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Wall Township, NJ – Derek Hopkinson turned in a dominating performance at Wall Stadium on Saturday night holding off a hard charging Jimmy Blewett and Kyle Scisco for his first NASCAR Modified win of the season in their 40-lap feature. The O’Shea’s Auto Repair Factory Stocks ran Twin 20-lap features with Elliot Wohl of Beachwood and Howell’s Johnny Carpenter taking victories.
The initial start of the Modified race was spoiled when front row starter Teddy Cranmer tagged the second turn rail with an apparent right front suspension issue. Hopkinson would rocket to the lead on the restart and set sail at the front of the field. Just two more cautions for minor incidents slowed the test as Hopkinson held off all challengers at the front. Howell’s Blake Barney was the first to chase the leader as Howell’s Jimmy Blewett, Steven Reed and Kyle Scisco, both of Jackson, among others, sliced their way through the pack and into top positions.
A caution with five laps remaining closed the top running pack before Blewett advanced to second while Barney slipped back to an eventual sixth. At the checkered flag Hopkinson and Blewett were the top two with Scisco, Reed and Red Bank’s Tommy Martino, Jr. completing the top five.
“This has been a pretty tough season for us so far,” Hopkinson said after the win. “We had some damage after the last race and had to fix that. We have also been working hard to figure out these new tires. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Jimmy Blewett since the last race to try to figure them out and it seemed to help.”
After a long absence from the winner’s circle, two time driving champion Elliot Wohl was impressive in winning the first of two O’Shea’s Auto Repair Factory Stock 20 lap races. After suffering mechanical trouble in a previous race, Wohl jumped to the lead early and fought off team mate Jared Okerson most of the way. Johnny Carpenter, Chris Lane and Nick Bilello wrapped up the top five in an event slowed by just two yellow flags.
With just three caution flags, the second Factory Stock 20 lapper was also a clean event with Ryan Maher taking the early lead before he had early race troubles handing the lead over to Steve Davis. Patrick Force then took command on a restart and stayed out front through the first half of the race. Meanwhile Carpenter was charging from seventh and raced into the lead on lap 14. Wohl and Bilello were second and third, while Alex Rogers recovered from mechanical trouble in the first race for fourth while Force was fifth.
Kevin Carr of Jackson raced to his first ever feature race win in the Surfside Collision 4 Cylinder Stock main event. Jason Lane of Brick was an impressive runner up, while Billy Pross, defending champ TJ Graves and Stephen Forgus completed the top five.
Kyle Taraska of Brick was the star of the TQ Midget 25 lap race which was contested to honor the memory of the late John Blewett III. Geoffrey Sutton, Joey Payne, Blake Barney and Anthony Payne were second through fifth in the JBIII Memorial race.
Saturday night was also the first night in the Short Track Stack challenge which offered up racers a chance at a higher payday through an entry fee. The money is split between the winner and a position drawn throughout the field. There was not a winner in the NASCAR Modifieds or O’Shea’s Auto Repair Factory Stocks but in the Surfside Collision 4-Cylinders, winner Kevin Carr took home an extra $130 and the position that was drawn was 10 where his brother Cory finished.
Taraska earned $767.76 for the victory which paid homage to the Blewett Family No. 76.
Wall Stadium will return to action this Saturday night, August 22. The NASCAR Modifieds will be in the spotlight as they compete in a 40 lap main event with the NASCAR Sportsman cars, Surfside Collision 4 Cylinder cars and the Natural Design Co. Legend Cars also in action. Qualifying is at 6:00 p.m. with main events starting at 7:30 p.m.
Wall Stadium is located on Route 34 in Wall Township, N.J., just one mile north of Garden State Parkway exit 98 and Interstate 195 exit 35B. Visit wall-stadium.com for info and updates. The speedway hotline number is 732-681-6400 and email address is wallstadiuminfo@gmail.com.
