NEMA’s Payne, Medeiros Compete in TQ’s at Wall’s Turkey Derby; Payne Claims Dirt Modified Portion
Wall Township, N. J. — 2013 Northeastern Midget Assoc. Lite Champion, Carl Medeiros Jr., and NEMA competitor Joey Payne took part in the 40th anniversary Wall Stadium Turkey Derby at the fast N.J. speedway Saturday. Both drivers entered the TQ portion of the show, and Payne competed in the Mike Mongiello owned Dirt Modified for that division.
The TQ event was the first for the newly acquired Medeiros machine and was fast right out of the trailer. The young driver time trialed seventh fastest after some minor chassis adjustments which placed him on the pole for the feature due to the inverted line-up.
At the drop of the green, Carl fell into the second slot in the field which he held despite two restarts, the first on lap one and again on lap four. It was at that time that the young Medeiros felt the engine start to tighten up and lose some power and finally expire during a lap seven caution as the power plant erupted in smoke and flame, ending his day. He exited the machine quickly and was not injured. “We’re happy the way the car ran and felt“, Medeiros said later, “We have another motor for the next race in Atlantic City, and have all winter to rebuild this one”.
Veteran open wheel racer Joey Payne spent time running on the track and in the pits as he sprinted between his Alan Mollot owned TQ and the Mongiello modified ride for his busy Saturday.
After a gear change, Joey timed his TQ eighth fastest which put him outside front row to complete the NEMA one – two starting spots for the inverted feature. Unfortunately, while Payne was coming up through the gears at the drop of the green, the ring and pinion broke in the rear end, slowing his racer and scattering the field behind him. No other car came in contact but his day ended very early.
After two NEMA misfortunes in the TQ’s, it was the full-up, wide, super powerful Dirt Modified feature that turned the days bad luck to good.
As the sun went down, along with the temperatures, Payne climbed in the Mongiello machine and after some hard driving and racing luck, the popular wheelman claimed the win in the 40 lap Dirt Modified final.
From the drop of the green, Payne held the number two spot until lap eleven when he slipped to third. He would keep a lock on that spot until the twenty second lap when Joey would drop down to forth in traffic. Not to be denied a good finish, the “Jersey Jet” combined some hard driving with some racing luck to claimed the top spot on lap thirty two and held it to the checkers. “The car turned fast time earlier today,” Payne said, “I was lucky in the main and after a bunch of years in this car, we finally got the win, I’m happy for Mike and his son.”
Sources: William Vanslyke/NEMARacing.com