Tidman charges from
the rear twice to earn the ATQMRA victory at Mountain
Ryan Tidman driving the Alan Mollot/Bj MacDonald
Competition Classics Badger started in the tenth position and had to
make his charge to the front twice before winning the 20 lap ATQMRA
feature event at Mountain Speedway near Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
Tim Behmer in the Dan Deritis Risqué Racing Keenan
Motors 69 took the lead from his pole starting position. In the early
going Behmer looked strong holding off the challenges of Matt Janisch
in the Valley Extrusion 46 and Tidman who moved into position to
challenge for the lead on lap 6. A caution halted Tidman's charge
and the ensuing restart punted Tidman to the rear as a result of a
missed shift and wheel to wheel contact with the 96 Risqué Badger
driven by Don Adams.
With Tidman falling back to 11th Janisch made a bold
move to the inside of Behmer to take the lead on lap 7. A caution on
lap 11 slowed the field. On the restart John Sanders and Joe Payne
Jr. got the jump on Janisch with Sanders moving into the lead briefly
on the outside. Payne and Sanders made contact several times going
down the back straightaway before both cars flipped entering the third
turn.
Janisch was back in front but the Tidman Badger worked
his way up to fourth behind Robin Johnston and Behmer. Janisch was
able to move out to a slight lead but Tidman was on a mission passing
the Johnston CRJ Construction 13 and Behmer before setting his sights
on Janisch by lap 13. Tidman made a bold move to the inside on lap
14 to overtake Janisch and power away to win by 3.96 seconds. Janisch
had his ATQMRA best second place finish followed by Johnston, Tim
Behmer and Jeremy Frankoski who made an impressive run in the Joe
Csernak 8X to earn a to five.
Heat races were won by Don Adams in the John Loembruno
91A and Frank Fischer in his own 33 Spitfired car. It was a first on
two fronts for car owner John Loembruno getting his first heat race
victory with the Badger 91A and Fischer taking his first ATQMRA
Checkered flag.
Jeremy Frankoski traveled down to Mountain Speedway for
the event. Jeremy was not expecting to drive but like any driver had
his gear with him. There just happened to be someone looking for a
driver and on Lou Cicconi’s word car owner Joe Csernak put Jeremy in
his number 8x TQ midget. They were able to get the car set up and
climb from 12th to post Jeremy's first ATQMRA top five.
The night saw the debut of Joe Payne III in the John
Payne Twin Eagles 66P. This marks the third generation of Payne's
involved with the ATQMRA. Payne had problems with the engine
management system on the car and was unable to come up to speed. It
was nice to see Joe Sr., Joe Jr. and Joe III together with Johnny
Payne and the Twin Eagles Team back in action with the ATQMRA.
Following the feature the top three cars were teched
having their valve covers removed and cam profiles checked. All cars
passed post race inspection.
ATQMRA points leader Bob Watkins suffered a bent rear
axle in warm ups that prevented him from racing the rest of the
night. This will surely affect his championship hopes for the
season.
The ATQMRA will appear next at Mountain Speedway on
July 28th and at Wall Township Speedway on August 4th for the Ray
Evernham Racing for a Reason Charity night.