July 23, 2016, Wall Stadium, NJ
Geoffrey Sutton Backed up his opening day feature win by sweeping the day's TQ midget racing action at the Speedway by the Shore Wall Stadium. Sutton pocketed the $300.00 winners share and a Brice's NAPA Auto Parts NAPA Aluminum Racing Jack as a contingency prize. Joey Bailey and Sutton were heat race winners. Sutton was chased across the line by Matt Janisch and Ryan Tidman who scored another podium finish. Next up for the ATQMRA is a trip to the Waterford Speedbowl in Connecticut for winged racing action on Saturday August 6th.
The First heat race saw Joey Bailey and Mike Glaser take the green. Bailey shot into the lead followed by Glaser with Ryan Tidman sliding into second. Jeff Kot in his Behrent's Performance 95 Badger assuming the third spot by the end of the second lap. Matt Jansich charged from his sixth starting position to overtake Kot for third on lap six. Kot would finish fourth followed by Anthony Payne with Tim Proctor taking the final transfer position.
The second heat saw Geoffrey Sutton move from his third starting position to lead the first lap and was followed into the lead by the always fast Matt Roselli. The pair would finish one two with Sutton earning the win over Roselli. Top rookie of the year candidate Mark Yoder finished third with 2015 ATQMRA Champion Buddy Sload fourth followed by Don Zrinski and Mark Rogers.
The ATQMRA 25 lap feature saw Joey Bailey and Tim Proctor lead the field for the club's impressive four abreast parade lap and salute to the fans. When the green flag flew Tim Proctor moved into the lead over Bailey until Bailey completed a pass to lead the third circuit. Matt Roselli would move into second with Geoffrey Sutton riding in third. Sutton would make his move to take the lead on lap twelve with Bailey Sitting second until a cooling system failure ended Bailey's day on lap thirteen collecting Roselli in the process.
The always fast Matt Jansich picked his way through the field to put himself on Sutton's bumper for the restart after methodically advancing from his tenth starting position. Since it was past half way the restart was single file and Sutton was able to get a five car length advantage over Janisch and held serve over the final laps. Flying Ryan Tidman continued his streak of consistent finishes rounding out the podium. Mark Rogers piloted his 27 car to a fourth place finish with Matt Roselli charging back through the field to earn a solid fifth place finish. Top Rookie Mark Yoder raced his Hyper Hugger to sixth with Buddy Sload finishing seventh. Andrew Krause Anthony Payne and Mike Glaser rounded out the top ten.
The always fast Jeff Kot in his Behrents Peformance 95 worked his way into fifth place on track when his engine expired ending his chances of taking the checker.
Sutton ended Janisch's streak of four ATQMRA feature wins in a row making Janisch and Sutton the only drivers to find their way to Victory Lane with the ATQRMA in 2016. Ironically both Janisch and Sutton earned their first ATQMRA wins in the same Metz Racing car that Sutton currently pilots.
A special thanks goes out to Bill Brice of Brice's NAPA Auto Stores for supporting all of the divisions racing at Wall and his efforts with the ATQMRA. Geoffrey Sutton earned a NAPA Aluminum Racing Jack as a contingency award for winning the feature.
Next up for the ATQMRA Is a trip to the New London Ct's Waterford Speedbowl on August 6th. This will be the first trip to the Speedbowl since Mike Tidaback earned his first feature win in his Father Bob's Suzuki Gamma Powered Lindblad Badger in September of 1995. Northeast Modified ace Nick Ladyga and a host of others to be announced will take on the ATQMRA faithful on the 3/8 mile Speedbowl.
ATQRMA News and Notes: Teams are reminded that they have an opportunity to put their cars on display in front of the crowd at Pocono for the IndyCar weekend on August 20 and 21st. The Application for putting a race car in the show can be found at http://www.theclassicracingtimes.com by clicking on Applications and filling out the Pocono Sun and Show Application or contact Gary Mondschein for details. For the first time at Wall this year the ATQMRA implemented a 2 position penalty for crossing the yellow line separating the flat lower track from the banks in order to keep the competitors safe. Austin Fehr and Andrew Krause were docked two positions for going out of bounds.
Heat Race 1
102 Joey Bailey
21b Ryan Tidman
348 Matt janisch
495 Jeff Kot
545 Anthony Payne
698 Tim Proctor
711 Steve Whitt
873 Austin Fehr
9f8 Mike Glaser
1027 Andrew Krause
Heat Race 2
1461 Geoffrey Sutton
298 Matt Roselli
375 Mark Yoder
416 Buddy Sload
575 Don Zrinski
627 Mark Rogers
767 Joey Payne III
897 Chris Hirt
946 Kerry Irwin
Feature Race (25 Laps)1. 461 Geoffrey Sutton 2. 48 Matt Janisch 3. 1B Ryan Tidman 4. 27 Mark Rogers 5. 98 Matt Roselli 6. 75 Mark Yoder 7. 16 Buddy Sload 8. 27k Andrew Krause 9. Anthony Payne 10. F8 Mike Glaser 11. 95 Jeff Kot 12. 73 Austin Fehr 13. 02 Joey Bailey 14. 11. Steve Whitt 15. 75z Don Zrinski 16. 67 Joey Payne III 17. 46 Kerry Irwin 18. 98 Tim Proctor 19. 97 Chris Hirt