All About Racing

By Ed & Betty Biittig

Fonda Speedway ran the Jack Johnson memorial event last Wednesday and Stewart Friesen of Sprakers stood in victory lane when all was said and done. It was Friesen’s third win of the event since the first event in 2012.

Kenny Gates of West Winfield recorded his 99th victory at the track in the Pro Stock division and Dylan Madsen of Stephentown recorded his first win at the track in the 602 Sportsman event.

Friday night Albany-Saratoga began their regular season with the “Flying Farmer 31” event in memory of Jason Herrington that raced at the track and was help to many of the racers attending. Jason died suddenly at the age of 52 earlier this year.

A total of 197 cars were in the pits to compete. Wow, that is a lot of cars and certainly the fans knew it would take a lot of time to run all the heats and features for that many cars. There was also a threat of rain as the night went on and although the staff and management at the Great Race Place did a tremendous job keeping the show going, the Modified main event was stopped by rain after two laps and the Sportsman and Four Cylinders were also postponed.

Winners at Malta were 358-Mods, Felix Roy of Napierville, Quebec; Pro Stocks, Pete Stefanski of Wheatfield, NY; Street Stocks, Mark Burch of Fort Edward and Limited Sportsman, Gary English of Salisbury, Vt.

Utica-Rome Speedway was also plagued by rain, they had a shower at 4:45 pm according to announcer, Todd Morey but were able to groom the track and be ready for the show to start on time.

Local drivers that made the trip to Utica-Rome were Jim Becker, Connor Prokop and Seth Martin. Seth Martin won his qualifying heat and both Prokop and Becker through their heats. Jim Becker finished 12th in the Modified feature, Prokop and Martin both had trouble in the Sportsman feature and finished out of the top ten.

Winners at Utica-Rome were Modifieds, Matt Sheppard of Savannah, NY; 602 Sportsman, Tyler Peet of Lake Ariel, PA; Crate Late Models, Brady Wonderling of Wellsville, NY; Limited Sportsman, Garrett Chillot of Springbrook, PA; Four Cylinders, Jacob Kimball of Whitesboro, NY, dual cam and Steve Burka of Brookfield, NY, single cam.

Because of the patience the Four Cylinder division showed the week prior when their feature ran last on the schedule, this week they were given a free pass, and their feature ran first.

Both Fonda and Lebanon Valley fell to rain on Saturday night.

Fonda will begin their point season this coming Saturday, May 3 when the Thunder of the Thruway Series begins. All divisions will be in competition. Keep wrist bands from Saturday rain out. Saturday, May 3 Lebanon Valley will have the first night of racing for the big block Modifieds plus all other divisions.

Albany-Saratoga will be back in action of Friday, May 2 with Twister Pro Stocks, A to Z Modifieds and Sportsman heat money and $500 to win Street Stock Shoot Out.

Sunday, May 4, Glen Ridge opens for the season.

Until next week please send all news and/or comments to biittig@yahoo.com