VERNON, N.Y. — Back on top.
Stewart Friesen returned to Utica-Rome Speedway victory lane with the 3 Bastards Brewing Modifieds on Thursday night for his first win of the season at the speedway.
The “Bill Shea Memorial” honored a former speedway promoter who passed away unexpectedly last fall.
Friesen — dawning a Bill Shea Tribute paint scheme — parked it in victory lane for a $4,000 winner’s check in Round No. 2 of the F.X. Caprara Car Companies Thunder on the Thruway Series.
“When I first met Bill (Shea) we were competitors,” Friesen said, referring to his memories of Shea, a promoter, car owner and overall fan of auto racing. “He owned Willy’s (Decker) car, and they were our rivals back then. We always ended the night drinking beers at the Tombstone (bar, formerly located in front of the speedway) after the races.”
Friesen started from the sixth position following the post-heat race draw for starting position, while Alan Johnson and Alex Yankowski fired off the front row. Friesen raced his way into third, getting by Alan Barker, Jeremy Slosek and Willy Decker in the race’s opening five laps before the first yellow with Yankowski leading.
The ensuing restart was a race-altering one, with several heavy hitters involved in a melee on the front straightaway.
Bobby Hackel IV got crossed up when the race went back to green, collecting the likes of Matt Sheppard, Alex Payne, Andy Bachetti and JaMike Sowle, among others, ending each of their nights prematurely.
When the green came back out, Friesen resumed his charge to the front. Friesen and Decker quickly raced by Johnson for second and third. From there, Friesen would leave Decker behind to lock in on the race leader Yankowski.
Friesen wasted no time getting to Yankowski, applying the pressure with still 20 laps to go. The Sprakers, N.Y., resident slid up in front of Yankowski as the field came to complete the 13th circuit and raced away with the win as the final 25 laps clicked off without incident.
“Alex (Yankowski) is a great young talent,” said Friesen of his competition. “We have a lot of respect for those guys, and they have a great race team.”
The win was the 64th of Friesen’s career at Utica-Rome Speedway, breaking his tie with Matt Sheppard atop the all-time win list at the Home of Heroes. “We have it for now anyway. He (Sheppard) had some bad luck tonight, hope he and everyone involved is okay, you never want to see that.”
Yankowski settled for a runner-up finish.
“We had a really good car, just a lot of driver error tonight,” Yankowski said of his performance. “We’ll try to get better for tomorrow and see if we can beat the 44.”
Mooresville, N.C.’s Max McLaughlin charged from the 13th starting position to round out the podium, a much-needed stout run for his HBR No. 8H team. Willy Decker took home fourth with his JSD Express No. 1x and Billy Decker rounded out the top five, moving up from his 19th starting spot aboard the Jeremy Smith Racing No. 91 car.
Feature Results (30 laps)
Stewart Friesen, Alex Yankowski, Max McLaughlin, Willy Decker, Billy Decker, Mike Mahaney, Alan Johnson, Jeremy Slosek, Pat Ward, Jessica Friesen, Larry Wight, Erick Rudolph, Rocky Warner, Peter Britten, Ronnie Johnson, Alan Barker, Brian Calabrese, Cody Clark, Addison Bowman, Dave Constantino, Ajay Potrzebowski II, Bobby Hackel IV, Matt Sheppard, Andy Bachetti, Michael Trautschold, Justin Wright, Alex Payne, Randy Shantel, JaMike Sowle, Dave Camara.