CENTRAL SQUARE, N.Y. — For the first time in his career, 22-year-old Cody Manitta earned a DIRTcar Sportsman Series victory in a memorable Central Region clash at Brewerton Speedway.
Manitta held off a late-race charge from points leader Hunter Hollenbeck, while hometown hero Quinn Wallis stole second from Hollenbeck on the final lap.
“This is my first win here on the DIRTcar Series,” Manitta said. “This is big for me. It sets us up well for Super DIRT Week. I’m really happy with it.”
Tucker Halliday, the polesitter, led the first nine laps before Manitta passed Halliday.
Meanwhile, Hunter Hollenbeck moved into third from fifth just before the race’s halfway point. It only took a handful of laps before Hollenbeck found himself passing Halliday for second with Manitta in his sights.
“I know Hunter is really good on the top, so I had to protect it on the front stretch as much as I could,” said Manitta. “He could get a really good run into Turn 1. I could just drive off Turn 2 way better. We’ve always raced each other clean, so I’m not worried any time I am next to him.”
A series of late restarts kept Hollenbeck and Manitta locked in battle until the checkered flag fell.
However, Quinn Wallis snuck by Hollenbeck on the race’s final restart, after battling inside the top five for the entire race.
“The driver had to figure it out for the first 20 laps,” Wallis said. “I smoked the catch fence in Turn 1 and lost my rhythm. Cody [Manitta] got by me, and I think if I hadn’t done that, it would have been a different story. I just wasn’t paying attention to the laps. If I were, I probably would have sailed it into Turn 3.”
Despite falling to third, Hollenbeck retains the DIRTcar Sportsman Series Central Region points lead by eight points over Tony Finch II, who finished fourth.
Richard Murtaugh rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature: 1. 6-Cody Manitta[3]; 2. 31B-Quinn Wallis[2]; 3. 72-Hunter Hollenbeck[5]; 4. 0-Tony Finch II[9]; 5. 33-Richard Murtaugh[6]; 6. 83-Brett Sears[11]; 7. 07W-Taylor Wason[12]; 8. 410-Mike Fowler[15]; 9. 1-Jack Meeks[8]; 10. 16H-Tucker Halliday[1]; 11. 32-Joe Trichilo[4]; 12. 63-Teddy Clayton Jr[16]; 13. R1-Riley Rogala[13]; 14. 714-Chris Darling[26]; 15. 28H-Brian Harber[23]; 16. 82-David Hackett[17]; 17. 54-Sullivan Dickey[24]; 18. 48-Kearra Davis[18]; 19. 00B-TJ Frost[25]; 20. 10G-Austin Germinio[22]; 21. 262-Matthew Richardson[27]; 22. 20B-Brayden Bullock[30]; 23. 57-Eric Jensen[28]; 24. 17A-John Pietrowicz[14]; 25. 14-Samuel Groom[21]; 26. 89-Belle Hogan[10]; 27. 42M-Kent Miller[19]; 28. 20K-Kyle Perry[7]; 29. 10H-Trevor Houghton[20]; 30. FOX28-Tyler Stevenson[29]
