Sammy Martz Jr Wins 602 Crates at Kingdom of Speed 100 Weekend and Homecoming to Bridgeport Motor Sports Park

Bridgeport Motorsports Park kicked off their 602 Crate Sportsman season at the Kingdom of Speed 100 Weekend with nearly 40 crate sportsman in attendance looking for a $1,500 trip to victory lane.

Pole sitter Sam Martz Jr led the 25 lap feature from green to checkered and held off a hard charging Steve Kemery during four restarts to take his first 602 crate trip to victory lane at Bridgeport Motorsports Park.  

Caution came out on lap 19 setting up a one lap dash & shootout between Sammy Martz and Steve Kemery.  The single file restart turned into 3 wide in turn 2 with Kemery sliding up but Martz was too strong driving off the high side and drove past Kemery coming off turn 4 to take his first win of the 2021 season by a .37 second margin of victory over Steve Kemery in 2^nd and Kyle Smith in 3^rd.

In victory lane Sammy Martz Jr. commented “Congrads to Steve Kemery; he raced me clean and I’ll race him clean everywhere we go.  I didn’t know how close Steve was behind me but I was hoping for a yellow so I wouldn’t have to go through lapped traffic cause I’m not good in lapped traffic.”

In tech inspection Stephen Kemery noted “Sammy was good, he was able to drive in deeper, get off the corner better and I should have tighten up but was afraid of all the rubber the modifieds were laying down.  I’m not going to race Sammy dirty; I have too much respect for him and his family. I’m glad he got the win he deserves it.  I was going for my 3^rd consecutive opening night win and it sucks not to get that.”

The top ten was rounded out by Ryan Godown Jr. in 4^th followed by Wayne Weaver, Howie Finch, Payton Talbot, Brent Belmont, Tom Moore Jr and Scott Hulmes in 10^th.

Heat winners were Ryan Godown Jr., Howie Finch, Wayne Weaver and Ryan Simmons.  The Last Chance Consolations were won by Sean Metz and Will DuPree.

602 Sportsman Results:

@ Kingdom of Speed 100 Weekend – 3/27/21 @ Bridgeport Motorsports Park:

 1. Sammy Martz Jr. 2. Steve Kemery 3. Kyle Smith 4. Ryan Godown Jr. 5. Wayne Weaver 6. Howie Finch 7. Payton Talbot 8. Brett Belmont 9. Tom Moore Jr. 10. Scott Hulmes 11. Adam White 12. Ryan Simmons 13. Joe Toth 14. Travis Hill 15. Justin Grosso 16. Paul Mancini 17. Sean Metz 18. Kevin Borden 19. Will Dupree 20. John Micek 21. Michael White 22. Kenny Bock 23. Billy Chester 24. Josh Bricker

Did Not Qualify: Steve Davis, Zach Payne, James Hill, Joe Brown, John Scarpati, Dan Reif, Pete Serra, Tom Sherby, Greg Reed, Ryan Stangle, Erick Mattson, Cameron Reif, Matt Ellery, Joe Nappi, Lance Irwin.

PIT NOTES – 602 Crate Sports – 3/27/21 @ Bridgeport Motorsports Park

Sammy Martz Jr drew the pole position on the redraw but it was of little comfort with the Bridgeport 2020 champion and five time winner last year drawing the outside pole position.  Martz Jr. had Kemery on his bumper and within a tenth of a second for the majority of the 20 laps but no matter what Kemery through at Martz Jr. he had a counter move that was able to kept the 69K at bay for the entire 20 lap feature.

Martz Jr. earned his first Bridgeport Motorsports Park win of his career at the season opener and the battle with Stephen Kemery may just be a preview of the 2021 season to come as Martz Jr. is returning to Bridgeport for weekly competition and will be challenging Stephen Kemery, Wayne Weaver and a host of others for the Bridgeport 2021 crate championship. 

Sammy Jr. started racing at Bridgeport in 2018 by winning the Rookie Championship.  For the 2019 season Sammy Jr. and Sam Sr. traveled to Orange County Fairgrounds Speedway for weekly racing and Sammy Jr. won the Orange County Centennial crate event.  For the pandemic shorten year of 2020 Sammy raced weekly at New Egypt and won two feature events.  

Sam Martz Sr. will also be returning to weekly Bridgeport competition in the modified division and looking to add a win on the Kingdom of Speed high banks to his 8 career wins on the ole 5/8 mile.

For long time Bridgeport fans; the 2021 season may seem like a flashback as the pits once again will have the Martz’s; Watt’s and Eric Kormann back together each week in the pits & on track just like old times. 

Stephen Kemery will begin defense of his 2020 points championship as the crate sportsman weekly points racing kicks off next week for the 2021 season.  Kemery comes off a 5 race wins season in the Pandemic shorten season that saw only 9 points races.  In addition to winning the season opener last year Kemery won the biggest event of the 2020 season the “Danny Serrano Memorial.”

 Kyle Smith made his first visit to the “Kingdom of Speed” and turned in a solid 3^rd place finish.  Kyle noted “I got a couple of good runs at Kemery coming off of 4 but just couldn’t stick the pass through 1 & 2.  Bridgeport was a lot of fun and there was plenty of room to race making for very clean racing.”

Smith is coming off his first trip away from his home track of Grandview and traveled to Bubba Raceway in Florida, Georgetown and now Bridgeport.  Smith reflected “We had a lot of fun traveling to Bubba, Georgetown and now Bridgeport; but I’m excited to go back home to Grandview this weekend and continue with the strong runs we started over the last two years.”

Wayne Weaver capped off a strong weekend of racing with his 5^th place finish and a 2^nd place finish on Friday night in the Underdog 20.  Weaver finished 5^th from an 11^th on the starting grid and also moved from 7^th to 5^th on a last lap restart.

The strongest back to front run of the night on a hard to pass track was New Yorker Peyton Talbot who finished 7^th from a 15 starting position.

Scott Hulmes started his 2021 season off in grand fashion with a 3^rd place finish in his heat and drawing 3^rd in the feature redraw.  Hulmes held off an all out assault from Howie Finch and Brett Belmont for about 15 laps until his #2 entry began to fade a bit in the closing laps but he finished in the top 10 with a 10^th place finish.

Adam White was able to overcome a 9^th place heat race pill draw to finish 4^th and qualify for the feature through his heat race.  White didn’t get the car quite tight enough to move forward in the feature and finished 11^th from a 12^th starting position.

Justin Grosso, Joe Brown, Steve Davis and Tom Sherby were all fighting an uphill battle from the start with row 9 & 10 pill draws in the heat races.  Grosso was able to qualify for the feature through the consolation and able to move forward in the feature to a 15^th place finish in the feature from a 24^th starting position.  Steve Davis missed qualifying by one position for his first DNQ of the season. 

Next on the Schedule at Bridgeport Motorsports Park is the USAC East Coast Wingless 360 Sprints with a full program of 602 Crates, Street Stocks and Vintage on Saturday April 3 with warmups at 6:00 PM.