Column By: BROOKE JOHNPIER / RPW – RANSOMVILLE, NY – Since the Empire Super Sprints were coming to town, my father and I decided to get to the track earlier than normal.
About three and a half hours earlier to be exact.
Dad and I sat in his truck and watched all the drivers come in while we drank cold beverages and talked about everything under the sun. Before we knew it, it was time to get in line to get our tickets and head in.
After we got in and claimed our seats in Turn 4, we went down to the concessions and got some food. We went back up to our seats, and proceeded to eat while waiting for Hot Laps to start.
The Hot Laps started with the Sprints coming out and feeling the track. After that was done, the other classes came out, and then the Sprints came back out again. They did their Hot Laps, and they were clocking in 14-15 second laps around the track. It wasn’t even a Heat Race yet, and I was already feeling the excitement.
The track was worked in for a little bit, and then the opening ceremonies happened. The prayer was great, and both the Canadian and American national anthems were sung by a girl who sang them perfectly. After that, the Heat Races began.
I can’t exactly remember the order they came out in, but I can tell you about each race. The Sprint Heat Races were very exciting. The winners were Shawn Donath and Matt Farnham. In the one heat though, a driver hit the wall going into turn three and got a very elaborate ride back to the pits. The car was completely lifted up off the ground, and was dangled across the track and dropped back off.
For the Sportsman Heat Races, there were three of them. It was one of the biggest car counts of the year for Ransomville at twenty. The winners of these Heat Races were Brett Senek, Jordan Moden, and Nelson Mason.
The Novice Sportsman and Mini Stock classes had two Heats. Mike Kramarz and Jericho Gurney were the winners of the Novice. It was Jericho’s first time to Ransomville in 2023, and he started his night off with a bang by winning his Heat. Meanwhile Tyler Foster (Mini Stock) won his first Heat of the year as well, and Matt Hornquist also won a Heat, making them the two Mini Stock winners.
After the Heats, the track was worked in for a little bit, and then the Sprints came out for the Cobra Dash. Six cars took part in a four lap race, and Jordan Poirier came out as the victor. He had his little interview, and then the races started.
Again, I can’t remember what order they came out in (I suffer from short-term memory loss), but here’s a brief re-cap of each race from my perspective.
The Novice Sportsman race started out with DJ Rosinski on the pole, and he held his position for the entire race. Some cautions were thrown, Swinson lost the entire back bumper of his car, and Mike Kramarz was gaining, but Rosinski held his spot, and took home the win.
The Sportsman race was wild. Twenty cars on a track means there is sure to be some sort of accident, and there was. A caution or two were thrown for spin-outs and what-not, but the “big one” happened due to a tractor tire being too far out on the track. The two leaders started, and everybody followed, only to have four cars get into an accident because someone hit the tire, and the other three had no-where else to go. Two got back out on the track, but the other two remained in the pits. A driver (Abby Castile) also got black-flagged. At the end of the race, Brett Senek (who has the same situation as DJ Rosinski) was the winner.
The Mini Stock race was just as good as the other two races. It was fifteen laps of non-stop action, and a lot of spots were swapped throughout the race. But at the end, it was Matt Hornquist who got to drive his car to Victory Lane.
To cap off the night, the Empire Super Sprints came out for their twenty-five lap feature. As always, they did a four-wide salute, and just like everybody else, I took a video. As soon as they were done with that, they got into formation (two-wide) and took off at the white line. But the race wouldn’t get very far, as Jonathan Preston rode up sideways onto the Turn 2 wall. The caution was thrown, and the race started over once again. As the cars flew by, and the dirt was kicked up, Paulie Colagiovanni took the lead. A few cautions were thrown, but each time the cars started up again, Paulie walked away from the rest of the field. As you can gather, Paulie was victorious in the race in honor of Ron Lux, and won the $2000.
Since that was the last race of the night, my dad and I headed over to the pits. We looked at all of the Sprint cars and their haulers (my personal favorite was Chuck Hebing’s), and then we stopped at Paulie’s pit to congratulate him on his win. After that, we went over to a friend of our’s pit, and hung out there for a while. My dad was talking to some old co-workers of his, and then we headed out, and home.
All in all it was an absolutely amazing night, and I encourage you to come to Ransomville Speedway sometime. I guarantee you that you’ll have a great time. Until next week!