Trevor Alspach Wins the Garden State Classic at Wall Stadium
ByWALL TOWNSHIP, NJ- Trevor Alspach won the action-packed 54th annual Garden State Classic Modified feature at Wall Stadium Saturday night (June 28th).
Twenty-five cars answered the call for the 125-lap Garden State Classic Modified feature. Steven Reed was the fastest qualifier with a time of 12.276. The top ten qualifiers redrew for position. This put Christian LaCicero and Andrew Krause on the front row.
Krause took the early lead followed by C. LaCicero. Krause rather quickly opened up a lead c. LaCicero. On lap 10 T. Alspach went under C. LaCicero for second place. C. LaCicero was quickly freight trained and slid back many positions. Krause and T. Alspach then battled nose to tail for position until caution on lap 19 when C. LaCicero slowed to a stop in turns one and two.
On the restart Krause resumed the lead as T. Alspach and Steven Reed raced door to door for the lead. Jason Hearne got the upper hand and took second. Two laps later the caution came out for a single car incident.
On the restart Mauriello jumped the start and the field was called back for a second attempt at the restart. Krause surged to the lead once more followed closely by Mauriello and T. Alspach. A rash of cautions slowed the race but each time Krause held off Mauriello to maintain the lead with T. Alspach close behind them in third place. On lap 64, the red flag came out when Renee Dupuis wiggled coming out of turn four and made hard contact with the frontstretch wall. She walked away apparently okay.
Once more Krause and Mauriello dueled door to door for the lead on the restart with Krause gaining the upper hand once more. This time Reed was challenging Mauriello for second place. The three pulled away from the field and raced nose to tail for position.
On lap 77, the caution came out for a single car spin. Although the lap times for the leaders had fallen off, the three leaders had yet to pit. On the restart Krause resumed the lead with Reed in second place and Mauriello close behind him.
The second red flag came out on lap 80 when several cars in the rear of the pack made contact in turns three and four. When the dust settled, half a dozen cars were involved. One of the drivers involved was defending champion Chas Okerson who had just finished pitting. His car came to a rest on top of Christian LaCicero. All the drivers involved were okay. Still the first and second place cars didn’t pit for new tires.
On the first attempt at restart, the pack stacked up coming through turn two. Third place Mauriello was the unlucky driver in that mix and spun.
Zack Alspach, who had started in the rear of the pack, had worked his way quietly through the field into third place.
On the next attempt at restart, Krause and Reed dueled door to door for the lead for a lap and a half until Krause edged his way into the lead with Reed in second, Hearne in third and Sesely in fourth place.
On lap 88 Hearne made an impressive dive inside of Reed to take second place. Later in that lap, Z. Alspach slid to a stop in turn one bringing out the caution once more. When the pits opened, second place Reed pitted for tires but leader Krause did not.
On lap 92 Krause and Hearne restarted on the front row. As they came down the take the green, the cars in third through fifth positions bounced off each other. Suddenly the front stretch was filled with spinning cars bringing out the red flag. Only Krause and Sesely appeared to have escaped the carnage unscathed. For several top contenders, their day was over.
After the cleanup, the race was restarted. As they came to the green several cars made contact coming to the green as the leaders bounced off each other. After watching numerous replays from several camera angles, the race control officials made a call. They ruled that fourth place Zeiner pushed Sesely coming through turn four causing Sesely to turn sideways into Krause, causing heavy front end damage to Krause. Since Krause was unable to continue, Zeiner was parked.
On the restart Sesely took the lead with the Alspach brothers Trevor and Zack Alspach close behind challenging for the lead. By lap 103, four cars were nose to tail fighting for the lead as Reed had caught the rear bumper of third place Z. Alspach.
As the laps wound down, Sesely, the two-time champion of this race did his best to hold off the strong advances of T. Alspach. Reed passed Z. Alspach on lap 106 to take third place. On lap T. Alspach found the opening that he was waiting for and made an inside pass on Sesely to take the lead. At the same time, his brother Z. Alspach got squirrely on lap 110 and drop from third place and out of contention.
