Flying Ryan Tidman Sweeps Wall Hoosier Tire Mid Atlantic VP Racing Fuels
Saturday, May 6, 2017, Wall Township NJ; Flying Ryan Tidman from Levittown, Pa swept the nights racing in ATQMRA action on Wall Stadium’s flat inner oval in his Boyd Racing Lafler Chassis 1b. Joey Bailey was second with Geoffrey Sutton rounding out the podium. Tidman and Jeff Kot earned heat race victories. The ACRO Rookie of the Race was Ronnie the Rocket Mullen. Next up for the ATQMRA is the first event of the season at Bethel Motor Speedway in a twin bill with the Vintage TQ Midget organization. The TQs will race without the wing at Bethel.
By the luck of the draw, the front row saw Buddy Sload and Rob Vivona take the green with Sload launching into the lead followed by Tidman. Before a lap was completed a snake bitten Joey Payne III was collected by Kerry Irwin damaging the left front of Payne’s Drinan car ending a promising day early. The restart was much the same with Sload powering into the lead.
Ryan found his opportunity to take the lead on lap 4 and never looked back. Sload held onto the second position attempting to mount a challenge when contact from the Matt Roselli driven 98 Lafler sent Sload’s Spitfire into a spin where he was struck by another car ending his day on lap 14. Roselli was sent to the rear for the incident.
This put Joey Bailey into the second position for the single file restart but he was unable to make a move on Tidman after patiently picking his was to second from his seventh starting position. Geoffrey Sutton moved into the third position in his Metz Racing 461 BGF Chassis. That’s how they would finish the race.
Brett Michalski rolled across the line fourth. Unfortunately, a whirlwind of a day and a solid finish would be for naught. Michalski’s 600 Micro Sprint was disqualified for being too wide in post-race tech. Michalski’s day started out with the team planning to run the URC Sprint Sanctioned race in Delaware but rain would foil that plan. Their alternate plan was to trailer to Selinsgrove Speedway to race the sprinter. Once again that plan was foiled by the weather. Their last effort was to roll the 600 into the trailer to run with the ATQMRA.
The DQ would move everyone up one spot giving last week’s runner-up Rob Vivona a fourth-place finish with a resurgent Matt Roselli charging back to finish fifth.
Ronnie the Rocket Mullen would roll across the line sixth in his best effort of the season in his brand new BGF Chassis 39 car. Mullen was the highest finishing ACRO Rookie of the Race followed across the line by fellow Rookie of the year candidate, the always exciting Dave Gorbatuk in the Spitfire 32 car. Gorbatuk also earned the Advance Racing Shocks contingency award. Kerry Irwin would rebound to post his best finish to date in TQ Midget action in the Metz Racing F8 with an 8th place finish after a race long battle with Gorbatuk. Rookie Kyle Taraska in the Fred Delibero 01 BGF Chassis scored a ninth-place finish.
The hard luck driver of the race was Matt Janisch in the Alan Mollot 51 Lindblad Badger. After a solid run in his heat, the car’s power plant would develop a miss as the cars formed up for the parade lap and would not clear. Janisch left the track and went to the pit area and failed to take the green for the feature earning the Razor Sharp Hard luck award.
The MNO $100 went to 12th finishing Jeff Kot who looked to be his best outing of the season after being near the top of the speed charts in practice and winning his heat convincingly in his Behrent’s Performance Lindblad Badger only to have his clutch started slipping in the feature.
Next up for the ATQMRA is a trip into the Catskill Mountains to race on the ultra-competitive Bethel Speedway on Saturday, May 20th in wingless competition for the first time after several years of winged racing there. Also on the card, that night will be the season opening event for the Vintage Three Quarter Midgets. The next event following Bethel is also in New York for the organization’s return to Long Island after a long absence to the Riverhead Speedway for the running of the Pete Petraitis Memorial.
Momentum is building toward the first running of the Tricky Challenge at Pocono Raceway presented by the Vintage Racing Times on August 18th and 19th. Numerous teams filled out their applications for the race and are excited about the opportunity to race at Pocono Raceway in conjunction with the modern and vintage Indy cars.
Feature
1 1b Ryan Tidman
2 2 Joey Bailey
3 46 Geoffry Sutton
4 46 Rob Vivona
5 98 Matt Roselli
6 39 Ronnie Mullen
7 32 Dave Golbatuk
8 f8 Kerry Irwin
9 1 Kyle Taraska
10 36 Buddy Sload
11 75 Mark Yoder
12 95 Jeff Kot
13 67 Joey Payne III
14 73 Cole Mullen
15 51 Matt Janisch
DQ 73b Brett Michalski
Heat 1
1 1b Ryan Tidman
2 2 Joey Bailey
3 46 Geoffry Sutton
4 51 Matt Janisch
5 75 Mark Yoder
6 32 Dave Golbatuk
7 73b Brett Michalski
8 1 Kyle Taraska
Heat 2
1 95 Jeff Kot
2 36 Buddy Sload
3 98 Matt Roselli
4 46 Rob Vivona
5 73 Cole Mullen
6 67 Joey Payne III
7 f8 Kerry Irwin
ATMQRA 2017 Schedule
April 15 MAHONING VALLEY SPEEDWAY
April 29 WALL STADIUM SPEEDWAY *
May 6 WALL STADIUM SPEEDWAY *
May 20 BETHEL MOTOR SPEEDWAY *
June 3 RIVERHEAD RACEWAY *# Pete Petraitis Memorial
June17 BETHEL MOTOR SPEEDWAY *
June24 MAHONING VALLEY SPEEDWAY
July 1 WALL STADIUM SPEEDWAY *
July 15 BETHEL MOTOR SPEEDWAY *
July 29 CHEMUNG SPEEDROME *
August 12 NEW LONDON-WATERFORD SPEEDBOWL
Aug 18-19 POCONO RACEWAY *#
September 9 WALL STADIUM SPEEDWAY *
September 16 MAHONING VALLEY SPEEDWAY
September 30 WALL STADIUM SPEEDWAY *
October 21 -22 NEW LONDON-WATERFORD SPEEDBOWL
November 25 WALL STADIUM SPEEDWAY *#
Non wing * Indoor Rules Package #
Sources: ATQMRA PR