Stewart Friesen, Chad Edwards & Nick Stone Take Thunder On The Thruway Series Championships

Story By: RON SZCZERBA / FONDA SPEEDWAY – FONDA, NY – With the excitement building for the 29th running of the “Fonda 200” coming up next week on Thursday through Saturday September 16-18, it’s time to finish up some regular season business regarding the Thunder on the Thruway Series and some other notes from the 2021 regular season at the “Track of Champions” Fonda Speedway.

In previous “Fonda 200” events held since the first event back in 1955, there have been 18 different winners of the event, the last one being Stewart Friesen in 2019. No event was held in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic but will the 2021 running of the event see the 19th different winner taking home the $53,000 paycheck?

For a complete list of events to be held on the “Fonda 200” weekend presented by Southside Beverage in Amsterdam, NY you can go to the Fonda Speedway website @ www.thefondaspeedway.com and click on the “Fonda 200” link at the top of the homepage.

Last Monday the final race in the Thunder on the Thruway Series between the Fonda & Utica Rome Speedways was held at Utica Rome with a huge crowd on hand to see Stewart Friesen win the $12,000 New Yorker event along with the point championship in the Thunder on the Thruway Modified Series which was worth $4,000.

A total of five events were held in the Thunder on the Thruway Series in the Modified, Crate 602 Sportsman, and Pro Stock divisions, three of them at Utica Rome and just two at Fonda after a rainout on Saturday, July 3.

Friesen won all five Modified events to seal the deal as the Modified Series Champion while Chad Edwards won $1,500 as the Crate 602 Sportsman Series Champion and Nick Stone was the winner of $1,000 as the Pro Stock Series Champion. Edwards was consistent enough to win the championship without the benefit of a win while Stone was the winner of three of the five Pro Stock Series events.

Following Friesen in the top five in Thunder on the Thruway Series Modified points were Matt Sheppard, Jessica Friesen, Rocky Warner, and Josh Hohenforst while Brian Calabrese, Cody Clark, Payton Talbot, and Mark Mortensen followed behind Edwards in the top five in Crate 602 Sportsman points. Beau Ballard, Kenny Gates, Devon Camenga, and Ivan Joslin trailed Stone in the Pro Stock Series points.

FIRST TIME WINNERS

The 2021 regular season at Fonda saw a total of 16 first time feature winners in the five regular weekly divisions including Jack Lehner and Jessica Friesen in the Sunoco Modifieds; Jason Greco, Jason Reome, Tucker O’Connor, Tanner Warner, and Payton Talbot in the Swagger Factory Apparel Crate 602 Sportsman division; Beau Ballard and Devon Camenga in the Algonkin Motel Pro Stock division; Jeremy Tyrrell, Carter Gibbons, Kyle Dingman, Taylor LaPlante, and Clayton DuMond in the Montgomery County Office for Aging Inc. Limited Sportsman division; Tyler White, and Slappy White in the Fonda Fair Four Cylinders.

HEAT & CONSOLATION RACE WINNERS

Looking back on the 2021 regular season at Fonda, Rocky Warner led the way in heat race wins with a total of six in the Sunoco Modified division while Tim Hartman Jr. led the way with a total of eight heat or consolation event wins (five heat race wins and three consolation events wins) in the Swagger factory Apparel Crate 602 Sportsman division.

Nick Stone led the way in the Algonkin Motel Pro Stock division regarding heat race wins with a total of six while Taylor LaPlante was the leader in heat race victories in the Montgomery County Office for Aging Limited Sportsman division also with six.