Staff Report | Monday, October 18th, 2021
Photo Credit: TK Race Photos
WATERFORD, CT- Joey Bailey extended his points lead by earning a huge victory at The New London-Waterford Speedbowl during the Saturday portion of the Speedbowl’s ‘Fall Finale’ weekend.
A dozen of the Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic ATQMRA powered by VP Racing Fuel’s finest made the long trek north to Waterford, CT this weekend for the penultimate race in the 2021 championship points paying season. Even with a threatening forecast, a big crowd was able to witness a full card of fast and furious TQ Midget action at the 3/8th mile oval.
Buddy Sload (#36, Spitfire) got the big jump from 5th to 1st to win the opening heat of the afternoon. Jeff Kot (#95, Behrents Performance Warehouse) earned the victory in the second heat.
Heading into the feature, the two story lines involved two major championship points battles. Five drivers were mathematically eligible to win the overall championship, while two drivers remained in a tight battle to earn RYNO.co Rookie Contender Honors.
RYNO.co Rookie Points leader Brianna Page (#76 Stavola Companies, A&A Truck Parts) led the field to green, with rookie contender Tyler Ferris (#33 Hamer Heating & Cooling) started in third. However, it was 5X ATQMRA Champion Ryan Tidman (#51T, Yuhas Chassis) getting the big break out of the 2nd starting position to power to the lead.
Kyle Taraska (#22 Chick-fil-A, Personal Comfort) rolled from 4th to 2nd on the start behind Tidman, before his teammate Joey Bailey (#1B, Boyd Chassis) crossed over Taraska down the backstretch and into turn 3 on the opening lap. For much of the early stages, Tidman led the way with Bailey and Taraska rounding out the podium.
By the end of the third lap, both Sload and Kot made big moves through the field to move up to 4th and 5th respectively. The championship five were nose to tail with much of the feature remaining.
An intense rookie battle through the one third mark of the feature shaped up between points leader Page, championship competitor Ferris, and fellow RYNO.co Rookie Contender Tyler Wagner.
While Wagner is not mathematically eligible to earn Rookie honors this season, Wagner had a big day not only making his debut at Waterford, but also in Alan Mollot’s #51 Badger.
As the rookies battled hard from sixth through eighth, the first caution of the evening came out on lap 8 for debris from Cole Mullen (#73, Geese Patrol). This unfortunately ended Mullen’s afternoon early. The former ATQMRA feature winner was making his 2nd start of 2021.
Back to the green flag, Sload made an outside power move on Taraska for third, while Tidman kept his nose clean and remained the leader ahead of Bailey.
Tidman, looking to earn his first feature victory since November of last year, drove a hard race managing his equipment and lapped traffic.
A major shake up in the points rookie battle occurred with four laps to go when Brianna Page made contact with the outside wall in turn 3. The driver was ok. However, the car was too damaged to finish the race. This opened the door for a big points opportunity for Ferris, and another big opportunity for Bailey to get one more shot at Tidman for the lead.
Speaking of that opportunity, Bailey took full advantage as he pounded up through the gears one more time on the restart, and powered past Tidman on the inside heading into turn 1 on the restart. In what became a total heartbreak for Tidman and the #51T team, Bailey went on to win in thrilling fashion, to earn his 2nd victory of the season by leading the final 3 laps at Waterford.
Ryan Tidman would finish in 2nd. Buddy Sload and Kyle Taraska entered turn 3 on the final lap side by side, but Sload was able to hang on to round out the podium. Taraska would finish in 4th. RYNO.co Rookie Tyler Wagner had a fantastic Waterford debut to round out the top-5.
Jeff Kot 6th, and Tyler Ferris finished 7th in his Waterford debut.
Steve Craig (#55C, Craig Bulk Carriers) put another solid top-10 run together bringing his TQ Midget home in 8th.
Chris Hirt (#97) made his first ATQMRA start of the season and brought his car home in 9th. It was great to have Chris representing the “New England Invaders” this weekend.
Ronnie Mullen (#39, Geese Patrol) made the long trek up north, kept his car clean, and finished a respectable 10th. This was Mullen’s first official start of the season.
With their noted issues, Brianna Page and Cole Mullen rounded out the field in 11th and 12th.
Joey Bailey’s victory capped off an afternoon full of racing, where he successfully made a triple-duty attempt between NEMA Midget, NEMA Lites, and the Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic ATQMRA. His second victory of the season is timely, as he extended his championship points lead to 56, heading into Bethel Motor Speedway on November 6th.
Brianna Page leads Tyler Ferris by 32 points heading into Bethel in the RYNO.co Rookie Contender Standings.
The Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic ATQMRA powered by VP Racing Fuels will be off for 2 weekends, before returning to action on Saturday November 6th, at Bethel Motor Speedway for the 2021 ATQMRA Championship finale.
The 2021 ATQMRA season will officially conclude on Saturday, November 27th for the non-points, Turkey Derby XLVIII at Wall Stadium Speedway.
Race Results:
Heat 1:
1. #36 Buddy Sload
2. #51T Ryan Tidman
3. #1B Joey Bailey
4. #22 Kyle Taraska
5. #55C Steve Craig
6. #39 Ronnie Mullen
Heat 2:
1. #95 Jeff Kot
2. #33 Tyler Ferris
3. #51 Tyler Wagner
4. #76 Brianna Page
5. #97 Chris Hirt
6. #73 Cole Mullen
Feature (25 Laps)
1. #1B Joey Bailey
2. #51T Ryan Tidman
3. #36 Buddy Sload
4. #22 Kyle Taraska
5. #51 Tyler Wagner
6. #95 Jeff Kot
7. #33 Tyler Ferris
8. #55C Steve Craig
9. #97 Chris Hirt
10. #39 Ronnie Mullen
11. #76 Brianna Page
12. #73 Cole Mullen