Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – VERNON, NY – The perfect car was in victory lane Thursday night at Utica-Rome Speedway in the Bill Shea Memorial.
That’s because the winning ride was a tribute to the former promoter of the Vernon, NY track and carried the vibrant red and black colors of Shea’s former employer, Ferris Commercial Mowers. It even had his name along the top of the door.
That winner was Stewart Friesen who had a very close relationship with Shea before his untimely passing in 2022.
Shea even spearheaded the deal to put Ferris on Friesen’s NASCAR Truck Series entry this year, so to win on this night truly meant so much to the Sprakers, NY driver.
“When I first met Bill Shea, we were competitors,” Friesen said. “He owned Willy’s (Decker) car and that was our rival. We went back and forth a lot but always ended up at the Tombstone having a beer together. I just really appreciate him and everything he’s done for the whole Halmar Race Team.”
That connection is what led Friesen to run a special scheme in honor of Shea on Thursday night, showcasing the Ferris name on the quarter panels.
“Before he passed, Bill had a lot of cool stuff set up with Ferris and our team on the NASCAR Truck Series,” he said. “It’s just awesome to pay tribute to him and his family and everyone in this area.”
Every win is important to a race car driver, but this one had an extra special meaning to Friesen.
“Ferris is such a big part of this area and Bill was big with that,” he said. “That makes this win just even more special.”
Friesen started in the sixth spot but was quick to get the front and prove just how fast his HFR 44 was on this night.
“We had a great race car tonight,” he said. “We just had some good breaks there and I just can’t tell you how much it means to represent all of these people here tonight and get them the checkered flag.”
Alex Yankowski held the top spot from the drop of the green flag but Friesen was able to motor his way under the 84Y on lap 11 and that was all she wrote.
“Alex is a heck of a young talent,” he said. “We truly respect everyone on that race team and I knew he was going to be tough tonight.”
Getting around Yankowski was no easy feat for Friesen.
“He could rip the top like nobody else,” he said. “We kind of got that slide job line working a little bit. He got bottled up in turns one and two and we were able to sneak by.”
The event was marred by a big multi-car incident on a lap five restart which took out the likes of Matt Sheppard, Alex Payne, Andy Bachetti, Bobby Hackel and JaMike Sowle. The wreck necessitated the red flag with a lengthy clean up and knocked out several competitors that had a shot at the win.
“Hopefully everyone’s okay from that accident,” he said. “It looked pretty knarly from what I could see afterwards sitting on the backstretch. Again, hopefully everyone’s okay and we’ll all live to race another day.”
For Yankowski, he never wants to give up a shot at the checkered flag, but to finish second to Friesen on this night was acceptable.
“Congrats to Stewart and those guys,” Yankowski said. “This is a pretty big race for them and Ferris and the whole Shea family. Hats off to them.”
Even finishing second, the Jermyn, PA driver felt like he left a little bit on the table during the 30-lap main event which may have kept him from victory lane.
“We had a good car but just a lot of driver error tonight,” he said. “It felt like we threw the anchor out the past ten laps or so pretty hard. We’re going to work at it and hopefully be a little better tomorrow.”
Third place at the finish was a driver who absolutely needed a great run and got it Thursday, Max McLaughlin. Since starting the season very hot, the last handful of races have been a struggle for the #8H HBR team.
Thursday, they seemed to have the train pointed in the right direction.
“This thing was really good tonight,” McLaughlin said. “We drew dead last out of the early pill draw and I don’t know, something about this place doesn’t let me start higher than eighth in a heat.”
After starting in the 13th spot for the feature, McLaughlin worked his way forward and showed just what he and his team are capable of.
“I got to Alex there at the end,” he said. “A couple more laps and I think we might have gotten him but Stewart, I don’t even know where he was.”
While this was a great run for the HBR team, Max still wonders what could have been if he had gotten into the feature redraw and been able to start higher.
“I think we were definitely a second place car tonight,” he said. “Maybe, if we could have started up front, we could have at least given Friesen a run for his money but this one’s for Bill Shea tonight. He was a bad ass person.”
McLaughin was quick to give credit for the third place run to his crew, who have been diligently working to turn their season around.
“These guys have been working extremely hard,” he said. “We’ve been horrible lately. We started off the year with two wins and then we can’t even run 15th. This run feels really good and just hat’s off to my crew and all the guys at the shop.”
Willy Decker and Billy Decker completed the top five running order.
