Penultimate ATQMRA show for Wall’s Fan Appreciation Night
(September 13, 2015) — The Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic American Three Quarter Midget Racing Association’s 2015 season is winding to a close with only two points paying shows on the schedule. The Penultimate show will be at Wall Stadium in Belmar, NJ on this coming Saturday September 19th for the track’s popular fan appreciation night. The Points finale will be at Mahoning Valley Speedway in Lehighton on Saturday October 24th. Buddy Sload currently tops the point’s standings with his nearest rival Ryan Tidman looking to make his move in the final two races second with Matt Roselli and Geoffrey Sutton third and fourth. Oswego Classic winner Joey Bailey sits fifth with the Rookie of the year contenders Mike Glaser and Pat Force next in line.
The ATQMRA cars and stars will be part of the Wall Stadium Fan Appreciation Night where the cars will be on display on the race track and fans are encouraged to come onto the track and interact with drivers and get an up close and personal look at the cars and talk to the drivers and teams who thrill them each week. Wall Stadium’s 2014 Most Popular driver the Rocket Ron Mullen will once again be in TQ midget action in the Metz Racing 39in addition to racing in several of the fendered divisions at Wall. Drivers and teams will have autograph cards and hands outs for fans and give autographs and take pictures with them to help make them feel like part of the action.
This coming Saturday when the lightening fast TQ midgets invade Wall Stadium for another round of short-track racing on Wall’s inner fifth mile flat oval it will mark the penultimate event for the 2015 season. With the points lead and the momentum of winning 3 of the last 4 races including both races on Wall’s inner oval Points leader Buddy Sload looks to be the favorite once again when action begins. Sload finished fourth in the last outing in the Classic at Oswego and bested his nearest competition in Ryan Tidman only after Tidman looked to be the sure winner of the race with only a few turns left before taking the checkered flag his fortunes turned and ended up with a sixth-place finish.
It has been a hard-fought battle for the season long Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic Championship between Sload and Tidman. If Tidman is going to earn another title he will need to earn max points at the two remaining races to give him a shot at the title.
The Rookie of the year battle continues to be a two-man battle between Mike Glaser and Patrick Force with Glaser holding the edge at this point.
Flying Ryan Tidman has had his share of bad luck the last few races and will be a threat to unseat Sload’s dominance on the short tracks. Sload earned a hat trick of wins the by winning two shows at Wall and a third at the now defunct Borger’s Speedway showing real strength in the wingless short track races in the Colin Martin Spitfire 16.
Joey Bailey fresh from his biggest Victory in a TQ midget at the Oswego Classic will be looking to go from the longest track on the tour to the shortest remaining track and earn another victory to post three on the season. He was the winner of the Club’s only race on Wall’s high banks for the 2015 season back in May. Bailey missed a handful of races this season or he would surely be in contention for the championship.
2014 Champion Matt Janisch will be in the Lou Cicconi Drinan TQ midget at Wall this Saturday. The car started life as a Drinan built TQ midget but has had significant modifications in the never ending quest for speed. Janisch will be looking to wring as much speed from the car as he can in his first race outing on the Wall fifth-mile track. Janisch incidentally took laps around the Wall inner oval in a TQ midget back in 2007 when the pavement was first laid on the inner oval.
Don Zrinski is expected to be back in action on the flat track at Wall where he has been a strong runner posting top-five finishes in each of his outings this season. Don is another racer that ran laps on Wall’s inner oval long before the ATQMRA sanctioned races on the track.
Sources: Blu Metz/ATQMRA PR