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By Ron Szczerba
FONDA , NY – Tuesday evening at the Fonda Speedway defending modified track champion Bobby Varin cleaned house as he won $6,000 for the 60-lap Modified Open victory and an $800 bonus for defending his home turf at the Track of Champions against invader Billy Decker who finished second.
“We’ve been struggling on the slippery track the last few weeks,” Varin said. “But with the surface a little bit heavier tonight it worked in our favor. The track was absolutely great tonight. Billy had a great run and definitely made us work for it”
After a hard fought battle that saw Decker pressure Varin right to the checkered flag, Decker was the first small block across the finish line and took home a $500 bonus.
“The invader got whipped tonight,” he said as the top three posed with their cars in victory lane. “The car got loose on me after the caution around the halfway point because we were just too afraid to tighten it up before the feature. We worked our butt off out there tonight and just kept digging and clawing away at it.”
“I wish the event was a little bit longer and we had a few more laps to get the job done. I have to thank Jack and Ronnie Johnson because I went down and asked them a few questions both last Saturday night and tonight and they steered me in the right direction.”
“We went against the grain tonight and ran Hoosier tires which hurt us at the end,” third place finisher Brett Hearn said. “They got us to third pretty quick but towards the end there was nothing left. It was still a good night with our third place finish though.”
Craig Hanson was the early leader of the event from his pole position start with Dave Camara in tow. Decker started the event in the fifth position and was up to fourth when the red flag came out for Donnie Corellis who flipped his car over numerous times in turn one but emerged from the car uninjured. When the yellow flag came out to allow the cars to circle the track, last Saturday nights feature winner Ronnie Johnson pitted and was done for the evening.
As Hanson continued to lead on the restart, Decker took the third position away from DeLorenzo and at the completion of lap four Decker and Camara were side by side at the line for the second position. Decker was the new second place car on lap five while DeLorenzo and Varin were now side by side for the fourth spot.
By lap 10 the top three of Hanson, Decker, and Camara separated themselves from the rest of the field with Varin, DeLorenzo and Hearn completing the top five. On lap 13, Hanson and Decker were side by side for the lead with Decker taking the spot one lap later on the inside of turn two. Varin was the new second place car three laps later after getting by Hanson while DeLorenzo and Hearn were still battling for the fifth spot on lap 18.
Varin was able to close in on Decker by lap 20 with the caution coming out on lap 24 for Tim Dwyer who had a flat right rear tire. On the restart, Decker and Varin battled side by side for an entire lap before Varin took the lead on the inside of turn four on lap 25. One lap later, Hearn was the new third place car after getting by Hanson.
With 20 laps to go the top three of Varin, Decker, and Hearn checked out on the rest of the field and lap after lap Decker would peddle his car on the low side in turns one and two while using a high line through turns three and four to try and maintain pace with the leader. Varin meanwhile was just running the outside groove around the entire track. With seven laps to go, Varin was in lap traffic allowing Decker to close in as the two great drivers gave the fans their money’s worth.
With five laps to go Varin was able to clear the lap car of Mike Ricci but Decker wasn’t able to get by as easily allowing Varin to get away slightly. Decker finally made his way by Ricci and made a last ditch effort on the final lap but at the checkered flag it was Varin who went on to his fourth win of the season and the 32nd of his career at Fonda.
Decker came home second followed by Hearn, DeLorenzo, and Camara.
“I used up my right rear tire trying to get to the front and after I got there I slowed my pace down a little to conserve it,” Varin said. “If I didn’t do that my tire guy would have kicked my butt. My hat is off to Ric Lucia who gave us a great track to race on tonight, to my car owners Jake and Nancy Spraker, and my entire crew.”
The 40-lap Dart Dirt Race of Champions Sportsman Tour event got underway with Jeremy Wilder and Mark Kislowski on the front row with Kislowski taking the early lead. Wilder who was in his uncle Bill Wilder’s car after wrecking his own #22J last Saturday evening started pressuring the leader by the lap seven point in the event. The #22J that Wilder wrecked last Saturday at Fonda was actually his back-up car after he destroyed his primary car at Utica Rome earlier this season.
Kislowski and Wilder were nose to nose at the line to complete lap 10 with Wilder gaining the advantage and the lead as the two cars exited turn four one lap later. At the halfway point of the event, Wilder, Kislowski, John McAuliffe, Danny Varin, and Robert Perry completed the top five with lap traffic blocking the track in turn one as the leader approached them.
With Wilder having a tough time getting by lap traffic it allowed Kislowski to close in with Kislowski making a three wide pass by two of the lap cars on the backstretch on lap 24. At that point Wilder had finally cleared the lap traffic and was able to pull away slightly.
Varin continued his march to the front on lap 27 when he got by McAuliffe for the third position with Wilder now out to a half straightaway lead. On lap 30, McAuliffe slipped up in turn three allowing both Mark Mortensen and Ricky Quick to get by for the fourth and fifth positions.
