FONDA, N.Y. — Day 2 of the 2022 Fonda 200 weekend presented by Southside Beverage was held on Friday evening at the “Track of Champions” Fonda Speedway with five different classes of race cars in action including the STSS Modifieds, the Algonkin Motel Pro Stocks, the Fonda Fair Four Cylinders, the CRSA Sprint Cars, and the Street Stocks all in action.
The 25-lap Algonkin Motel Pro Stock feature began with Beau Ballard leading from his pole position start with Slater Baker in second. The red flag was out on lap three for Chuck Dumblewski who flipped his car in turn four and then again on the restart for Randy Cosselman who came to a stop in turn four. Dumblewski was not injured in the wreck but was done for the night at that point.
Baker took the lead away from Ballard on lap five with Kenny Gates up to the second position after starting seventh. On lap seven on the inside of the backstretch, Gates was the new race leader while Baker, Ballard, and Josh Coonradt were waging a three-way battle for the second position. At the halfway point, the top five consisted of Gates, Baker, Ballard, Coonradt, and 10th place starter Ivan Joslin.
Gates’ straightaway advantage was taken away by a caution flag on lap 14 placing the new second place car of Ballard alongside for the restart. Both Coonradt and Joslin got by Baker for the third position on lap 16 just before the yellow came out again. Two restarts were needed to get the race going again with Ballard sticking right to Gates’ rear bumper on every restart.
One final caution was out with five laps to go but on this single file restart Gates got away from Ballard and stretched out his advantage to the checkered flag for his 86th career win, his first win since this event on Fonda 200 weekend last year! Ballard, Coonradt, Joslin, and Baker completed the top five.
“It’s taken us all year to get here,” Gates said in victory lane. “I couldn’t be happier. I just had to run clean laps because I knew that the Utica Rome Track Champion (Ballard) was right up my tail, so I had to turn good laps, or he was gonna go by us. I was able to hit my marks and finish the race out clean to get here to victory lane. There was grip on the bottom tonight and that suits me perfectly. They call me the catfish and the catfish swam on the bottom tonight.”
Also standing in victory lane in the evening was Brandon Ely (DOHC Four Cylinder) & Ken Hollenback (SOHC Four Cylinder), Mike Kiser (CRSA Sprint Cars), and Adam Tranka (Street Stocks).
The Finish:
Feature (25 Laps): KENNY GATES, Beau Ballard, Josh Coonradt, Ivan Joslin, Slater baker, Frank Twing, Jim Normoyle, Gary Silkey, Zach Sorrentino, Kyle Weller, Jeff McPhail, Steve LaRochelle, Caden Dumblewski, Mike Baker, Dillon Vanston, John Holmes, AJ Walters, Don Collins, Randy Cosselman, Chuck Dumblewski