WALL, N.J. — Carsten DiGiantomasso fought off several challenges before taking the win in the 40 Modified stock car feature race at Wall Stadium Speedway Saturday night.
The 2024 opening night victory came before a large but chilly crowd.
At the first green flag the Jackson resident wrestled with Tyler Ferris of Freehold in side-by-side fashion before moving to the front in the outside lane on lap three. Soon Jackson’s Steven Reed advanced to second and challenged DiGiantomasso as Holmdel’s Andrew Krause advanced to third.
A lap-14 restart saw Reed nose into the lead momentarily before DiGiantomasso used the outside lane to regain the top spot. Lap 27 saw the worst incident of the race as the No. 14 of Jackson’s Blake Barney dropped moisture on the backstretch. As Barney spun into turn three Kyle Scisco hit the slick mess, climbed the third turn rail and completely exited the track landing on all four wheels outside of the third turn barrier. He was not injured.
From that point on DiGiantomasso was forced to contend with the challenges of Jimmy Blewett before racing to win. Blewett, who hitched a ride in Adam LaCicero’s No. 27 after his car suffered mechanical woes, was second, while Krause, defending champion Derek Hopkinson and Jake Nelke wrapped up the top five. Early contender Reed slowed late in the race and finished 10th.
“We wrecked this car real bad in Florida in February and my guys had to do a ton of work to get it here tonight,” DiGiantomasso said after the race. “Thanks to my dad, my mom and my crew were were able to get the job done.”
After Howell’s Shanon Mongeau and Johnny Carpenter battled for the lead through most of the Street Stock 25-lapper, they tangled during the closing moments of the race allowing Logan Fraser and defending champ Bryan O’Shea to slip past. Then, during the final lap O’Shea was able to sneek into the top spot for the win. Fraser, Carpenter, Mongeau and Scott Riggleman completed the top five.
In his first time at the wheel for a new race team Ricky Collins raced to victory in the Sportsman 25-lap race. Kevin Davison was a constant challenger while Robert Sutphin was a close third. Defending champ Chris Silvestri and Christian LaCicero were fourth and fifth.
After taking last season off due to work obligations, T.J. Graves returned to action to win the Fast 4 25-lapper over Mike Lavery. Chuck MacDonald, Kevin Carr and Alonzo Morales wrapped up the top five.
Brian Gardella fought off the constant challenges of his nephew, Nate Divone, to win his first Legend Cars feature race since 2020.
Jeff Kott won the season opening 25-lapper for the touring ATQMRA Midgets.