On lap 35 the one and only yellow flag in the event came out for Tony Farone who slowed on the frontstretch closing up the field for a five lap dash to the checkered flag. Despite heavy pressure from Kislowski over the final laps, Wilder was able to take the win by half a car length at the line over Kislowski, Varin, Mortensen, and Joe Williams.
“This is awesome,” Wilder said after celebrating on the roof of his car in victory lane. “I can’t believe it. I have to thank my uncle Bill for letting me borrow his car after destroying mine last Saturday along with my family and my crew. I was getting really nervous in lap traffic because I knew that everybody would be coming behind me. Fortunately when the lap cars drifted up in the turns I was able to go low on the track, found some moisture, and got by them. This seems too good to be true.”
“I just missed the setup a little bit,” Kislowski said after his second place finish. “It was good to see Jeremy win though. I think that if I could have got out of turn two a little bit better I may have had something for Jeremy. This was our third second place finish in a row here at Fonda. We’ll get a win one of these times.”
“I didn’t know where I was in the field until that yellow came out,” Varin said. “We were able to come from the back so that is good but we were losing oil pressure towards the end of the race so we will have to look into that.”
For the first time since 1994, the Empire Super Sprints will make an appearance at the Fonda Speedway on Saturday, July 21. A regular show in all classes is also on the racing card with a starting time of 6:00 p.m. Previous winners of ESS events at the Track of Champions include John Brutcher (1987), Bobby Parrow (1991), Tom Taber (1992), and Craig Lane (1994).
As of 7/14/07 there have been six different winners in a total of nine events on the ESS Tour with VanDusen leading the way with three wins followed by Hebing with two wins while Justin Barger, Bubby Kerrick, Poirier, and Jeff Cook with one victory apiece.
The Empire Super Sprint event at Fonda on Saturday, July 21 will be the 4th Annual Earl Halaquist Memorial event with previous winners of the prestigious event being Blake Breen in 2004, George Suprick in 2005, and Hebing in 2006. The three previous events were all held at the Black Rock Speedway.
Also on the racing card on Saturday, July 21 will be the 5th Annual Wilma Smith Memorial Race sponsored by the family of Wilma Smith, Project Action, Reality Check, and others. The 6-lap dash is for completely tobacco free drivers in the IMCA division who haven’t won a feature in 2007 at the Track of Champions. Trophies and prizes will be handed out for the dash and the first non-tobacco user in the main IMCA feature will also get a $50 gift certificate.
MODIFIED QUALIFYING – 40 total cars – 5 qualify – 3 redraw
HEAT 1 – Brett Hearn, Jim Davis, Dave Camara, Ronnie Johnson, Steve Hough
HEAT 2 – Craig Hanson, Billy Decker, Pat Ward, Ryan Odasz, Erik Nelson
HEAT 3 – Jack Johnson, Willy Decker, Ray Zemken, Butchie Irwin, Stewart Friesen
HEAT 4 – Matt DeLorenzo, Bobby Varin, Mike Ricci, Dave Lape, Tony Pepicelli
MODIFIED CONSOLATIONS – 3 qualify
CONSI 1 – John Marsh Sr., Donnie Corellis, Tim Dwyer
CONSI 2 – Mitch Gibbs, Danny Johnson, Mike Fusco
MODIFIED FEATURE – 60-LAPS – BOBBY VARIN, Billy Decker, Brett Hearn, Matt DeLorenzo, Dave Camara, Pat Ward, Willy Decker, Jack Johnson, Jim Davis, Ryan Odasz, Mitch Gibbs, Craig Hanson, Mike Fusco, Mike Ricci, Ray Zemken, Steve Akers, Erik Nelson, Butchie Irwin, Stewart Friesen, Danny Johnson, Tim Dwyer, Tony Pepicelli, Dave Lape, Steve Hough, Jeff Trombley, John Marsh Sr., Ronnie Johnson, Donnie Corellis
SPORTSMAN QUALIFYING – 27 total cars – 6 qualify – 4 redraw
HEAT 1 – Mark Kislowski, Robert Perry, Mark Mortensen, Jason Memrick, Pete Sisler, Matt Janczuk
HEAT 2 – Joe Williams, Brad Alger, Alan Barker, Justin Holland, Tony Farone, Danny Creeden
HEAT 3 – Danny Varin, John McAuliffe, Jeremy Wilder, Casey Williams, Larry Wight, Vinnie Sanganetti
SPORTSMAN CONSOLATION – 5 qualify – Derrick McGrew, Michael Storms, Tim Nye, Jim Meka, Dave Constantino
DART DIRT RACE OF CHAMPIONS SPORTSMAN FEATURE – 40-LAPS – JEREMY WILDER, Mark Kislowski, Danny Varin, Mark Mortensen, Joe Williams, John McAuliffe, Robert Perry, Dave Constantino, Casey Williams, Matt Janczuk, Jason Memrick, Tony Farone, Michael Storms, Alan Barker, Larry Wight, Brad Alger, Ricky Quick, Justin Holland, Tim Nye, Vinnie Sanganetti, Jim Meka, Derrick McGrew, Danny Creeden, Pete Sisler, David Towns
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