Todd Stater

"Racing's dangerous. I'd be crazy if I didn't understand that. But they still have a responsibility to try and reduce the risk."

Todd Stater (born 1980) is a American race car driver, currently piloting the #422 Edelweiss Greenhouses Saar in the ARLA Elite Series. Although his presence is fairly quiet, he is known for his willingness to speak up about safety issues in racing.

2008
In 2008, Todd Stater began his Elite Series (then called the Smash Beer Elite Stocks) rookie season with O&D Racing in the #6 Risenflus CM Nova. However, he failed to qualify for many races, and was promptly booted out of his seat when living legend Jeb Klinger signed with O&D upon making his return to full-time competition and needed an available ride. Stater sat out the next few races until fledgling operation 426 Motorsports picked him up to drive their #25 Edelweiss Saar, starting at Talladega. Later in the year, 426 merged with Michael White's #0 operation, and Stater made his debut in the 2008 Neon Hardware 100 at the Aurora Speedrome, a race in which both he and White ran in the top 5 for most of the day. Stater moved to as high as second before placing sixth in the event. He failed to qualify for any more races, however.

2009
After some confusion over ownership stakes, MWR reverted to its previous name - Michael White Racing - for 2009. The team also switched to the Genesis Eva, the first-ever electric stock car, which led Stater to claim that he now drove the greenest car on the circuit. Over the offseason, he competed in ARLA's European exhibition, finishing 26th, 12th, 9th, and 20th in the tour's four races.

In January, it was rumored that the #0 and #25 teams would switch owner points, locking Stater into Daytona, however, the deal fell through. Stater was one of the handful of drivers who did not support ARLA's decision to run rain tires at Daytona, saying in an interview that he saw the decision as insane. He made his first start of the year at Talladega, having won the qualifying race, and finished 31st.

He failed to make another race until the Pocono event, in which a controversial incident saw him pile into Dallas Dupre's mangled car at full speed after Allie Riggs pulled alongside and, according to him, gave the #25 car nowhere to go but into the wreck. The next week, at the Vancouver qualifying race, Earl McDermott tangled with Stater and caused them both to wreck. He talked to Stater and took responsibility for the crash, but the two later decided to fake a fight for the sake of entertaining the fans.

In the 18th race of the year at Boston International Speedway, Stater solidly qualified and finished 9th after missing several wrecks. This would turn out to be his last start of the year until Appleton, where he placed 38th.

2010
Vincent Giacalone split from MWR after 2009 to pursue a TM Lights entry, and Stater was thus left without a ride until Genesis Motorsports signed him to their #150 car. Now at the wheel of the former #22 entry from the previous year, Stater was locked into the field for the first time in his career. In the seventh race of the year, at Mansfield Motorsports Park, he passed Bobby Porteau in the final turn to take his first Elite Series victory by less than a car length. He followed that up with a 2nd-place finish at Texas behind Lucas Sweeney. This catapulted him into 3rd place in the points, however, the rest of the year would be littered with inconsistency, and he closed out the year in 19th place.

2011
Stater sat 29th in the standings after finishes of 19th at Texas, 21st at St. Petersburg, 11th at Talladega, and 18th at Las Vegas, but eventually dropped to 52nd once Rockford had finished.

2012
With Green Racing's recent downsizing and split from Genesis, Stater piloted the team's #15 Inglesby Flashback for 2012. He scored his first top-5 of the season with a 3rd-place run in the Balboa Boxers Ohio 200 at Piqua, and grabbed another at Buffalo Downs, finishing 5th. In the very next race at Albuquerque, he ran near the front consistently and took advantage of a late crash involving leader Ebenezer Quiggles, Jr. to score his second career Elite Series win.

Upon being involved in Scott Morales' deadly crash in the Orange County 200, Stater made it clear that he was traumatized, and that he thought the decisions of the sanctioning body very questionable. When Morales' passing was made public, Stater instantly -- and fairly angrily -- announced he would step out of the #15 for the next two races. It should be noted that the first of these events was a de facto re-run of the Radii 300 at Talladega (the race and track at which Mark Freestone was nearly killed), which had just been announced a week prior, and which ARLA did not announce any plans to reconsider following the wreck.

Upon his return at the Rockford 200, Stater reunited with former sponsor Edelweiss Greenhouses and sat on the pole for his qualifying heat, but failed to transfer after a mechanical problem took him out of contention.

In the aftermath of the 2012 Hanmore World Championships, Stater declared on Twitter that he was "never doing open wheel ever".

2013
It was announced in mid-2012 that, thanks to ARLA's allowance for two drivers to share a single car for the season beginning in 2013, Stater would co-pilot the Green Racing Inglesby, renumbered to #422 and sponsored by both FFPC and Edelweiss, with rookie Kasie Campbell. Stater had hinted at this number change in victory lane after the '12 Albuquerque race.

In race 1 of the 2013 FABricators 100 at Grand Detour, Stater was involved in a heavy crash going into turn 1 that sent him ramping up the barrier and slamming into the catchfence roof-first. His condition was not known for some time, and right as he awoke from an 11-hour coma, the racing tabloid Competition Info News Now falsely reported that he had passed away. Angered, he tweeted (by way of his brother Brett) that he was in fact still alive. Regardless, due to his injuries, Stater was out for the rest of the season.

2014
Stater's first event of the year was the LoanPros 200 at Columbia Speedway, in which he transferred from the 50/50 Sprint to finish in 10th position, four laps down.

He led several laps early in his sprint at the New York Autoring, narrowly avoiding a flipping Ashley Tucker to finish 10th and transfer. He would later be involved in a multi-car accident that saw Megan Driver get T-boned and flip through the air several times, still finishing 12th. Stater was quoted as being thankful to still hold a top 10 spot in the points, given that he'd nearly had cars fly into him twice.

Stater failed to qualify for the Karl's Superstore Showdown in Riverside after tangling with Kurt Walker early in his sprint. He claimed later, "I don't know whose idea it was to have us drive 3,000-pound cars on floor tiles and have the only inside walls be giant tires, but I was wrecking all day."

Ironically, in the M-Pire Drive the Dream Challenge at Talladega, Stater took the lead on the final lap to win.

He blew an engine late in the Salem event, placing tenth. He was the highest-placing driver not running at the finish. Later, in the season finale at Texas Motor Speedway, he finished high enough to clinch a 7th-place points finish.

2016
Stater moved into the newly revived David Hetzel Racing's #66 seat for the 2016 season, starting the year off with a win at Daytona and noting how unusual it was that restrictor-plate tracks had started to become a strong point for him. He swapped the points lead with Kenny George until the FARC-Off, where he was eliminated from championship contention following the Round of 10 and finished 4th in the final points.

2017
Stater did not make much noise until the penultimate race of the year at Salem, where he dueled with Bob Stephans for the lead late in the going, barely beating him out through the final corner to take the win. He would go on to finish ninth in points.