VERNON, N.Y. — It was a revolving door at the front of the field Sunday night at Utica-Rome Speedway. But after 47 laps, A.J. Walters was the last man standing.
The Newport, N.Y., competitor held off several challenges to earn his first career DIRTcar Pro Stock victory in the Jim Normoyle Memorial.
Walters, who drove a No. 7N car honoring Normoyle, took home $1,374 for the win and took home more than $2,000 between his winnings and bonuses. Six-time Pro Stock Series champion Pete Stefanski finished second, and Slater Baker closed out the podium.
“What a crazy event,” Walters said. “It was a long 47 laps to race up front and hold those guys off. The slightest mistake and you would lose a spot.”
After whittling 48 international entries down to 30, AJ Walters redrew fifth to start the 47-lap Feature. His race began with a perfect view of Ivan Joslin, Luke Horning, Jocelyn Roy, and others battling it out for the lead. But before long, Walters found the low line had some extra bite. After battling side-by-side with Horning for multiple laps, Walters finally took the lead on Lap 30, and then it was his turn to defend.
“That was nerve-racking,” Walters said. “You can’t miss your marks. You had to run a perfect race, a perfect line against this quality of drivers we have here tonight. To be able to pass some of those guys really showed we had something. A couple of those guys showed me the bottom, but there were a lot of good cars up on the top.”
Walters walked the bottom line right into the lead, and he pulled from experience to make the right adjustments and get it done.
“It hasn’t been this slick in a long time,” Walters said. “I had experience here weekly with it this slick back in 2017 and 2018. I was fortunate to have learned on the track we were given tonight.”
Stefanski finished second and said that compared to his Friday night at Utica-Rome, it was a win.
“We had the motor let go on Friday,” Stefanski noted. “It was two races old. We went back to our old notes and old motor, and she was fast tonight.”
The finish:
Feature (47 Laps): 1. 7N-AJ Walters[5]; 2. 2-Pete Stefanski[12]; 3. 9B-Slater Baker[6]; 4. 110-Devon Camenga[10]; 5. 2H-Luke Horning[3]; 6. 324-Jason Casey[22]; 7. 48-Jocelyn Roy[2]; 8. 14X-Scott Duell[16]; 9. 14-Kim Duell[21]; 10. 6-Shane Playford[9]; 11. 76-Kyle Hoard[14]; 12. 73-Bastien Caron[11]; 13. 15-Beau Ballard[7]; 14. 711-Rich Crane[23]; 15. 177-Chris Stalker[25]; 16. 13-George Cushman[15]; 17. X15-Tyler Bushey[27]; 18. 28-Burton Ward[20]; 19. 14H-Hunter Keith[24]; 20. 2E-Brandon Emigh[13]; 21. 777-Tommy Lizotte[17]; 22. 54S-Zachary Sorrentino[29]; 23. 8N-Josh Coonradt[26]; 24. 58-Roxanne Roy Corr[30]; 25. 4-JJ Courcy[19]; 26. 49-Ivan Joslin[4]; 27. 12S-Dakota Sharp[28]; 28. 07-Chucky Dumblewski[8]; 29. 30-Zack Daniels[1]; 30. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[18]
