04/07/2025
Bellinger Beats Glenn in Wingless 600 Thriller; Gray, Pollard, Kane, and Martin Find Victory Lane on Airport’s Opening Night
By Kasey Kreider
The first Saturday in April meant opening night for the 2025 season of racing at the Airport Speedway. And on an evening when several other local tracks were forced to cancel racing activities due to inclement weather, Mother Nature smiled fondly on the New Castle bullring, allowing for all of the scheduled action to take place uninterrupted and largely unaltered.
The Wingless 600 division put in an early candidate for finish of the year, and when the dust settled, three-time defending track champion Cameron Bellinger found himself in a familiar place, parked in victory lane on Airport Speedway’s frontstretch.
Bellinger quickly grabbed the lead from the outside pole of Saturday night’s 20-lap feature –shortened from the usual 25 circuits in an effort to beat any threat of rain. The first half of the event made it seem as if Bellinger would start his quest for a fourth straight championship with a runaway victory.
But as the laps wound down over the final green-flag run, Bellinger soon found a challenge from another former track champion in Jimmy Glenn. Glenn made heaps of time on the top groove of the speedway over the final few laps, and the 2019 champion pulled a big slider into turn 3 coming to the white flag, just catching the front bumper of Bellinger’s No. 3M en route to completing the pass.
The last laugh went to Bellinger, however, as the Middletown, DE driver threw a haymaker of his own from two car lengths back as the leaders entered turn 3 for the final time. Similar to Glenn’s move, Bellinger caught the front bumper of the No. 7G on his way across the banking, but the slide job cleared by enough to give Glenn a fighting chance to get back to the inside as the competitors hurled off of turn 4.
Despite having forward momentum off the corner, Glenn fell just shy at the checkered flag, and Bellinger held on in a photo finish – with the final margin of victory coming in at just 0.027 seconds.
Behind those two drivers came Nate Freed to finish third, as he followed up a win from last Saturday at the McGrewBid Motoplex with a spirited drive up from 14th. Kyle Spence and Wayne Scott made up the remainder of the top five.
In Saturday night’s 20-lapper for the 270s, another familiar face went to the winner’s circle, as Deptford, NJ’s Billy Gray started off his 2025 season taking the checkered flag first.
Gray needed just a bit of luck to find the top spot, and that good fortune for Gray came at the misfortune of Tyler Grau, who was the race’s early leader before breaking under a caution flag.
Grau’s issue turned the lead over to Gray’s No. 23, and he dominated the remainder of the event through a long green-flag run to the finish.
Nick Walton came home in second, while Trey Jeffords out the podium. Ken Andreas and Joe Dopke were the rest of the top five.
The Sportsman A-Main chalked up another victory for the veterans, as Barry Pollard put the Durham-owned No. 28A in the winner’s circle after winning the heat race and then backing that up with a wire-to-wire triumph in the feature. Pollard’s margin of victory was nearly half a track over second-place finisher Tyler Grau.
Chase Bouchelle had a nice run to finish third, while defending champion Daniel Visalli opened up 2025 with a fourth-place result. Austin Miller completed the top five.
Though no longer a strictly junior division, the 125 class still opened up the 2025 season showcasing some of the speedway’s bright stars of the future. Race number one went the way of Whiting, NJ’s Anthony Kane, as he navigated from fourth starting spot to grab the checkered flag.
Kane’s victory required some heartbreak for Seth Gregory, who was leading the race approaching halfway when a broken motor mount bolt forced him out of the running.
Kane inherited the lead and held it until a bobble getting around a breaking lapped car momentarily allowed David Kirkner to grab the top spot. The caution for that stopped car waved before the lap was completed, putting Kane back in front. The driver of the No. 13 then brilliantly fended off a hard-charging Dylan DeVault to secure the win.
Behind those two came Kirkner with a third-place finish. Mitchell Gibson and Bobby Bracall were the remainder of the top five.
Airport’s rotating fifth division for the 2025 season featured the Restricted Wingless 600s in the opening night spotlight. Clayton, DE’s Rayce Martin drove like a veteran 600 Micro Sprint competitor on his way to a dominant win in their first 20-lap A-Main of the season.
