Glen Ridge Motorsports Park Beats The Rain…Sort Of; Orlando & Buff Take Wins

Column By: LAURIE FALLIS / RPW – FULTONVILLE, NY – With double features to be settled for the Crate Modifieds at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park Sunday night, it was Joe Orlando winning the held-over main and Andrew Buff taking home the rained-shortened feature, due to, yes, once again, Mother Nature.

First feature of the night was the West End Towing held-over event. The 818 of Orlando brought the field down to the green flag with the “Hitman”, Tim Hartman Jr. towing along his side with Brian Calabrese and Rocky Warner right behind. The order would stay the same as as the top five settled in.

As lap 17 came up, the battle began to get heated after a caution was brought out for a car that had spun. Hartman fell back to seventh on the restart but it was all Orlando that was showing everybody the way around. With no challenge in the end, the #818 crossed the finish line first, making the trip to victory lane as he led green to checkered. Coming home in the runner up spot was Calabrese with Warner, David Constantino and Hartman rounding out the top five.

“I knew I had a workout ahead of me with Hartman starting beside me,” Orlando said. “As the race went on, I just wanted it to be over. My scar in the race was towards the end when I missed my marks and thought I would give up the lead, but thankfully I pulled it off.”

Malta Modified racer Marc Johnson did not return to the Ridge Sunday to run the feature. Conner Cleveland was added to the back the field also.

The regularly-scheduled Crate Modified feature, presented by RCT Roofing, was won by Andrew Buff. Starting on the front row was versatile driver Tyler Thompson and Calabrese with Thompson taking the point at the green flag. Buff jumped into second followed by Warner. Calabrese dropped back to fourth with Hartman slotting in fifth.

Warner took second away from Thompson shortly after as the battle between the top three cars began to heat up. Constantino was finally making a charge in the top five as well.

With the rain starting to come down on the track, the caution came out on lap 17 for Thompson. He attempted to move under Warner in turns one and two, hit the yuke tire his car flipped. He was uninjured in the crash.

At this point, track management declared the race official as the rain continued to fall. The feature was past the halfway mark, giving the victory to Buff. Second was Warner with Calabrese third.

The Limited Feature had Greg Perron take the number one spot early with last week’s feature winner, Bill August, hot on his tail. August would get under Perron for the lead, but the driver of the #3 car was not giving up as the duo swapped position for the next two circuits.

However, there was no holding back August, as he would power his way to the point and grab the checkers, in turn getting back-to-back feature wins. Derrick McGrew Jr. would make an inside pass on the last lap for second. Perron finished third with the 9c of Josh Rozello fourth.

The Pro Stock winner on the night was “Cousin” Luke Horning followed by Justin Knight and Ivan Joslin.

The 4-Cylinders had a great field of cars on Sunday night and also had a repeat winner as Andy Graves powered his way to victory lane. Heat winners were Cole Lawton, Steve Ryan and PJ Bleau.

The SR. Slingshot victory went to Mike Hill in the 22 machine. Heat winners were Mike Hill and lady driver Megan Tice. The JR. Slingshot feature went to the 40g of Garret Poland.

All victory lane pictures were taken after the event in order to beat the rain.

Well, once again, some way, some how, Mother Nature is doing a great job putting a damper on the racing events in our area. After track managment having someone come in and redo the surface to give the racers the best track possible, I give them hat’s off for the dedication and passion they put in the track. More will be done for sure, but you can say the folks at Glen Ridge are defiantly putting in the time and effort.

The track will be back in action again this coming Sunday night. This writer can say she had her share of racing this weekend for sure but will looking forward to doing it all over again, starting Friday night. Thoughts and prayers to our women and men that serve and protect and to their families. Everybody enjoy their week and “BE SAFE” SEE YOU AT THE RACES!!!!!