WALL TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Although he led the majority of the modified stock car 40-lap main event at Wall Stadium Speedway Saturday night, Blake Barney had to fight every lap of the contest to earn the victory. It was the third division win for the Jackson resident.
In the early going, Barney’s challenges came from Derek Hopkinson with the duo racing side-by-side most of the time. When Hopkinson was instructed to go to the rear of the field after officials felt he had jumped a few restarts, Andrew Krause and Kyle Scisco were there to be constant challengers.
As several cautions forced many restarts in the race, Barney was was racing side-by-side with contenders more often than not.
A final restart late in the event set up a run to the checker flag between Barney and Krause. On the final lap, Krause charged into the outside lane and raced side-by-side with Barney, however Krause came up just short as Barney took the win by the length of his front bumper.
Krause and Scisco were second and third, while Eric Lane and Tyler Truex wrapped up the top five. On the track,
“That was an amazing race,” Barney said. “Especially at the end with Andrew (Krause). I didn’t even got to the outside because I didn’t think he would go up there! I trust him on the track as a clean driver, but his car is always fast and he always wants to win!”
Nick Catone raced into the lead early and held his ground to win his second career Factory Stock 40 lap main event.
Alex McCollum won the 25-lap main event for the legend cars, fighting off challenges from second place Quinn Trimmer and third finisher Tanner Jones.
Defending champ Alonzo Morales topped the 25-lapper for the Fast 4 cars over the fast closing Ryan Bilello.
Howie Conk was the winner of the Limited Late Model feature race while Kyle Taraska was the winner with the visiting TQ Midgets.
The Finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. Blake Barney, 2. Andrew Krause, 3. Kyle Scisco, 4. Eric lane, 5. Tyler Truex, 6. Ricky Collins, 7. Eddie McCarthy, 8. Shaun Carrig, 9. Jake Nelke, 10. Marc Rogers, 11. Jarret DiGiantomasso, 12. Tom Catanzaro, 13. Derek Hopkinson, 14. Carsten DiGiantomasso, 15. Tommy Martino, Jr. 16. Adam LaCicero, 17Steven Reed, DQ Dom Fattaruso