Brody Miller came home second, with Amari Robinson finishing third. Mason Dawson and Chase Bouchelle were the rest of the top five.
Airport Speedway returns for Autism Awareness Night on Saturday, April 12. In addition to the four regular divisions, the Slingshots will make their first of back-to-back appearances at the track next weekend.
Results:
Wingless 600 A-Main (20 Laps):
1. 3M-Cameron Bellinger[2]; 2. 7G-Jimmy Glenn[5]; 3. 91-Nate Freed[14]; 4. 89-Kyle Spence[7]; 5. 10-Wayne Scott[4]; 6. 25X-Dan Lane Jr[1]; 7. 80-Anthony Tramontana[6]; 8.24-Robert Pierce[21]; 9. 3B-Dallas Damask[9]; 10. 3S-Nathan Smith Jr[10]; 11. 76-JT Bierman[24]; 12. GO!-Richie Keller III[18]; 13. 7M-Shelby McLaughlin[19]; 14. 41-Eddie Mort[22]; 15. 94-Richard Deck[23]; 16. 115-Jacob Walker[20]; 17. 9-Chris Turner[15]; 18.15Q-Quinn Llewellyn[11]; 19. 10L-Lukas Kostic[8]; 20. 14R-Chris Recchione[12]; 21.55S-Hank Steller[13]; 22. 721-Steven Miller[16]; 23. 22M-Jake Mitchell[17]; 24. 32-Cody Rose[3]
DNQ: 88-Devon Dvorak; 3-Ava Bellinger; 11-Tyler Tank; 07-Kyra Pierce; 16-Logan Dontonville; 17-Aubree Bane; 02-Anthony Kosar; 92-Donald Mattia; 65-Wayne Scott III; 21J-Jeremy Burger; 7-Eric Valdesere
270 A-Main (20 Laps):
1. 23-Billy Gray[3]; 2. 16T-Nick Walton[5]; 3. 88-Trey Jeffords[6]; 4. 7C-Ken Andreas[7]; 5.71-Joseph Dopke[4]; 6. 11X-Josh Anderson[9]; 7. 32-Michael Hoffmaster[10]; 8. 12Q-Dominic Pomponi[2]; 9. 18-Dylan Devault[13]; 10. 46R-James Miller[11]; 11. 25C-Christian Burger[12];12. 8B-Braeden Locascio[16]; 13. 5-Allen Cook[14]; 14. 18A-Liam Anderson[15]; 15.27X-Tyler Grau[1]; 16. 78-Cole Williams[8]; 17. 23B-Chase Bouchelle[17]; 18. (DNS) 72-Matt Bangs
Sportsman A-Main (20 Laps):
1. 28P-Barry Pollard[1]; 2. 27X-Tyler Grau[2]; 3. 23B-Chase Bouchelle[7]; 4. 69-Daniel Visalli[5]; 5. 24T-Austin Miller[6]; 6. 01-Brian Matheus[3]; 7. (DNS) 12A-Matt Andrews; 8.(DNS) 11M-Nathan Morrill
125 A-Main (20 Laps):
1. 13-Anthony Kane[4]; 2. 18-Dylan Devault[6]; 3. 24K-David Kirkner[8]; 4. 15-Mitchell Gibson[3]; 5. 28-Bobby Bracall[5]; 6. 9M-Daniel Morrill[7]; 7. 7-Aria Pryor[11]; 8. 58N-Ella Rae Nardelli[9]; 9. 41-Jesse Mabrey[10]; 10. 14-Seth Gregory[2]; 11. 26-Carter Boyce[1]
Restricted Wingless 600 A-Main (20 Laps):
1. 82-Rayce Martin[1]; 2. 24M-Brody Miller[2]; 3. 7-Amari Robinson[3]; 4. 114-Mason
--Airport Speedway-- Regularly scheduled shows include Jr 125cc, 250cc Sportsman, 250cc Open, and 600cc Wingless.
