ATQMRA Double Features won by Ryan Tidman and Don Adams
John Sanders sweeps JYD Competition
The Keenan Motors ATQMRA ran two exciting features at Mountain Speedway on Saturday May 26th with Ryan Tidman in the Alan Mollot Competition Classics 51 taking the rain-rescheduled event from May 12th and Don Adams in the Colin Martin Spitfire 26 taking the regularly scheduled feature event with John Sanders in the John Loembruno 92 Voulo Chassis 92 sweeping the Junk Yard Dog award for both events. Heat races were won by Don Adams and Tim Buckwalter.
Blu Metz jumped out to the lead from his pole starting position. The lead was not secure with hard charging Ryan Tidman in pursuit taking to the high side to attempt to take the lead. Unable to make the high side work Tidman settled in and made his move to take the lead on the inside by lap 8 and was not headed the rest of the way. He was followed across the line by Bob Watkins and Frank Fischer With Lew Ingalls equaling his best finish in fourth with John Sanders taking fifth to win the Junk Yard Dog award for being the first car with a completely stock junk yard motor.
The second portion of the days events saw Don Adams take the first heat race and Tim Buckwalter taking his second heat race of the season.
Twenty cars took to the track for the feature. The fans were treated to an extremely exciting race that came right down to the wire with side by side battles around the track. Don Adams took the early lead from his pole starting position in the Spitfire 26 over Chris Deritis. Robin Johnston from his 7th starting position had his sights set on getting to the front and made a hard charge to take second from Deritis on lap 5 and moving past Adams to take the lead on lap 11.
Ryan Tidman made a slow charge toward the front in the Mollot Lindblad Badger moving into 3rd by the 10th lap with his sights set of overtaking the leaders. Tidman and Adams sliced their way through lap traffic until Tidman was able to slip into 2nd on lap 24 and nearly take the lead in the final lap when he tangled with race long leader Johnston handing the victory to Adams. Lou Ingalls recording his career best finish of second followed by a determined Frank Fischer in third after a flip in his heat race. John Sanders made a last lap move on the final straight away to nip Tim proctor at the line for fifth to win his second JYD award of the day.
Contingency award winners: Shadow Racing Products to John Sanders and Tim Proctor, NAPA South Plainfield to Chris Deritis and Bruno Loembruno, M&R to Blu Metz and Bruce Leote, Duchak Racing engines to Don Adams and Brices NAPA to Tim Behmer and Bob Watkins.
ATQMRA Notes: 2007 ATQMRA rookie Robbie Pecorari finished 11th at the Brickyard in the Indy Lights series race and is looking forward to getting back in a TQ in a few weeks when his schedule allows. Mike Roselli made his debut with the ATQMRA in the Keenan Motors 35 Dart Chassis GSXR. Matt Voulo 1990 ATQMRA and 1992 ARDC championship car owner was on hand at Mountain Speedway. The next event for the ATQMRA is at Wall Township on Saturday June 2. Check out www.ATQMRA.com .
Make up Feature51 Ryan Tidman, 91 Bob Watkins, 22 Frank Fischer, 8 Lew Ingalls(Auto Trim Design), 92 John Sanders(JYD)(Shadow Racing Products), 35 Chris Deritis(NAPA), 29 Zack Martini, 14 Matt Janisch, 91A Bruno Loembruno, 66 Mike Roselli, 69 Tim Behmer(Brices NAPA), 46 Blu Metz(M&R), 26 Don Adams, 22 Ed Dietz (DNS)87 Leo Distefano
Heat race 1
26Don Adams35Chris Deritis13Robin Johnston51Ryan Tidman22Eddie Dietz46Matt Janisch66Mike Ruselli92John Sanders94Bruce Leote55Zack Martini
Heat Race 2 36Tim Buckwalter91Bob Watkins Jr8Lew Ingall98Tim Procter00Jessie Council91ABruno Leombruno14Jennifer Flanagan29Blue Metz33Frank Fischer
Regularly Scheduled feature 26Don Adams(Duchak Racing engines)8Lew Ingall33Frank Fischer13Robin Johnston(Auto Trim Design)92John Sanders(JYD)98Tim Procter(Shadow)69Tim Behmer00Jessie Council51Ryan Tidman91Bob Watkins Jr(Brices NAPA)55Zack Martini14Jennifer Flanagan66Mike Roselli22Eddie Dietz35Chris Deritis91ABruno Leombruno(NAPA)94Bruce Leote(M&R)36Tim Buckwalter46Matt Janisch (DNS)29 Blu Metz
Second feature race winner Don Adams in the Colin Martin Spitfire 26
John Sanders won the Junk Yard Dog award for both ATQMRA features in the John Loembruno 92.
Lew Ingalls had his career best second place finish in the second feature after posting a 4th in the early race.
For lap times and results from the nights racing click the link below.