RPW Column: Cory Eliason Spoils Matt Farnham’s Hopes, Takes Weedsport’s All Star Showcase

Column By: MARTY CZEKALA / RPW – WEEDSPORT, NY – Cory Eliason went from third to first in two laps to take the lead over Matt Farnham to score his first All Star Circuit of Champions win of the season at Weedsport.

In his fifth start in the Crouch Motorsports No. 11, Eliason spent most of the feature in the fourth position. Late in the race, in heavy lapped traffic, he would run the thin cushion to get past Paulie Colagiovanni, Tyler Courtney, and then Matt Farnham for the lead with four to go. Farnham would try to slide job entering turn one. Still, Eliason countered back in a battle where the top six were separated by about 1.5 seconds.

“My lane opened up,” Eliason told RPW. “There were lapped cars that would try to run. Kind of made me nervous but happened to work around them at the right time. I knew if I committed to it, it would get better, and as tires got hot, I could run it harder. It happened to work out in our favor.”

A late race caution flew on the final circuit when Hunter Schuerenberg spun in turn three, setting up a one-lap shootout. It would give Eliason a slight advantage with a single-file restart to take the checkers home.

“I was frustrated when the yellow came out, just because I saw the white on the backstretch,” Eliason explained. “I was having trouble with the brakes. The last restart, I was on the brakes as hard as I could. I was a little paranoid that I had to run conservative. By the grace of God, it held on for us.”

The Schuerenberg was the lone yellow amongst the All Star program Sunday.

Farnham settled for a fifth-place finish after fading late in the race while losing the lead to Eliason.

“We were really good all first half the race, then we got into lapped traffic,” Farnham said. “These guys do so many more races a year than I do and are better at navigating through it. 25 laps in, it’s hard to get off the bottom. Super happy though with how well we ran tonight.”

He recorded the quickest lap in qualifying with a 14.285s. In fact, four of the top five spots in qualifying were held by New Yorkers! Colagiovanni second, Chris Hile third, and Larry Wight fifth.

Farnham then finished second after starting fourth due to the heat inversion amongst the top four. He was the fastest qualifier, so he transferred to the dash, which he won to start from the pole. Farnham led the first 25 laps.

“Any of the big 410 races, you got to be in the first couple row 90% of the time to have a chance,” Farnham said.

After DNFing Friday at Outlaw, Farnham spent his day off Saturday working on the car.

“We went back to the shop and went through the entire car from 6:30 in the morning to 6:30 at night. Made sure everything was perfect.”

Amongst New Yorkers, Paulie Colagiovanni was another threat to win tonight. After he clocked in second quickest, Colagiovanni finished fifth in his heat but made it to the dash due to his qualifying spot and drew the one pill. He finished second to Farnham and was in the best spot he was in before Tyler Courtney overtook him.

Larry Wight pulled double duty with his Sprint and Big Block Modified, but it didn’t affect him. “Lightning” timed in fifth quickest, finished third in his heat and finished seventh.

Danny Varin made the dash after winning heat one. The points leader in the Empire Super Sprints started sixth and finished eighth.

Zeb Wise completes a great weekend after returning from injury, winning Saturday and finishing runner-up Sunday.

Tyler Courtney finished third and extended his points lead to 50 over Parker Price-Miller.

25 cars signed into Weedsport.

The All Stars race at Bridgeport on Thursday.

Weedsport hosts the Super DIRTcar Series, DIRTcar Sportsman, and the CRSA Sprints next Sunday.

All-Star Circuit of Champions (30 Laps)

A Feature (35 Laps): 1. 11-Cory Eliason[3]; 2. 26-Zeb Wise[5]; 3. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[4]; 4. 70-Scotty Thiel[10]; 5. 7NY-Matt Farnham[1]; 6. 10-Paulie Colagiovanni[2]; 7. 99L-Larry Wight[8]; 8. 01-Danny Varin[6]; 9. 9P-Parker Price Miller[18]; 10. 97-JJ Hickle[12]; 11. 29-Sye Lynch[7]; 12. 28F-Davie Franek[11]; 13. 45-Tim Shaffer[15]; 14. 4-Chris Windom[17]; 15. 98-Joe Trenca[14]; 16. 66-Jordan Hutton[16]; 17. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[13]; 18. 5H-Chris Hile[20]; 19. 88C-Chad Miller[23]; 20. 28M-Conner Morrell[22]; 21. (DNF) 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[9]; 22. (DNF) 4P-Chase Moran[19]; 23. (DNF) 2-Dave Axton[21]; 24. (DNF) 11T-Cory Turner[24]

LAP LEADERS: Matt Farnham (1-25), Cory Eliason (26-30).

