Tom Ervin,” the King of the Microstocks” wins Microstock Battle of Trenton

Photo by Bob Yurko. People in the photo: Flagger Warren Alston, car owner John Kazmierski, Little Ms Motorsports, Tom Ervin, Ms Motorsports.

King of the Microstocks- Ervin Wins the Microstock Battle of Trenton

BY ROBIN ERVIN

TRENTON NJ- Ewing native, Tom “The Trenton Tornado” Ervin took the Microstock feature win on the third day of the first annual “Battle of Trenton” event at the Sun National Bank Center Sunday.

Teenage sensation Dalton Rovira took the early lead in the race. Although Ervin started the race in third position he quickly moved into second place and began challenging Rovira for the lead. As Ervin was challenging for the lead, third place Andrew Shuster was putting the pressure on Ervin in an attempt to take second place from him. Ervin moved left and right lap after lap trying to find a weakness in Rovira’s driving that would allow him to make the pass for the lead.

While the battle for the lead was intense, the racing action behind them was equally fierce as side by side battles for position waged throughout the 22-car field.

The race was slowed just a couple of times. On lap six, during a three-wide battle for fourth position, the outermost car of Rick Collins made contact with the wall, flipped onto its side and came to rest in turn three. Simultaneously, tenth place running Jeff Weinacker’s car spun to a stop as his tire bounced down the frontstretch and the red flag flew to pause the race.

On the restart Rovira surged back to the lead closely pursued by Ervin and Shuster. Two laps later Shuster car made contact with the frontstretch wall bringing out the caution flag once more. Once again on the restart Rovira took off like a bolt of lightning. As they neared the halfway mark of the race Rovira seemed to being pulling away slightly from Ervin who had caught lap traffic but when the caution came out for a spinning car, the field bunched up once more.

When the race resumed Ervin was once again solidly on Rovira’s rear bumper. Together the two wove their way through the lapped cars as the Wagner brothers Bob and Don steadily closed in on the leaders. The red flag came out once more on lap 17 when Joe Stangle bicycled, made contact with the turn four wall and fell over on its side. This bunched the field up one more time. Again Rovira’s quick reflexes got him the lead over Ervin. The two drivers quickly encountered heavy lap traffic. Ervin used his years of experience and went to the outside lane as Rovira became caught behind the slower cars in front of him in the inside lane. Ervin made an incredible three-wide pass on the backstretch and came out of turn four in the lead with just one lap to go. Behind Rovira, Bob and Don Wagner were battling for third position. Ervin took the win easily followed by Rovira, Bob Wagner and Don Wagner in fourth

After the win Ervin said “He’s (Rovira) a good driver. I wouldn’t have been able to make that pass (for the lead) if he hadn’t got bottled up in lap traffic. I just got lucky.”

Ervin drives for the Ewing-based K&K Industries race team that is owned by John Kazmierski and has won 28 Microstock Championships so far in his career.