By Blu Metz
Wall Stadium, Saturday August 22, 2015. Buddy Sload pulled off the Hat Trick by winning the 25 lap ATQMRA feature in the Colin Martin 16. As it has been in each of the last three races Sload had to take the lead from Geoffrey Sutton who finished second followed by Matt Roselli. Heat Races were won by Marc Rogers, Steve Whitt, and Sutton. Next up for the ATQMRA is a trip north to Oswego Speedway for the International Classic that is paying $175 to take a green with $350 to go to the winner.
For the ATQMRA's second trip outing on Wall's inner oval the organization had 20 TQ midgets in the pits. 17 made the call to take a green with Buddy Sload once again driving to victory. The first outing on the flat track at Wall yielded a tight pack of cars racing nose to tail. The second outing was much different. Teams went home and did their homework and worked on their setups and came back and put on a show of slide jobs, cross over moves and side by side racing for the lead.
Geoffrey Sutton and Ryan Tidman took the initial green with Sutton taking advantage of the inside starting spot to take the lead. Tidman was tight on Sutton's bumper through the early laps when he tangled with Sutton bringing out a caution. Tidman went pit side but returned to the track to fight his way back to an eighth place finish. Sload was second for the restart and was dogging Sutton race long. Sload moved to the outside and raced side by side with Sutton for several laps before Sutton was able to gain the advantage. A close running Matt Roselli was also in hot pursuit and started battling with Sload for second position. The pair crossed one another over and returned the favor several times before Sload raced solidly into second. The battle for second allowed Sutton to gain a slight advantage as the laps clicked down.
By lap 19 the brake rotors on both Sutton's Metz Racing mount and Sload's Spitfire were glowing red but Sload had enough brake left to run Sutton down and make the pass for the lead. A late caution bunched the field for a shootout to the finish. Sutton and Roselli dug down deep and gave everything they had but Sload was able to open enough of a gap to keep them at bay. Sutton rolled across the line second followed by Roselli with Don Zrinski posted another top five in fourth with Marc Rogers fifth. Steve Whitt advanced from his 17th starting position to finish sixth picking up the most passing points on the day for the MNO Hard Charger season long standings.
Heat Races were won by Steve Whitt who started the race from the sixth position to slice his way to the front. The second heat saw Wall Stadium Veteran Stock car racer Marc Rogers take his first ATQMRA heat race win. The third heat saw Geoffrey Sutton take his fourth heat win of the season and third consecutive heat race win. This heat was by far the most exciting. Sutton's win wasn't easy. First Matt Roselli made a move to the inside entering the first turn only to overshoot the turn allowing Sutton to cross him over coming off the second turn. Then Sload moved into second and swapped cross over moves with Sutton coming away with the heat race win.
Sload entered the race with a four point lead in the standings over his closest rival Ryan Tidman. This marks the third race in a row where Sload earned max points by winning the race. He won the last race at Wall on the inner oval and followed that up with a win at Borger's Speedway and completed the hat trick by winning the second race on the Wall inner oval. When the official tally is done Sload should be on top by 36 markers with four races left. Mike Glaser finished one spot ahead of Rookie of the year rival Patrick Force keeping the Rookie race extremely tight.
Next up for the ATQMRA is a trip to Oswego Speedway for the International Classic on Saturday September 5th. The winners share is currently $350 with $175 in green money being offered to each car taking a green flag for the event. The ATQMRA will don the wings for this event being run in conjunction with the Winged ISMA Super modifieds. Racing at Oswego puts the tq midgets in front of one of the largest crowds the TQs race in front of all season long and it's the only paved track on the east coast that has a strong open wheel fan base.
ATQMRA News and Notes: Brianna Page and Kerry Irwin pulled double duty Saturday night running both TQ midgets and their Champ Karts on the inner oval. Irwin finished eleventh in the TQ on the tail end of the lead lap and third in the Champ race while Page finished 12th in the TQ race and one spot behind Irwin in fourth in the Champ race as well. Steve Whitt made his first ATQMRA start in impressive fashion winning his heat and charging from the rear to a very competitive sixth place finish.
Feature (25 Laps)
1. 16 Buddy Sload
2. 46 Geoffrey Sutton
3. 98 Matt Roselli
4. 75 Don Zrinski
5. 27 Mark Rogers
6. 11 Steve Whitt
7. 95 Jeff Kot
8. 1B Ryan Tidman
9. 75 Mark Yoder
10. 17v Shawn McCaughey
11. 46v Kerry Irwin
12. 33 Brianna Page
13. F8 Mike Glaser
14. 18 Patrick Force
15. Brett Conklin
16. Pat VanVarick
17. 51 Jon Gambutti
18. Bud Sload DNS