NASCAR Modified Feature (40 Laps): 1. 17-Derek Hopkinson[2]; 2. 24-Jimmy Blewett[9]; 3. 31-Kyle Scisco[16]; 4. 55-Steven Reed[7]; 5. 9-Tom Martino Jr[8]; 6. 14-Blake Barney[6]; 7. 56-Tyler Truex[12]; 8. 44-Joey Merlino[10]; 9. 20-Eddie McCarthy[11]; 10. 74-Jonathan Laureigh[3]; 11. 00-Jake Nelke[4]; 12. 76-James Blewett[5]; 13. 49-Dakota Kessler[15]; 14. 38-Jarret DiGiantomasso[13]; 15. 7-Tyler Ferris[14]; 16. 43-Ron Frees[17]; 17. 59-Teddy Cranmer[1]
Heat Race 1 (12 Laps): 1. 74-Jonathan Laureigh[1]; 2. 59-Teddy Cranmer[3]; 3. 55-Steven Reed[8]; 4. 14-Blake Barney[7]; 5. 24-Jimmy Blewett[5]; 6. 20-Eddie McCarthy[6]; 7. 38-Jarret DiGiantomasso[4]; 8. 49-Dakota Kessler[2]; 9. 43-Ron Frees[9]
Heat Race 2 (12 Laps): 1. 17-Derek Hopkinson[3]; 2. 00-Jake Nelke[1]; 3. 9-Tom Martino Jr[8]; 4. 76-James Blewett[7]; 5. 44-Joey Merlino[2]; 6. 56-Tyler Truex[5]; 7. 7-Tyler Ferris[4]; 8. 31-Kyle Scisco[6]
O’Shea’s Auto Repair Factory Stock Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 17-Elliott Wohl[2]; 2. 44-Jared Okerson[4]; 3. 82-John Carpenter[7]; 4. 88-Chris Lane[6]; 5. 5B-Nick Bilello[5]; 6. 09-Scott Riggleman[12]; 7. 18-Patrick Force[17]; 8. 28-Bob Anderton[9]; 9. 51-Ryan Maher[10]; 10. 13-Steve Davis[1]; 11. 83-Logan Fraser[14]; 12. 4M-Stephen Michel[18]; 13. 77-Rob Anderton[20]; 14. 31-James Hall IV[15]; 15. 49-Jared Okerson II[13]; 16. 43-Lakota Ade[19]; 17. 89-Nancy Riggleman[21]; 18. 15-Brian Osborn[11]; 19. 88X-John Bowers[16]; 20. 06-Doug Bates[3]; 21. 4-Alex Rogers[8]
O’Shea’s Auto Repair Feature 2 (20 Laps): 1. 82-John Carpenter[7]; 2. 17-Elliott Wohl[9]; 3. 5B-Nick Bilello[5]; 4. 4-Alex Rogers[19]; 5. 18-Patrick Force[3]; 6. 83-Logan Fraser[10]; 7. 28-Bob Anderton[2]; 8. 88-Chris Lane[6]; 9. 31-James Hall IV[13]; 10. 4M-Stephen Michel[11]; 11. 09-Scott Riggleman[4]; 12. 43-Lakota Ade[15]; 13. 13-Steve Davis[1]; 14. 89-Nancy Riggleman[20]; 15. 49-Jared Okerson II[14]; 16. 51-Ryan Maher[21]; 17. 44-Jared Okerson[8]; 18. (DNS) 77-Rob Anderton; 19. (DNS) 06-Doug Bates; 20. (DNS) 88X-John Bowers; 21. (DNS) 15-Brian Osborn
Surfside Collision 4-Cylinder Feature (25 Laps): 1. 24T-Kevin Carr[8]; 2. 01-Jason Lane[1]; 3. 5-William Pross[6]; 4. 9NJ-TJ Graves[3]; 5. 27-Stephen Forgus IV[2]; 6. 20-Doug Ashford[9]; 7. 69-Frank Deangelis[13]; 8. 10-Ian Ashford[7]; 9. 70-John Ciallella[14]; 10. 18T-Cory Carr[4]; 11. 58-Luke Zappulla[12]; 12. 10M-Eric Mancini[16]; 13. 88A-Dominick Antonelli[5]; 14. 21-Joe Pressey[11]; 15. 94-Brian Ludwig[10]; 16. 52-Christopher Hankins[18]; 17. 82-Jalena Carpenter[17]; 18. (DNS) 5M-Kevin Maher Jr
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9NJ-TJ Graves[3]; 2. 5-William Pross[4]; 3. 01-Jason Lane[2]; 4. 52-Christopher Hankins[6]; 5. 58-Luke Zappulla[1]; 6. (DNS) 5M-Kevin Maher Jr
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 18T-Cory Carr[3]; 2. 88A-Dominick Antonelli[4]; 3. 27-Stephen Forgus IV[1]; 4. 94-Brian Ludwig[5]; 5. 69-Frank Deangelis[2]; 6. 10M-Eric Mancini[6]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 24T-Kevin Carr[4]; 2. 20-Doug Ashford[5]; 3. 10-Ian Ashford[2]; 4. 21-Joe Pressey[1]; 5. 70-John Ciallella[6]; 6. 82-Jalena Carpenter[3]
ATQMRA TQ Midget Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 1B-Kyle Taraska[2]; 2. 51M-Geoffrey Sutton[1]; 3. 23-Joey Payne[4]; 4. 12-Blake Barney[3]; 5. 14-Anthony Payne[5]; 6. 22-Kerry Irwin[6]; 7. 19M-Jim Tomaino[7]