T. Alspach began to open up a small gap on Reed, behind him Sesely and Okerson battled nose to tail for third and fourth place. The final caution waved with just nine laps to go. T. Alspach took the lead once more and opened up a gap on the rest of the pack. Reed and Okerson raced nose to tail as they battled for second place. This was a remarkable comeback considering Okerson had been involved in one of the earlier red flag incidents in the race and had ended up on top of another car.
T. Alspach went on to take the checkered flag followed by Reed, Okerson, Sesely and Shaun Carrig rounding out the top five.
In victory lane T. Alspach said “It (the race) felt like a marathon. I’m glad I won it. My neck is so sore I can hardly move it. Once I got out front I was resting my head on the side of the seat. I knew I had a real good car, but after being involved in so much out there I didn’t think I had a chance to win. I want to thank Rob Ormsbee, my brother, Tom Martino for the motor and everyone who works on this car. We made a lot of stops tonight and they worked very hard to get me back out on the track and in contention.”
Robert Sutphin won a hard-fought victory over Ken Matlach in the 30-lap Sportsman feature. Heat winner Matt Langbein had the early lead followed by Sutphin and Davison. Sutphin looked low under Langbein several times but was unable to find an opening to make a challenge for the lead until the caution came out on lap nine for the spun car of Chris Lane. On the restart Sutphin surged to the lead past Langbein. A caution two laps later by another spinning car set the complexion for the rest of the race. On the restart Matlach moved into second place on the restart and began to challenge Sutphin repeatedly for the lead spot. Matlach looked inside time and again, sometimes racing door to door with Sutphin with Sutphin keeping a narrow lead. As the race came down to the five to go, a single car spin brought out the caution and set the stage for a five lap shootout. Sutphin and Matlach raced side by side for the lead. On lap 27 both wiggled coming through turns three and four but they regained control of their cars. Sutphin held onto the lead and went on to take the win over Matlach.
In victory lane Sutphin said, “Wow, This is tough competition, this motor is three years old and we were giving it all we got.” This victory was especially sweet for Sutphin after his axel woes of two weeks ago. Tim Stephens loaned Sutphin his #52 car when the #50 was sidelined by those axel woes. This week the #50 was back in victory lane.
Randy Hart won his first career 4 Cylinder feature from a tenth place starting spot. Ron Becker had the early lead. On lap 20 Alonzo Morales and Becker became locked in an exciting battle for the lead as Morales looked inside and outside for a chance to take the lead. Three laps later both spun after making contact. On the restart Hart took the lead and went on to take the checkered flag.
Fan favorite Mike “The Rooster” Tillett took the 25-lap Limited Late Model feature. He held off Brian Doyle and Bill Vanderveen to take the win.
Finishing order-
Modified-Trevor Alspach, Chas Okerson, Anthony Sesely, Shaun Carrig, Shawna Ingraham, Zack Alspach, Richie Cooper, Jason Hearne, Scott Brannick, Derek Hopkinson, Chris Lane, Chris Reynolds, Andrew Krause, Zane Zeiner, Jonathan Mandato, Eric Mauriello, Chad Churilla, Adam LaCicero, Jason Treat, Christian LaCicero, Renee Dupuis, Ryan Cottrell, Glenn Slocum, Kevin Davison
Sportsman Feature-Robert Sutphin, Ken Matlach, Kenny Van Wickle, Andrew Krause, Kevin Davison, Chris Lane, Matt Langbein, Larry Ericson, Jason Caruso, Jeff Lane, Ron Lane Jr, Joe Cocca, Robert Silver
4 Cylinder- Randy Hart, Alonzo Morales, Ron Becker, Mike Wahl, Cole Ormsbee, Rich Massaro, Travis Sutphin, Corey Stockert, James Meyers
Limited Late Model- Mike Tillett, Brian Doyle, Bill Vanderveen, John Vullo, Kyle Lochrow, Michelle Moorman, Glen Conk, John Parker, Ronnie Mullin
