Staff Report | Monday, August 2nd, 2021
Photography presented by Sean Case & Eric Storch
WALL TOWNSHIP, NJ- Buddy Sload and the #36 Spitfire Racing Team found themselves in a familiar place after earning another Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic ATQMRA powered by VP Racing Fuels victory at Wall Stadium Speedway.
A strong car count of sixteen entered the pit area Saturday afternoon, with eventually fifteen taking the green flag for the 25 lap feature.
Prior to the feature, Jeff Kot and the Behrents Performance TQ Midget earned a heat victory in heat one and set the fastest lap of the afternoon. Buddy Sload went on to win a wild heat two, with much of the action happening behind him. Sload won the heat, but the young and aggressive RYNO Classifieds Rookie Contender Tyler Ferris made many risky moves on his way to a third place finish.
After taking a brief hiatus, Mark Yoder’s #75 Ames Construction Team returned to the grid this weekend and led the field to green. A mistimed jump by Sload and Ferris caused a stack up of the outside lane, with championship points leader Joey Bailey taking advantage. Bailey jumped from tenth to third by the completion of lap one, as he tried to carry the momentum for the Boyd Family from his recent feature victory at Bethel Motor Speedway.
While Bailey jumped to third, heat race winner Jeff Kot sliced and diced his way to second from the seventh starting position. Sload led from nearly the jump of the green flag, but it was Kot and Bailey who kept him honest, taking advantage of the early struggles of the cars in front of them and chased Sload down as the race approached the halfway point.
Hard racing continued as you could have thrown a blanket over fourth through eighth, including the likes of Joey Payne, rookies Tyler Ferris and Brianna Page, Kyle Taraska and Ryan Tidman.
After taking some time off, Mike Glaser and the #2 Aqua Solutions Team returned to Wall Stadium this weekend. Unfortunately, the weekend didn’t go as planned for the team. Glaser spun off the exit of turn two to bring out the only caution of the evening with ten laps remaining.
Sload commanded a single file restart and never looked back, to go on and earn his fourth feature victory of the 2021 Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic ATQMRA powered by VP Racing Fuels season. Jeff Kot finished second and Joey Bailey rounded out the podium, finishing close to where all these drivers ran for the majority of the race.
Late-race drama between Ferris and J. Payne, earned Ferris the fourth spot and J. Payne falling back to sixth due to hard contact in turn three coming to the checkered. Kyle Taraska’s #22 Chick-fil-A, Personal Comfort Team was the beneficiary of the skirmish, to earn a fifth place finish.
As noted, Joey Payne finished sixth and Ryan Tidman had a quiet night for his standards in seventh. Brianna Page spent much of the evening racing in the top-five, however, she resulted in a competitive eighth for the Stavola, A&A Truck Parts #76 Team. Pole sitter Mark Yoder finished ninth, and making his season debut Anthony Payne rounded out the top-10.
Steve Craig finished 11th, and rookie Robert Willis finished 12th. Mike Glaser finished 13th. Bill Force Jr., another driver to make his 2021 debut finished 14th. Rookie Chris Pelcher rounded out the field. Ken Moody unfortunately experienced motor issues in practice, derailing his efforts prior to qualifying.
Buddy Sload continues his feast of famine season, winning the four races his car has finished this season. Sload’s three non-wins all resulted in DNF’s for various reasons. Sload has a tough hill to climb in the championship to catch up to the very consistent, and defending series champ Joey Bailey. Bailey expanded his lead to 40 points over the field this weekend.
The Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic ATQMRA powered by VP Racing Fuels returns to action on Saturday, August 21st at Wall Stadium Speedway.
Race Results:
Heat 1:
1. #95 Jeff Kot
2. #51 Joey Payne
3. #75 Mark Yoder
4. #76 Brianna Page
5. #55C Steve Craig
6. #27 Robert Willis -DNS
7. #6 Bill Force Jr. -DNS
Heat 2:
1. #36 Buddy Sload
2. #1B Joey Bailey
3. #33 Tyler Ferris
4. #51 Ryan Tidman
5. #22 Kyle Taraska
6. #12 Anthony Payne
7. #2 Mike Glaser
8. #44P Chris Pelcher
Feature:
1. #36 Buddy Sload
2. #95 Jeff Kot
3. #1B Joey Bailey
4. #33 Tyler Ferris
5. #22 Kyle Taraska
6. #51 Joey Payne
7. #51T Ryan Tidman
8. #76 Brianna Page
9. #75 Mark Yoder
10. #12 Anthony Payne
11. #55C Steve Craig
12. #27 Robert Willis
13. #2 Mike Glaser
14. #6 Bill Force Jr.
15. #44P Chris Pelcher