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 44-Stewart Friesen[6]; 2. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[2]; 3. 8H-Max McLaughlin[13]; 4. 1X-Willy Decker[4]; 5. 91-Billy Decker[19]; 6. 35-Mike Mahaney[7]; 7. 14J-Alan Johnson[1]; 8. 16S-Jeremy Slosek[3]; 9. 42P-Pat Ward[12]; 10. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[17]; 11. 99L-Larry Wight[20]; 12. 25R-Erick Rudolph[11]; 13. 1-Rocky Warner[25]; 14. 21A-Peter Britten[21]; 15. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[26]; 16. 77-Alan Barker[5]; 17. 21C-Brian Calabrese[28]; 18. 4-Cody Clark[23]; 19. 12B-Addison Bowman[30]; 20. 34-Dave Constantino[14]; 21. 72-Ajay Potrzebowski Jr[18]; 22. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[9]; 23. 9S-Matt Sheppard[10]; 24. 4B-Andy Bachetti[8]; 25. 28T-Michael Trautschold[16]; 26. 19W-Justin Wright[15]; 27. 70A-Alex Payne[27]; 28. 97S-Randy Shantel[22]; 29. 76-Jamike Sowle[29]; 30. 24-Dave Camara[24]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[1]; 2. 77-Alan Barker[7]; 3. 42P-Pat Ward[3]; 4. 8H-Max McLaughlin[8]; 5. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[2]; 6. 21A-Peter Britten[5]; 7. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[6]; 8. 1-Rocky Warner[9]; 9. 82H-Ron Holmes[4]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 4B-Andy Bachetti[1]; 2. 14J-Alan Johnson[2]; 3. 35-Mike Mahaney[7]; 4. 34-Dave Constantino[5]; 5. 72-Ajay Potrzebowski Jr[6]; 6. 97S-Randy Shantel[8]; 7. 369-Jim Walsh[4]; 8. 70A-Alex Payne[3]; 9. 60X-Brad Poppleton[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[2]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[1]; 3. 44-Stewart Friesen[4]; 4. 19W-Justin Wright[3]; 5. 91-Billy Decker[8]; 6. 4-Cody Clark[6]; 7. 21C-Brian Calabrese[7]; 8. 76-Jamike Sowle[5]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 1X-Willy Decker[4]; 2. 25R-Erick Rudolph[1]; 3. 16S-Jeremy Slosek[6]; 4. 28T-Michael Trautschold[3]; 5. 99L-Larry Wight[8]; 6. 24-Dave Camara[2]; 7. 12B-Addison Bowman[7]; 8. 6H-JR Hurlburt[5]
Consolation (8 Laps): 1. 1-Rocky Warner[5]; 2. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[1]; 3. 70A-Alex Payne[6]; 4. 21C-Brian Calabrese[3]; 5. 76-Jamike Sowle[7]; 6. 12B-Addison Bowman[4]; 7. 6H-JR Hurlburt[8]; 8. 369-Jim Walsh[2]; 9. 60X-Brad Poppleton[10]; 10. (DNS) 82H-Ron Holmes
Hot Laps: 1. 8H-Max McLaughlin, 00:17.925[18]; 2. 97-Bobby Hackel IV, 00:17.933[20]; 3. 44-Stewart Friesen, 00:17.971[3]; 4. 1Z-Jessica Friesen, 00:18.000[24]; 5. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:18.045[2]; 6. 1X-Willy Decker, 00:18.076[4]; 7. 4-Cody Clark, 00:18.115[9]; 8. 28T-Michael Trautschold, 00:18.150[27]; 9. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson, 00:18.187[29]; 10. 42P-Pat Ward, 00:18.191[14]; 11. 91-Billy Decker, 00:18.205[11]; 12. 21A-Peter Britten, 00:18.206[31]; 13. 70A-Alex Payne, 00:18.216[12]; 14. 25R-Erick Rudolph, 00:18.268[32]; 15. 14J-Alan Johnson, 00:18.271[13]; 16. 4B-Andy Bachetti, 00:18.302[25]; 17. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:18.302[33]; 18. 16S-Jeremy Slosek, 00:18.314[19]; 19. 1-Rocky Warner, 00:18.364[28]; 20. 19W-Justin Wright, 00:18.426[16]; 21. 12B-Addison Bowman, 00:18.434[23]; 22. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:18.478[1]; 23. 34-Dave Constantino, 00:18.551[6]; 24. 6H-JR Hurlburt, 00:18.736[26]; 25. 72-Ajay Potrzebowski Jr, 00:18.830[21]; 26. 99L-Larry Wight, 00:18.908[5]; 27. 77-Alan Barker, 00:18.992[22]; 28. 35-Mike Mahaney, 00:19.032[30]; 29. 97S-Randy Shantel, 00:19.626[8]; 30. 369-Jim Walsh, 00:19.749[10]; 31. 76-Jamike Sowle, 00:19.806[7]; 32. 24-Dave Camara, 00:19.861[15]; 33. 82H-Ron Holmes, 00:19.903[17]