Matt Janisch of Nazareth Pa earned his second feature win of the season at Wall Stadium in wingless competition on Wall's inner oval after a heated Battle with early race leader Ryan Tidman. Heat Races were won by Don Zrinski and Geoffrey Sutton. The ATQMRA Racing on Wall's inner oval have become known for their exciting race starts coming in the Box a quarter of the way down the straight away resulting in five wide racing when the green flag flies. Next up for the ATQMRA is a trip to Bethel Motor Speedway for winged racing on Saturday June 18th.
A feature race front row of Flying Ryan Tidman and Don the Snake Zrinski took the initial green flag with cars fanning out five wide in the Start box. But it didn't work out that well when the cars entered the tight turns on Wall's inner oval as Zrinski and several other competitors tangled bringing out a caution before a lap was complete. Involved was Season opening Winner Geoffrey Sutton, Ron Mullen, Tim Proctor, Buddy Sload, Kerry Irwin, Anthony Payne, Matt Janisch and Steve Whitt. The incident was keyed when Zrinski and Multi time series Champion Don Adams tangled mid turn.
The restart saw a front row of Tidman and Adams take the green with Tidman gaining the advantage. Sutton and Janisch quickly made their way through the field and put themselves in contention by lap five from their 12th and 13th starting positions.
A tangle between front Running Mark Yoder and Joey Bailey brought out the caution when Yoder spun exiting turn four. The restart saw Sutton take to the third groove and sweep from his fourth starting position to nearly taking the lead from Tidman entering the third turn. The tight racing jumbled the leaders and gave Janisch the opening he needed to retake the lead after being set back for jumping an earlier restart.
Sutton's day ended on lap 12 when his engine expired slowing the action one more time. From there on it was Janisch all the way earning the victory over Tidman with Joey Bailey in the Alan Mollot 51 Badger finishing third. Jeff Kot and Buddy Sload rounded out the top five. Mark Yoder rebounded to post a sixth place finish with Anthony Payne rolling across the line seventh followed by fellow Rookies Chris Hirt and Joey Payne III with Kerry Irwin rounding out the top ten.
The first heat race saw Don Zrinski take the checker with a lap six pass of Yoder to take the heat race win over Yoder followed by Anthony Payne with Joey Bailey, Tim Proctor, and Don Adams making the invert.
The second heat saw Geoffrey Sutton sweep into the lead early and lead every lap to post the win. Matt Roselli who was racing a brand new Laffler Chassis car finished second after being the fastest TQ in Practice but didn't start the feature due to an uncharacteristic mechanical issue. Jeff Kot, Matt Janisch, Ryan Tidman, and Buddy Sload rounded out the redraw cars.
ATQMRA News and Notes: Feature winner Matt Jansich sits atop the point standings after backing up his win at Mahoning a few weeks ago with another feature victory at Wall. This marks his second feature win at Wall after winning the Turkey Derby to cap his 2014 Championship season in style on the high banks of Wall Stadium. Janisch in Victory lane thanked his Father Mark for Building the strong Engines that power him to Victory in his Yuhas Chassis car.
Joey Bailey wasn't planning to race this weekend's race at Wall with his Zuzzalo 02 sidelined with engine problems from Mahoning Valley. Multi time Championship winning car owner Alan Mollot was without a driver when regular shoe Jon Gambutti was under the weather. Mollot put the 2013 ATQMRA Rookie of the year Bailey in the car and had to be happy with the podium finish on after struggling to get hooked up on Wall's flat inner oval. Joey is the second generation of Bailey to race the Famous red 51 car following in his father's footsteps behind the wheel of the potent Mollot mount that has countless feature wins on Wall's high banks and at just about every track the ATQMRA has competed at across the years.
Second Generation ATQMRA competitor Rookie Chris Hirt made his debut in the Tim Proctor 97 earning an eighth place finish. Chris' father Ken Hirt was a regular competitor with the ATQMRA through the 90s and early 2000's in the Rick Arnold 78 cars.
Ten Time ATQMRA Champion Don Adams returned to competition in the Lawshie 52 car after sorting out some handling issues the car was fast enough to earn a spot in the feature redraw and a 12th place finish.
Steve Whitt, Steve Craig and Don Zrinski made their first races of the season. Zrinski following his heat win looked poised to earn another strong finish but wasn't able to complete a lap after getting bent up on the initial race start. The Steve's of Whitt and Craig were both DNF's in the feature.
TQ Feature (25 Laps)
1 48 Matt janisch
2 1b Ryan Tidman
3 51 Joey Bailey
4 95 Jeff Kot
5 16 Buddy Sload
6 75 Mark Yoder
7 45 Anthony Payne
8 97 Chris Hirt
9 67 Joey Payne III
10 46 Kerry Irwin
11 f8 Mike Glaser
12 52 Donnie Adams
13 461. Geoffrey Sutton
14 6 Steve Whitt
15 55 Steve Craig
16 39 Ronnie Mullen
17 75 Don Zrinski
18 98 Tim Proctor
19 98 Matt Roselli DNS
Heat Race 1 (8 Laps)
1 75Don Zrinski
2 75Mark Yoder
3 45Anthony Payne
4 51Joey Bailey
5 98Tim Proctor
6 52Donnie Adams
7 46Kerry Irwin
8 97Chris Hirt
9 6Steve Whitt
10 55Steve Craig
Heat Race 2 (8 Laps)
1 46Geoffrey Sutton
2 98Matt Roselli
3 95Jeff Kot
4 48Matt janisch
5 1bRyan Tidman
6 16Buddy Sload
7 f8Mike Glaser
8 67Joey Payne III