The highly anticipated 2025 Turkey Derby at Wall Stadium Speedway was stacked with 23 talented drivers, dedicated car owners and over 100 crew members, set to deliver one of the largest car counts in years. Over $1500 in bonus money and $4000+ race payout!
The inaugural Flo Racing Live Stream of the Turkey Derby enabled the ATQMRA race to be accessible for those who couldn’t attend the live event.
With the pits full of beautifully prepared TQs, early morning practice was led by #19 Tyler Wagner with a 13.24 lap, in the Corigliano Motorsports Spitfire.
Group qualifying was capped off by #99 Ryan Tidman, in the PDR Spitfire, with a 13.197 lap, earning him John Eric Kippycash “The QR code Genie” Fast Time Award and the Bud Sload Qualifying Fast Time Award PDR . Following Tidman was #84 Tyler Catalano, #7 Tyler Ferris Hamer Heating and Cooling BFG, #83 Paulie Hartwig III Tolerico Laffler, and Tyler Wagner.
Pole sitter Tidman would pill draw an invert of 4 cars, putting Hartwig on the pole.
The 23-car field acknowledged the packed crowd with the signature four-wide salute. An awesome sight of TQs fanned out on the wave lap.
The fans, teams, and drivers were all buzzing to get the annual Turkey Derby underway. Hartwig would fire off from the pole with Ferris, starting P2. Ferris and Tidman would get the jump on Hartwig on lap 1. The field would see three-wide racing on the very first lap. The first caution came out for #76 Brianna Page and #19W Don Wagner and #0 Billy Cole, with D. Wagner getting on his side, but still managed to rejoin the field.
On the restart, Tidman would again take the lead on the outside of Ferris. He would open up a .7-second lead on the field. #99 would start to navigate lap traffic on lap 8. With the lapped cars coming into play, Ferris would close on Tidman.
Another caution would fall on lap 13 for a #2 Mike Glaser spin. After getting in one more lap, caution would fall again for Page spinning in turn 4.
In his second start in the #99x PDR Spitfire, Jeff Kot moved up from 12th to 6th place.
On the restart, Tidman would experience mechanical issues and abruptly slow on the front stretch. Drivers reacted quickly, but it set off a chain reaction back through the field. Getting the worst of it would be the #51 Geo Sutton, #1b Kyle Taraska, and #36 Buddy Sload. Sload would end up making contact with the wing of the Taraska machine before slamming back onto the track after nearly flipping. Joey Payne’s second start in the #23 Phil’s Engines Badger would also suffer damage, sending him to the pits for repair. He would re-enter the event putting down fast lap times.
This would end the night for Sload, Sutton, and Taraska.
Tidman would restart at the front of the field again, with Ferris eager for the lead. Meanwhile, on lap 14, Kot would take 4th from Hartwig and then 3rd from Catalano.
On lap 15, Ferris would take advantage of the gremlin plaguing Tidman as the car had intermittent power issues. Ferris would take the lead, and Tidman would lose 2nd to Kot. By lap 19, Catalano would take 3rd and #02 Josh Patterson would also pass the #99 machine. By lap 24, Tidman pulled to the infield.
The final caution for #55 Steve Craig would set the stage for a dash to the finish. The top five cars of Ferris, Kot, Catalano, Patterson, and Hartwig would all prepare for the final sprint to be the Turkey Derby Champion.
Ferris and Kot would pull away from the field as they raced nose to tail, with Kot looking to the inside of Ferris down the front stretch on lap 24. Ferris would fend off that attempt and they would race within inches again, captivating fans. The defending Turkey Derby 51 Champion, Ferris, would continue to lead and take the Turkey Derby 52 victory, and leading the most laps as well as earning the Finish Line Bookkeeping Feature Fast Time Award.
Kot would end up 2nd, again, in the season’s biggest race, earning the Hard Charger Bonus from Atlantic Sprinkler and the ATQMRA Hard Charger Bonus. Catalano would impress with his 3rd-place finish, rounding out the podium in his first race at Wall Stadium in a TQ, and earning the Rookie of the Race Bonus.
Patterson was 4th and rounding out the top 5 was Paulie Hartwig III, his first run in the Tolerico TQ.
6th was Van Doren who started 11th, 7th position went to Don Wagner who started 15th, in his first run with the ATQMRA, 8th was Brianna Page who recovered from earlier race issues, she started 17th, 9th was Timmy Catalano and rounding out the top ten was Steve Craig.
