Turkey Derby Notebook

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Turkey Derby Notebook

By: Pete MacDonald

294 Cars competed in the Weekend’s festivities which is a huge improvement from last year where 236 cars competed across the nine divisions. (21 Sportsman, 30 Wall/SK Modifieds, 29 Tour Modifieds, 18 Dirt Modifieds, 35 TQ Midgets, 23 Limited Late Models, 20 4 Cylinders (Friday), 19 4 Cylinders (Sunday), 24 Legends(Friday), 26 Legends (Sunday) 25 Factory Stocks (Friday), 24 Factory Stocks (Sunday)

After setting seventh quick time in the Tour-Type Modifieds Brendon Bock was disqualified and his time was disallowed. Officials had determined that his tires had been tampered with and was not allowed to run the last chance qualifier later that afternoon.
Jimmy Blewett’s deal to drive Jim Horton Jr.’s No.43 Dirt Modified didn’t come together until roughly 9:30PM on Friday. It paid off in the end as Blewett picked up the victory after racing most of the event with just one hand.

Many drivers competed in multiple divisions throughout the weekend. Shanon Mongeau ended up winning three out of the four features he competed in. Andrew Krause competed in the dirt modified, sportsman, tour modified and Wall/SK Modified events. Joey Payne competed in the tour modifieds as a last second substitute for Tim Arre, the TQ Midgets and Dirt Modified features. Jimmy Blewett competed in the Dirt Modifieds along with the tour type and Wall/SK Modifieds, winning two out of three.

Eric Mauriello, Shaun Carrig, and Zach Alspach competed in both the Tour-Type and Wall/SK Modified events using the same car. The only difference? A 4-Barrel carburetor was added so they could keep up with the more powerful Tour-Type Modifieds.

Tyler Truex made his Turkey Derby debut over the weekend in the Sportsman class. The Truex name is no stranger to the high banks of Wall Stadium. Tyler started to catch race long leader Shanon Mongeau late in the going before running out of fuel with just a few laps to go.

The Dirt Modified race at Turkey Derby was one of the best races I have seen in years. Maybe the theory is right that if you take the mirrors and radios out of the cars the racing will get better. They still look really cool racing around the high banks of Wall Stadium. They look sort of like slot car’s dancing around the 1/3 mile oval.

The Parking areas had become so over filled that even the nearby airport that had been used for additional parking ended up full to capacity. Fans were bused in and out throughout the day on Saturday.

The beginning of the Limited Late Model race was pretty rough, It took 26 minutes to complete just the first ten laps of the event before rain set in and pushed the remainder of the event to Sunday.

It was nice to see other speedways chipping equipment in order to make sure Turkey Derby was able to be run. Jet-Dryers from nearby Old Bridge Township Raceway Park and New Egypt Speedway’s were the saviors throughout the weekend.

Ryan Preece after competing in the last five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in 2015 was finally able to shake the Turkey Derby monkey off his back. Preece’s car who had spun twice during the event suddenly came to life when the temperatures cooled off following the rain delay on Saturday. “This is one race I’ve always wanted to win,” said Preece.

The decision to move the TQ Midgets to the inner oval seemed to be a beneficial one car count wise. 35 cars entered competition this weekend versus just 16 last year. Erick Rudolph picked up the win in a race where three of the top five cars were disqualified for their rear tread width being too wide. Before the disqualifications six out of the top seven cars were Lafler Chassis. You know they’re going to be happy heading into the indoor season.

Former Flemington Speedway Modified standout Steve Whitt has purchased the former Rowan Pennink TQ Midget and has had noted fabricator Scott Davison make several drastic changes to the design of the car, those changes seemed to work as Whitt qualified inside the top 10 on Saturday and redrew second only to be spun by Ryan Susice early in the going. “This is the second most fun I’ve ever had in a race car,” said Whitt.

Sportsman winner Shanon Mongeau apologized to the crowd in Victory Lane following the Sportsman feature on Friday for the way the drivers acted. The 50 Lap feature took over an hour to run.

Jimmy Blewett’s win in the Wall/SK Modified 100 lapper on Sunday was his seventeenth overall Turkey Derby feature win. Not bad considering Jimmy has only been racing since the year 2000. Blewett went on to dedicate the win to long time family friend Billy Walker who had recently passed away.

Matt Hirschman came home second in both the Tour-Type Modifieds and the Wall/SK Modifieds throughout the weekend. Matt’s brother Tony Hirschman III will be off to Las Vegas this week to celebrate winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship as he is Kyle Busch’s spotter as his day job.

Turkey Derby will continue for at least one more season as the Krause Family has extended their lease on the property for 2016.

Any questions feel free to e-mail me at racersguide@gmail.com or I can be found on Twitter @PMacDonald51. Thanks for Reading!

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