-five finishes and a second Late Model championship, turning repeated trips to victory lane into a season-long advantage.
The track’s standings, updated through October 4, list Christian with 690 points from 13 features. Runner-up Diego Monahan finished with 586, a 104-point difference. Christian placed in the top 10 in every listed feature. Those numbers tell two parts of the same story: the No. 12 won frequently, and it kept collecting strong finishes when someone else won.
The team behind the No. 12
Christian’s return to the Late Models had a clear starting point. In its opening-weekend report, the Speedbowl identified Bo Norman as the car owner who reunited the 2025 Mini Stock champion with his former Late Model. Christian made that opportunity count immediately, taking the lead on lap nine of the May 2 opener and holding off a closing Jason Palmer.
Norman remained central to Christian’s own account of the year. In a public October 19 Facebook post after the team’s New Hampshire outing, Christian thanked Norman for the opportunity to drive the No. 12 and for being willing to pursue his ideas. He also thanked the people who came out to help on Sunday and credited Factory 47 with support and helping the team find additional speed.
“What a great way to end the year with the 12,” Christian wrote. His message made room for the people behind the result as well as the finish itself. The available statement does not identify every crew member or assign individual mechanical roles, but it puts Norman, the supporting crew and Factory 47 firmly in Christian’s account of the team effort.
Winning in different ways
His May 30 victory offered an early example of recovery under pressure. The track reported that contact sent Christian and Jordan Hadley to the rear early in the race. Christian worked back toward the front, passed Palmer and Monahan and secured his second win of the season. It was a substantially different route to victory from leading much of the opener.
The seven winning dates were May 2, May 30, June 27, July 11, July 25, August 15 and September 19, according to the season winner ledger and the track’s race reports. The August date was the overall victory in the segmented Late Model 100. That event’s overall result should be distinguished from the individual segment finishes.
July 11 required Christian to take advantage of a late opening. Gaedeke and Palmer had battled ahead of him before their contact changed the race. Christian chose the outside for the ensuing green-white-checker restart and converted the opportunity into his fourth win, with Aaron Plemons finishing second.
Two weeks later, the fifth victory came from a charge through the field. Christian started seventh on July 25, used the outside lane to advance and then moved past Gaedeke for the lead around halfway. He kept the advantage after a late caution, finishing ahead of Monahan and Christopher Buffone. Together, those July wins showed that the No. 12 could capitalize on a restart and also work its way forward before controlling the finish.
The 100-lap highlight
The August 15 Late Model 100 presented a different challenge: two 35-lap segments followed by a final 30-lap race. Seventeen Late Models entered the event. Tyler Chapman won the opening segment, and Gaedeke won the second; Christian had to put together the overall result across that changing competition.
In the final segment, Christian and Chapman contested position behind the early leaders. When Chapman’s move toward the lead opened a lane, Christian took the opportunity and moved in front. The track reported that he held on through the remaining laps to win both the closing segment and the overall 100-lap event. It became one of the signature victories of his championship year.
The seventh win and the title
September 19 brought the final Waterford victory of Christian’s season. Starting sixth in the 40-lap feature, he worked among the leading group before trouble for Gaedeke and Monahan changed the order around halfway. Christian controlled the rest of the race, with Randy Cole Jr. second and Ayla Martin third. The track explicitly identified it as his seventh win.
Christian did not need to win the October 4 finale to secure the championship. The Speedbowl’s report said taking the green flag clinched his second Late Model title. He still finished second behind Derek Gluchacki in the 30-lap feature, adding one more strong result to the final standings rather than ending the Waterford schedule with the title alone.
A driver with deep Speedbowl roots
Christian’s success spans more than one division. Speedbowl History’s career profile records his beginnings in Mini Stocks, later Late Model success and experience with the American-Canadian Tour and Granite State Pro Stock Series. Its statistical snapshot through 2025 lists 35 Speedbowl wins across Late Models, Mini Stocks and a Granite State event.
The same history credits him with six Mini Stock wins and that division’s championship in 2025. It also describes a racing family: his mother Kathy, brother Jake and stepfather Jeff “Soup” Civardi have won at the track, and Civardi was his car owner for many years. Those are career and family connections, rather than a verified roster of the current No. 12 crew.
A fourth-place finish beyond Waterford
The season’s latest result took the No. 12 to Lee USA Speedway in New Hampshire. The American-Canadian Tour’s published unofficial results for the October 18 Oktoberfest 150 list Christian fourth behind Kaiden Fisher, Trevor Sanborn and Nick Sweet. Christian’s own Monday post independently describes the finish as P4 and calls it the end of the year with the No. 12.
The Lee finish remains labeled unofficial in the tour’s posted results. Even with that qualification, it provides a timely closing chapter to the Waterford season: a championship-winning local driver and his team followed seven home-track victories with a top-five touring result away from the shoreline oval.
At Waterford, the championship was built over the full schedule. Recoveries from early trouble, decisive moves through traffic, a major segmented-race victory and points earned on nights without a win all contributed. Christian’s final record gives the driver, Norman and the No. 12’s supporting team a season worth remembering.