Joe Toth Takes His First Modified Win at Bridgeport & Pit Notes

Joe Toth won the modified race on the Kingdom of Speed while Bridgeport Motorsports Park was able to complete the race before 9:00 and beat the rain before it arrived.

Neal Williams lead the field until lap 10 when Joe Toth took the lead from his 3^rd position on the starting grid.  Toth maintained a 1 second lead over second place Tim Buckwalter and on the final lap the first caution of the feature came out for Tommy Beamer who lost a tire with one to go.  Toth lead the single file restart to green and was in the final turn when his car went sideways sending the field behind him scrambling around his 9t entry but Toth was able to straighten out and continue and take the checkered flag before Ryan Godown or anyone else got past him.

Joe Toth claimed his first modified victory in only his 6^th start in his rookie season in the modified division at Bridgeport Motorsports Park.  In victory lane Joe reflected “It looked like I tried to give it away on the last lap out there.  I actually went into the bottom a little too hard and had been on the top all night and I really didn’t know what to do and went to the bottom to protect the line from Timmy or Ryan.  The car hooked up tonight and we finally have the car figured out with the new setup and I think we found something now.”

The top ten was rounded out by Ryan Godown in second place followed by Tim Buckwalter, Matt Stangle, Billy Pauch Sr., Mike Franz, Jim Gallagher Jr., Alex Yankowski, Ryan Krachun and Billy Osmun III in 10^th place.

The heat winners were Joe Toth, Dominic Buffalino and Ryan Godown.

Modified Results – Bridgeport Motorsports Park – 4/24/21

1. Joe Toth, 2. Ryan Godown, 3. Tim Buckwalter, 4. Matt Stangle, 5. Billy Pauch, 6. Mike Franz, 7. Jim Gallagher Jr., 8. Alex Yankowski, 9. Ryan Krachun, 10. Billy Osmun III, 11. JoJo Watson, 12. Neal Williams, 13. Sam Martz, 14. Brett Ballard, 15. Billy Lasko, 16. Ron Roberts, 17. Troy Ale, 18. David Crossman, 19. Tommy Beamer, 20. Tom Maccherone, 21. Matt Peck, 22. Tom Moore Jr., 23. Tom Errico, 24. Dominick Buffalino, 25. Kenny Hildebrandt

Modified Pit Notes

Joe Toth is part of a crate migration to modified youth movement at Bridgeport that is second to none this season.  Bridgeport has a total of 6 drivers who have moved up from crate division last year including Joe Toth, Tommy Moore, Jimmy Gallagher, Brad Roberts, Tommy Errico and Matt Peck.  As the season progresses definitely expect to see these names on the qualifier sheets and in the top 10.

Ryan Godown charged to a 2^nd place finish from his 13^th starting position on the grid which put him on top of the current point standings. Ryan has quietly put together two 2nd’s and a 3rd in the three point races this season. 

 Mike Franz posted a 6^th place finish which is his best finish of the season and he continues to be one of a handful of cars at Bridgeport that still run their big block on a weekly basis.  Mike noted “We did update to a newer Bicknell this winter and it has made a difference.  We have qualified for all three points races this year and then to add a 6^th place on top is just great.  We have already done better this year than 2020 and are looking forward to keeping it going for the rest of the season.” 

Jimmy Gallagher is another 2020 crate driver who moved up to modified for the 2021 season.  Jimmy improved his best finish of the season to a 7^th place finish this week and he has already had a 10^th place finish earlier this year.

Matt Stangle lost a motor at the PA Posse event but ever since then has been red hot again with a new motor.  This week Matt posted his second 4^th place finish in a row while last week he had a flat in the heat and came back out and ran from last to front in his heat race to make the feature in a handicapped transfer spot.

Tommy Beamer was the hard luck award winner this week as he raced 28 laps in 7^th place only to lose his wheel and have to be towed to the pits with two laps to go.  In the previous week Tommy finished 7^th and was on his way to another 7^th or better when his wheel came off and ended his night with only two laps to go.

Billy Osmun grabbed another top 10 finish with a 10^th place finish.  Billy has opened the point season with a 7^th, 5^th and 10^th at Bridgeport and currently sits in 4^th in the modified points standing.  In addition Billy has a 2^nd place finish at New Egypt already this season.

Bridgeport next event is Saturday May 1^st with MASS 305 sprints, 602 Sportsman, Street Stocks, Vintage Cars, 600 Xcel Mods and Rookies with warmups starting at 6:00.

The next modified event will be on Tuesday May 4 when the Super Dirtcar Series Big Block Modifieds come to Bridgeport for the 100 lap $10,000 to win King of the Big Blocks and with the USAC Speedsters.  Racing starts at 7:00 PM