Contingency Awards/Results: Weedsport Speedway| May 21, 2023:
Kistler Racing Products Pill Draw | Entries: 25
Macri Concrete/Nunzi’s Advertising Hot Laps: Tyler Courtney | 14.091
Hercules Tires Fast Qualifier: Matt Farnham | 14.285
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat #1 Winner: Danny Varin
Competition Suspension Inc Heat #2 Winner: Tyler Courtney
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat #3 Winner: Cory Eliason
Elliott’s Custom Trailers and Carts Dash Winner: Matt Farnham
Classic Ink USA Screenprinting and Embroidery B-Main Winner: Chase Moran
Rayce Rudeen Foundation Contingency Award: Danny Peebles
Tezos A-Main Winner: Cory Eiason
Tezos A-Main Hard Charger: Parker Price-Miller (+9)
Carquest Perseverance Award: Chris Hile

Classic Ink USA B Feature (8 Laps): 1. 4P-Chase Moran[2]; 2. 5H-Chris Hile[4]; 3. 2-Dave Axton[1]; 4. 28M-Conner Morrell[6]; 5. 88C-Chad Miller[3]; 6. 11T-Cory Turner[5]; 7. 3-Denny Peebles[7]

Elliotts Custom Trailers and Carts Dash (6 Laps): 1. 7NY-Matt Farnham[2]; 2. 10-Paulie Colagiovanni[1]; 3. 11-Cory Eliason[3]; 4. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[4]; 5. 26-Zeb Wise[6]; 6. 01-Danny Varin[5]

Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 01-Danny Varin[2]; 2. 7NY-Matt Farnham[4]; 3. 99L-Larry Wight[1]; 4. 28F-Davie Franek[3]; 5. 98-Joe Trenca[5]; 6. 9P-Parker Price Miller[7]; 7. 5H-Chris Hile[9]; 8. 2-Dave Axton[6]; 9. 3-Denny Peebles[8]

CSI Shocks Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[1]; 2. 29-Sye Lynch[2]; 3. 70-Scotty Thiel[8]; 4. 97-JJ Hickle[3]; 5. 10-Paulie Colagiovanni[4]; 6. 66-Jordan Hutton[5]; 7. 4P-Chase Moran[6]; 8. 11T-Cory Turner[7]

All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Cory Eliason[1]; 2. 26-Zeb Wise[4]; 3. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[2]; 4. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[3]; 5. 45-Tim Shaffer[5]; 6. 4-Chris Windom[6]; 7. 88C-Chad Miller[7]; 8. 28M-Conner Morrell[8]

Hercules Tire Qualifying: 1. 7NY-Matt Farnham, 00:14.285[15]; 2. 10-Paulie Colagiovanni, 00:14.376[12]; 3. 26-Zeb Wise, 00:14.449[25]; 4. 99L-Larry Wight, 00:14.499[13]; 5. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 00:14.651[17]; 6. 11-Cory Eliason, 00:14.665[5]; 7. 01-Danny Varin, 00:14.759[22]; 8. 29-Sye Lynch, 00:14.807[7]; 9. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg, 00:14.852[8]; 10. 28F-Davie Franek, 00:14.889[18]; 11. 97-JJ Hickle, 00:15.005[10]; 12. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 00:15.016[21]; 13. 98-Joe Trenca, 00:15.053[20]; 14. 66-Jordan Hutton, 00:15.068[2]; 15. 45-Tim Shaffer, 00:15.081[14]; 16. 2-Dave Axton, 00:15.088[1]; 17. 4P-Chase Moran, 00:15.137[9]; 18. 4-Chris Windom, 00:15.205[19]; 19. 9P-Parker Price Miller, 00:15.221[24]; 20. 11T-Cory Turner, 00:15.327[11]; 21. 88C-Chad Miller, 00:15.350[16]; 22. 3-Denny Peebles, 00:15.499[3]; 23. 70-Scotty Thiel, 00:15.518[6]; 24. 28M-Conner Morrell, 00:15.862[23]; 25. 5H-Chris Hile, 00:59.999[4]