Steven Reed takes Modified First Win of the Season
Wall Township, NJ- Two former champions returned to victory lane Saturday night at Wall Stadium. Three-time champion Steven Reed took a solid Modified win after a lack luster start to the season. Similarly multiple Sportsman champion Kevin Davison also reversed his season with a solid win in his feature after weeks of rough racing luck.
The Modified race started with Steven Reed in the pole position after the nine fastest qualifiers were inverted. Reed took the lead at the start of the race with Jimmy Blewett hot on his heels. Andrew Krause, who started eighth, worked his way to the front. Krause took third from Tommy Martino jr on lap six and then quickly closed the distance to the leaders. As the race came to halfway, it was a three-car battle for the lead between Reed, Blewett and Krause. A few laps later, the battle for second place became intense between Blewett and Krause as Krause repeatedly looked for an opening to pass Blewett. They race along side many times but with just four laps to go, Blewett and Krause got together in turn two in spectacular fashion. On the video playback it appeared that Blewett’s car got a tick loose and turned inside ever so slightly. The front of Blewett’s car climbed onto Krause’s car and leaped into the air a foot before coming back down to the track’s surface to bring out the caution. Both drivers were ok but the cars were not. On the restart, fourth place runner Derek Hopkinson started on the outside pole alongside Reed. Reed held off Hopkinson to take his first win of the season.
In victory lane Steven Reed said “I’m a happy driver here. We took this bad fast winning car from Turkey Derby and we never want to come back to the track the same, so we cut it (the car) all up, made changes. We've been making it better and better every week and here we are in victory lane. I wouldn't be here without the help of everybody that stands behind me all my sponsors. My family made it tonight. My wife spotted for me. We got it done. thanks all the fans or coming out. Thanks for the track crew number one in a business getting this place fixed up so we can come out here and put a show on for everybody.”
The start of the Sportsman race saw defending Sportsman track champion Kevin Davison and rookie Chris Silvestri battling for the lead. The caution waved briefly on lap 15 for a two-car incident. Davison held off Silvestri on the start and went on to take his first win of the season. Davison finally got the bad luck monkey off his back. While Silvestri scored his best finish of the season.
Davison said “There was some luck involved in getting the win but also, we had a fast hot rod tonight. anywhere we went and it was fast, inside, outside, the car was great. I gotta thank all my guys and my crew and my wife and my kids for giving me a lot of time to be in the shop to make this thing (the car) fast.
I want to thank all those guys back at the shop that help works done. You need the total package to win. You gotta have a good car, good driver and you got to have the people behind you. The sponsors, the crew and all you great fans.”
The Factory Stocks held their make up 50-lap race that was rained out last week. Scott Carpenter came from a seventh place start to take the win. The action in the race was exciting from the start as Billy Both and Bryan O’Shea fought Logan Fraser in a three-way battle for the lead. O’Shea got under Fraser to take finally take the lead on lap 16. By lap 20 the leaders were weaving through lap traffic. Both moved into second a few laps later. The first caution waved two-thirds of the way through the race with a two-car incident that erased O’Shea’s lead. This put Both and Carpenter on O’Shea’s bumper for the restart. The three-way battle for the lead was exciting until the red flag came out for a hard hit by AJ Jadacki into turn four. He walked away shaken but otherwise ok. After an hour-long caution for the welders to fix the fence, the racing resumed with O’Shea still in the lead but with Carpenter tight on his bumper. On the final lap Carpenter ducked inside of O’Shea in turn four to take a narrow lead in a photo finish at the checkered flag.
The Legends feature started with Justin Emmons in the lead until he was passed by Ryan Kuhlthau. A lap later on lap three. A lap later Nate Divone took second and the race came down to a duel between the young lions Divone and Kuhlthau. Divone took home the win with Kuhlthau in second.
In the 4th annual J.J. Lane Memorial TQ feature, Kyle Taraska, the series’ defending champion, took the lead on lap three and looked strong as he slowly put a gap on his pursuers while they fought for position behind him but a late race caution with six laps to go changed the complexion of the race. On the restart Taraska had his hands full as Ryan Tidman, Joey Bailey and Buddy Sload challenged him for the lead. A lap later Bailey spun out with a flat tire. When the race resumed it was a drag race as Taraska and Tidman raced side by side for the lead. This spirited battle went on for over a lap until Taraska’s fell over on his wing in turn four after contact with the transition on the track. Taraska tried to return but officials deemed the damage to his wing was too severe to race safely. Tidman took the lead and held off Sload to take the win.
Finishing order:
Modified- Steven Reed, Derek Hopkinson, Eddie McCarthy, Carsten Martino jr, Ron Frees, Shaun Carrig, Andrew Krause, Jarrett DiGiantomasso, Blake Barney, Jimmy Blewett, Jake Nelke, Tyler Ferris
Sportsman, Kevin Davison, Chris Silvestri, Quinn Trimmer, Teddy Cranmer, Daniel Doyle jr, Kenny Reaves, Ryan Maher, Ryan Fischer, Brian Spencer, Brian Desarno, Robert Sutphin, Bryan O’Shea, Todd Dige
TQ- Ryan Tidman, Buddy Sload, Matt Janish, Tyler Ferris, Mark Yoder, Cole Mullen, Steve Craig, Christopher, Coleman, Kyle Taraska, Joey Bailey, Mike Glaser, Kyle Herve
Factory Stock- Johnny Carpenter, Bryan O’Shea, Billy Both, Robert Stack, Scott Riggleman, Rob Anderton, Logan Fraser, Gary Burton, Bob Anderton, James hall lV, Kevin Kennedy, Nancy Riggleman, AJ Jadacki, Matt Badessa, Ryan Bilello, Nicole Razzano
Legends- Nate Divone, Ryan Kuhlthau, Ryan MacDonnell, Justin Teresak, Justin Emmons, Joe Przybylinski jr, Malcolm Campbell, Jack Gerzabek, Liane Sharry, Chris Gall
Comments