STEFANIE PALMAI WINS HER FIRST CAREER SPRINT CAR VICTORY AT BRIDGEPORT SPEEDWAY

#99 Stefanie Palmai (WoS photo)

Bridgeport, NJ..... After six years of trying, Stefanie Palmai of Allentown, NJ won her very first feature event Saturday at Bridgeport Speedway with the Tri-State Racesaver Series.  Palmai, who has been running with the series since the very beginning, has come very close multiple times with visiting victory lane, finishing as the runner up on many occasions in her career.  She led the race wire to wire, out-doing series point leader and three time champion Mike Haggenbottom, third place finishing Jeff Geiges, John Barnett who came in fourth, and Tim Tanner who rounded out the top five.  

There were 17 cars in attendance with Mike Haggenbottom and Adam Carberry winning the two qualifying heat races. This was the second Poker Series event of the season for the 305's which is hosted by Bridgeport Speedway and sponsored by Bethmann Auto Center, Champion Tire, Bruce's Speed Shop and Thayer Performance.  The driver with the "best hand" at the end of the series will receive a cash prize of $900, with the drivers with the second and third best hands receiving $500 & $350 as well. Ken Jones and Gary Thayer of Thayer Performance, which is located in Mercerville, NJ, decided to up the ante for the driver earning the "worst hand" with a reward of a complete set of Hoosier Racing Tires as well as a $100 TiLube product gift certificate to the hard charger of each Poker Series race.   

Rookie John Barnett and Stefanie Palmai started on the front row, with Palmai taking the lead immediately as the green flag waved.  On the move was Mike Haggenbottom, who was up four spots to fifth after starting in ninth on lap one.  
"On the original start, going into two, somebody got together, and it slowed up the first group of cars, and I just had a run around the bottom," says Haggenbottom about his advancement on the first lap.
The first caution was brought out by Bob DeVault Jr.'s number 10, after his car came to a rolling stop in the first turn of lap one.  A second caution was brought out a lap later for Zack Burd who spun in turns one and two.  A single file restart was implemented with Palmai bringing the field to the green once again.  
Stefanie had a strong lead, pulling a straightaway distance away from second place running Jeff Geiges.  Mike Haggenbottom, who was up to third place by lap five worked on Geiges, and exchanged positions with him a lap later.  Haggenbottom, now sitting in second, continued to charge to the front, catching Palmai by the halfway point.  

“I had no idea how far behind anyone was from me, all I kept thinking was nail the restarts,and just keep the car straight,” explains Palmai about her lead.  Stefanie faced a similar situation just two weeks before at Bridgeport, when she led up until the halfway point before Eddie Wagner took the lead from her on a restart. She would end up finishing third in that race.  “The track was drying out quick, and I felt the back end of the car get a little loose sometimes, so I was just focused on making my laps as smooth and straight as possible”.
With track conditions becoming drier and the bottom groove seeming to be the place to run, Haggenbottom continued to chase the leader, but was unsuccessful in attempting to pass Palmai who was running around the very bottom of the race track.

“I did not need the yellows because the car was stumbling real badly on restarts.  It’s tough here when the track gets to be this way,” explained Haggenbottom.  “She had the clean air which was helping her, and at one point she tried to run the top in three and I said to myself ‘Yeah, stay up there!’  But Stef was smart and moved her line back down to the bottom.  She did a really good job at hitting her marks from then on”.  
With no battle in site, and with heavy concentration, Stefanie Palmai took the checkered flag over a “veteran” top five of Haggenbottom, Geiges, Barnett, and Tanner.  
Third place finisher Jeff Geiges, who is a tough competitor of the series, and a driver who also is a “pioneer” TSRS member, won the very first TSRS championship back in 2010 while driving a team car for Tony Pietrofitta along with former teammate and feature winner Stefanie Palmai.

“We started in third tonight, and we had a bit of an incident coming into turn one on the start, and we got shuffled back to seventh but we worked our way back up to third,” says Geiges.  “We’ve been struggling during the beginning of the year so we’re happy that we can be competitive a couple of weeks in a row finally”.  
During her victory lane celebration, Palmai had a lot of fans, family and crew members who joined her in festivities due to her long awaited feature win.  

“This is a really memorable win for me, because it’s not only my first win, but for the first time, I didn’t make my same mistake of losing the race on a restart. It feels especially cool that I beat Mike Haggenbottom who is a three time champion in our series, and Mike is usually one of the harder guys to beat.  I appreciate him coming up to me and congratulating me after the race and telling me that he had nothing for me, which makes me feel pretty good!  We all have been racing together since the series started, and they are all just great drivers and great people to be around every weekend,” recounts Stefanie.

“I want to thank first and foremost my Dad, my Mom, my sister Erika, my brother Nandi and my Grandpop for just supporting me and working hard to allow me to do this every weekend. I want to thank my crew guys, Anthony DePiano of AFD Performance for building me a killer motor, my crew chief Rich Kraft, Ed Hughes, Henry Seip, Mike Calla from Wheelsofspeed.com, and my boyfriend Tommy Carberry, as well as my sponsors, A Cut Above the Rest Trucking & Excavating, Erb’s Garage, Lawrence Collison, Malik Racing, Medford Speed, Hamill Flooring, E&G Auto Center, and everyone else who pitches in to help us get on the track every week.”     

FEATURE (20 laps): Stefanie Palmai, Mike Haggenbottom, Jeff Geiges, John Barnett, Tim Tanner Jr., Adam Carberry, Rick Stief, Bob DeVault Jr., Eddie Wagner, Joe Lord, Tommy Carberry, Jon Haegele, David Bonner, Karl Fryer, Bryant Davis, Zack Burd, Jason Rochelle
 
Thayer Performance & Bruce’s Auto Body Hard Charger Award : Mike Haggenbottom (+7)