Stangle Dominated The Sportsman Field Sunday At Bridgeport

Column By: NICK FILLMAN / RPW – SWEDESBORO, NJ – For the second week in a row, Matt Stangle was able to collect the feature event win in the Stewart Stainless Supply Crate/Sportsman modified feature event at the Bridgeport Speedway.

Stangle would start second in the feature event to early race leader Roger Manning. Manning became trapped behind lapped cars mid way through the feature event, allowing Stangle to get by on the high side of the speedway.

From that point on, it was all Stangle as he would drive away from Manning and the rest of the field to collect the feature event victory aboard his Ace Materials, Teo Chassis, Martino Racing Engines number 6 entry.

Stangle, who is still in high school, has already had an aggressive schedule so far in 2017, running events at Bridgeport, Georgetown, Big Diamond, and Delaware International Speedway, but is a weekly competitor at Bridgeport and Big Diamond.

The son of former modified campaigner John Stangle has picked up the winning bug quite quickly and has event dabbled in running 358-Modifieds on occasion at Bridgeport. Look for him to be one of the front runners for the championship at Bridgeport in 2017.

Manning was involved in a vicious crash two weeks ago at the Bridgeport Speedway. He and his team thrashed to get the car ready to go for the regular season opener last week where they collected a 6th place finish for their efforts.

Manning has been fast all season and was fast last year when he started racing at Bridgeport. He, like Stangle will be a weekly competitor at Bridgeport and has shown he’s going to be a driver to watch for the 2017 season.

Coming home third was established sportsman front runner Brandon Grosso. Grosso, the 2016 Crate Modified champion at New Egypt, is becoming more versatile in 2017 running on the asphalt in late model competition. Grosso also will be running a 358-Modified when his schedule allows at the New Egypt. Last week, he was able to garner a 6th place effort as a rookie in a Modified.

Look for Grosso to make a few ARCA Racing Series starts in 2017 for Cunningham Motorsports.

Eric Kormann has been racing open wheel cars for a number of years, whether it be in Big Block, Small Block or Sportsman. As of late, he has taken on more roles in addition to race car driver and owner operator of ERK Steering. Korman works closely with Short Track Super Series owner / promoter Brett Deyo as an official and at Deyo’s other venture the Georgetown Speedway.

On Sunday, Kormann was one of the first to arrive at the speedway, helping to prepare for the nights event along with preparing his own car. He collected a solid 4th place finish in the feature event, coming off of a 5th place finish last week.

Kormann will make a number of starts between his open sportsman ride, crate ride, and select starts with a new spec head 358-Modified.

Last season, Brian Papiez made the move to be a weekly competitor at the Grandview Speedway where he collected feature event wins along with wins at Bridgeport. He ran the season-opening feature event at the Grandview before switching to Bridgeport the following week.

Papiez collected a feature event win in the sportsman at Bridgeport on March 25th as a part of the Doug Hoffman Memorial Weekend and finished second to Matt Stangle last week.

If Papiez does make the permanent switch to Bridgpeort, the track will be gaining another talented driver to their weekly Sportsman ranks and another challenger for the championship.

Last season, Louden Reimert ran Speedstr’s weekly at Action Track USA along with other local speedway’s. This season, he’s a rookie competitor in the sportsman division at Grandview. Reimert and the team made the decision to run Bridgeport on Sunday and he was rewarded with a respectable 12th place finish for his first ever trip to the South Jersey oval.

The Roberts Racing Team purchased one Bicknell Chassis car last season that was piloted by Ron Roberts, and it was very much to his liking. This season saw Roberts have a pair of Bicknell’s in his stable, along with one for team driver Ryan Watt.

Roberts son, Bradley, also has a Bicknell chassis. It is a former Mike Iles machine.

Roberts had an unfortunate finish of 21st last week but rebounded to finish 7th on Sunday evening.

What an eventful weekend for Brad Arnold. He and his team had just received their Sportsman engine on Saturday and the team put it into their entry with the intention of running Saturday at Grandview. However, with their cancellation, Arnold and team made the tow to Bridgeport.

Unfortunately for Arnold, on the last lap of the feature event, his new engine would expire leaving him powerless on the front stretch. This is one team that will have a long week, switching back to their crate engine for weekly competition at Grandview.