Matt Stangle and Matt Peck Claim Modified and Crate Wins at Bridgeport

Bridgeport won the race beating the weather and then Matt Stangle took the gold metal in the modified division while Matt Peck closed out the night with the 602 Crate win.

Matt Stangle made a strong run from his 14^th starting position and took the lead on lap 12  pulling away from Billy Osmun to take his first win of the 2023 after five consecutive 2^nd place finishes in 2023.

Matt Peck closed the night out taking the lead on lap 15 and holding off Howie Finch & Travis Hill to take his first win of the 2023 season and drive into Bridgeport’s victory lane.

The modified feature saw Billy Osmun take command of the race at the green with a 2 second gap on the field while Matt Stangle was using a series of restarts to move from 14^th starting position to 2^nd by lap 10.   On the lap 11 restart Stangle drove past Osmun into the lead and proceeded to run near track record lap times as he pulled away from Osmun and the field.  Stangle took the checkered flag with a 3 second margin of victory and drove into victory lane for his first win of the 2023 season.

Matt Stangle turned his first visit of the season to Bridgeport into his first win of the season as he made his way from the 14^th starting position to the lead by lap 12 and then checked out on the field.

Matt Stangle reflected “We needed to get better by one more spot after five consecutive 2^nd place finishes and tonight we got that one spot better.”

The car unloaded fast; we started in the back of the heat made the handicap running from 7^th to 4^th.  We started the feature in 14^th and Bridgeport is usually a race to the front which we got to on lap 12.  Billy was fast but this car was perfect tonight, and I could put it anywhere – top, bottom, or middle and it was running like a Cadillac.  This was the best care I’ve had all year and it was turning track record lap times in the feature.  We have been top five every race this year and it’s great to get into victory lane for the first time this season.”

Billy Osmun finished 2^nd from his pole starting position.  The strong outing couldn’t come at a better time for Billy after the first two races of the season resulted in DNF’s and motor problems that were repaired during the extra week off due to the most recent rainout which actually hit the spot for the 81 team.   

Billy  reflected “We had a fast car all night long. We started up front in the heat race and was able to jump out to the lead and turn some fast consistent laps and win the heat. We made a few changes to get the car a little better for the feature.  I felt like we had a fast pace through the feature but just didn’t quite have enough speed to keep up with Matt once he got up to the front.  All the early cautions in the beginning didn’t help us and we would have had a better shot at the win without them.  With all the cautions, Matt shot through the field and had the best car tonight.  We are very happy with the results tonight after a rough start to the season for us.  We are hoping to use this to build some momentum and get one spot better Thursday when the Allstars are in town.”

Duane Howard finished 3^rd from his 16^th starting position and with all top 5 finishes in three races this season Duane has climbed into the early season points lead.  Duane started the night off slow moving forward one spot in his heat race from 7^th to 6^th but by feature time the 15g was dialed in and ready for the track to come and made a hard charge from 16^th to 3^rd .

Duane noted “We just need the track to come to us and right now that isn’t happening until the end of the night.  We may need to change some things on the car to get to the handicap from the heats.  We will evaluate this week to see what we need to get better in the heats. We are sure hoping for a slower slicker racetrack as the season progresses. In the meantime, we may have to come up with a package to gain some speed.  We feel we have a good neutral car, but probably won’t win us any races.  If we keep doing what we have been doing and don’t knock the wheels off the thing we should be contending for some wins this year at Bridgeport.”

602 Crates

The 602 Crate feature was led by polesitter David Jenkins until a belt failure ended his night on lap 5.  Brian Papiez inherited the lead until lap 15 when he pulled off under caution with a flat tire giving the lead to Matt Peck.  Papiez would return and run through the field to a 7^th place finish in the remaining 10 laps.  For the final 10 laps and several restarts, leader Matt Peck held off challenges from both Howie Finch and Travis Hill to post his first win of the season and drive into Bridgeport’s victory lane.

