FULTONVILLE, N.Y. — Beau Ballard isn’t a stranger to victory lane at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park. But entering Sunday night, a DIRTcar Pro Stock Series win had eluded him.
He wouldn’t be denied this time, as he held off veteran Pete Stefanski to score his first career Series victory.
“This is my first DIRTcar series win, and boy, we’ve been trying for a while,” Ballard said. “To get it here. I’ve got a lot of wins here, so it’s a pretty good one.”
Ballard took the lead on lap one of the 30-lap feature, beating defending DIRTcar Pro Stock Series champion Luke Horning to turns one and two.
With Horning and Stefanski battling for second behind him, Ballard gained a three-second lead on lap 16. However, that changed on lap 17 when the race’s first caution flew for Toby Cooper, who spun in turn two.
That moved Stefanski, a 28-time series winner, next to the No. 15 on the restart. When the green came out, Stefanski gave Ballard all he could handle on the inside line, staying even around the track.
As they reached turns three and four on lap 22, Ballard went too high on the outside line, losing momentum and allowing Stefanski to dive underneath him to take the lead. But as the two exited turn four, Toby Cooper brought out the yellow again, bringing out the caution before the lap was scored and giving the lead back to Ballard.
When the race resumed, Ballard held off Stefanski for three more laps until a significant crash behind the leaders brought out the red flag with five laps to go.
Shane Playford made contact with Caden Dumblewski entering turn one, which collected Phil DeFiglio, who flipped. Rich Crane and Steve Cosselman were also involved.
On the race’s final restart, Ballard held off Stefanski’s challenges and drove to the $1,000 victory.
“I about gave it away over [in turn four] just trying to keep my momentum up and keep the car straight,” Ballard said. “But I just overcooked it one time, and the yellow saved me.
“We trashed the right front at the Valley pretty good last night. I owe this win to [my crew] standing over here.”
Stefanski crossed the line second, earning his second consecutive podium at Glen Ridge after winning the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series event earlier this year.
The four-time series champion said he needed a longer green flag run at the end to steal the win.
“It’s a good run,” Stefanski said. “The track was really nice and very raceable. I think we had something for him. It was just hard trying to get by him before the yellow came out there in the last six laps. I just needed a little more than that to get up next to him.
“But it was nice to run side-by-side for so many laps and come up with a good finish.”
With his runner-up finish, Stefanski takes over the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series points lead by 10 points over Brandon Emigh, who finished seventh.
Shane Playford rounded out the podium, his first in DIRTcar Pro Stock Series action in 2024.
Despite his finish, Playford didn’t show the happiness you’d expect. He admitted he was at fault for the red flag on lap 25.
“I feel horrible because I was the one that got into [Caden Dumblewski] and caused that accident, and I fully expected to be sent to the back,” Playford said. “I’m here. I feel bad. Congratulations to Beau and Pete, but again I feel bad about that.”
Chucky Dumblewski finished fourth and Quebec driver Jocelyn Roy crossed the line fifth.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 15-Beau Ballard[1]; 2. 2-Pete Stefanski[3]; 3. 6P-Shane Playford[7]; 4. 7-Chucky Dumblewski[6]; 5. 48-Jocelyn Roy[11]; 6. 57-Charles Mcspirit[14]; 7. 2E-Brandon Emigh[5]; 8. 324-Jason Casey[13]; 9. 25-Steve Cosselman[4]; 10. 75-Gary Silkey[20]; 11. 09J-Shawn Perez Jr[15]; 12. 4C-Toby Cooper[16]; 13. 58-Roxanne Roy[18]; 14. 2Z-Hugh Page[19]; 15. (DNF) 28-Philip DeFiglio[8]; 16. (DNF) 7C-Caden Dumblewski[12]; 17. (DNF) 2H-Luke Horning[2]; 18. (DNF) 711-Rich Crane[10]; 19. (DNF) 54S-Zachary Sorrentino[17]; 20. (DNF) 9B-Slater Baker[9]