FONDA, N.Y. – Stewart Friesen took home $4,000 for winning Saturday’s Sunoco Modified feature at Fonda Speedway.
Friesen has won every event he has raced in at Fonda this year, last weeks racing at Fonda being the exception as he had prior commitments that kept him away.
Joe Kriss waved the green flag to start the 30-lap Sunoco Modified main event with the yellow out before the field reached turn one when Michael Maresca and Pep Corradi were connected together just outside of turn four with one car on top of the others front end. Both cars were able to continue at the rear of the field.
Craig Hanson led on the second attempt to get the event going from his outside front row starting position with Roger Henion Jr. and Sunoco Modified Rookie Adam McAuliffe in tow. Larry Wight and Stewart Friesen started the event back in the sixth row and came to the front together, Wight in the top five at the lap 12 point in the event with Friesen right behind him in sixth.
Lap traffic came in to play for the leaders at that point with Hanson, McAuliffe, Josh Hohenforst, Henion, and Wight completing the top five. Friesen went in between both Wight and a lap car to take away the fifth position on lap 13 and one lap later he also got by Henion for the fourth position.
The top three of Hanson, McAuliffe, and Hohenforst pulled away from the rest of the field until lap 14 when both BBL Companies team cars of Matt DeLorenzo and Brian Gleason suffered flat tires bringing out the caution flag. On the restart both Friesen and Wight moved up to the third and fourth positions with Friesen able to also get by McAuliffe for the second spot.
On the inside of turn four on lap 16, Friesen was able to take the lead away from Hanson and from that point on the race was for the second spot as Friesen pulled away to a big lead. Wight took the third position away from McAuliffe on lap 19 and one lap later he also got by Hanson for the second position while Friesen was out to a six second advantage over the rest of the field.
Attention turned to Jessica Friesen at that point as she started the event in the 10th position but moved into the fourth spot on lap 21. Three laps later she was the new third place car after getting by Hanson for the spot. Stewart Friesen was running so high in turns one and two that he was almost hitting the wall with his right rear with one final caution out with three laps to go for Sunoco Modified Rookie Rich Christman who suffered a right rear flat tire.
Stewart Friesen led on the restart and led the remaining laps for his third win of the season and the 63rd of his career at Fonda Speedway. Wight, Jessica Friesen, Hanson and Rocky Warner completed the top-five in the event.
“You could race all over the track tonight,” Friesen said in victory lane as his son Parker did a dance on the roof with the checkered flag in hand. “It’s nice to see fans back here at Fonda tonight and great to see Jess get a great third place finish. Thanks to my Halmar team for all their hard work on these two modifieds. It is truly a team effort.”
Other winners on Saturday evening at Fonda were Nick Stone in the Algonkin Motel Pro Stock feature, Cody Clark in the Swagger Factory Apparel Crate 602 Sportsman, Dylan Eldred in the Montgomery County Office for Aging Inc. Limited Sportsman, Jason Samrov in the Robert’s Towing & Recovery Street Stocks, Joe Trudeau (Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series Antique), Kyle Hoard (Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series Replica Modified), Mike Francisco (Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series Replica Sportsman) and John Roese (Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series Replica Late Model).