Matt Peck finished 1^st from his 9^th starting position to post his first win the season.  The season didn’t start off well for Matt at the STSS opener at Selinsgrove when Matt and Brian Papiez were involved in a multi car wreck with both drivers sustaining heavy damage to their cars at their first race of the season.  Matt had to rebuild and was ready to about two weeks later for a race at Delaware International Speedway.  Matt posted a 3^rd place finish at the Bridgeport season opener and was leading the second race of the season when he had a flat tire on lap 22 send him to the pits and taking away the win.  But as racing luck would have it this time it was Papiez leading Peck when the flat tire gremlin hit Papiez handing the lead and eventually the win to Matt this time.

Matt Peck reflected “In the heat race I started 5^th and was already in 4^th(handicap position) which I didn’t know during the race, so I went to the top and passed Billy Chester for 3^rd but in hindsight didn’t need to since we were in the handicap already.  I decided to tighten the car for the feature which with the track conditions turned out to be a bit too much, so I had to adjust my entrance driving during the feature.”

“Started 9^th in the feature and I was able to get the car off the bottom quickly and move to the front.  This race was loaded with cautions, and I had the car up to 3^rd place when back to back cautions gave me a second shot at Howie Finch for 2^nd.  Howie held me off on the first restart but on the 2^nd one I drove in harder and was able to move into 2^nd place on lap 10.  I then set my sites on Brian Papiez.  I could smell rubber and then saw a very small whisp of smoke from Brian’s rear tire right before it went flat, and he headed to the pits.  Brian had a tire rub which was the same thing that happened to me when I was leading at the previous race.  So, I inherited the lead on lap 15.  On the next restart I had Travis to deal with but was able to hold on and stay in front of him.  It’s difficult leading a race and with two laps to go I made a mistake off of 2 and got too high. I missed the small lip and shoved my nose allowing Howie Finch to close in on me but I was able to hang on.  I was really surprised that no one got by after I got too high, but it is great to get this win and setting our season in the right direction.”

“I have a lot of folks to thanks for their sponsorship and support – Dom’s Welding Service, Danny’s Pizazz Pizza, McVay Racing, RJ’s Tools, Hartman’s Lawn Care, ERK Steering, Hoffman’s Discount Parts, Wife, Mom and Chuck Courtney.”

Howie Finch posted a season best 2^nd place finish from his 7^th starting position.  Howie stated “We’ve had a very good car so far this season.  We came close this week and maybe just needed a couple more laps.  There were a lot of opportunities on restarts, but I was falling behind on restarts and then have to make it up after getting to speed.  We definitely will be working on improving our restarts for our next run.”

Points leader Travis Hill finished a solid 3^rd from his 11^th starting position to maintain his early season points lead.

Travis stated “With handicapping now in the heats and feature, you have to make moves to get into a handicapped spot in the heat race since usually as the current points leader I will be starting in the back of the heats. With our heats always first, the track isn’t very wide yet, which makes it a little difficult to pass but so far, we have seemed to be able to make it happen and get forward into a handicap spot.”

“In the feature this week the track was racy which we needed starting back in 11^th.  We made some moves early and got up to 6th but kind of stalled with caution after caution.  I felt like I passed the same car 5 times and the yellow kept coming out and we had to do it all over again. We finally got to some green flag laps, and I got to 3rd when Papiez got a flat which put me on the outside front row of the restart.  The restart was really slow with the leader waiting until coming off turn four to fire, and we raced into one and I had the preferred top line.  He shoved the nose and came up so I had to lift, or we both would have been in the fence.  He was able to gather it up, but Finch was able to get by me.  It’s racing, we came out with a solid points night ending up 3rd and we’ll be back next week.”

On Thursday night May 25th the All-Star Circuit of Champions come to the Kingdom of Speed for a doubleheader night of 410 Sprint Cars and Modifieds.  Grandstands open at 5:30 with cars on track at 6:15.