RPW Column: Bobby Hackel Puts Life Changes To Good Use & Scores First Career Mod Win At Fonda

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – FONDA, NY – A lot has changed over the last few weeks for Bobby Hackel.

Saturday night, he added another adjustment.

Now, he can now say he’s Fonda Speedway Modified winner Bobby Hackel as the East Greenbush, NY driver drove his #97 to victory lane at the Track of Champions.

“This means a lot,” Hackel said.  “I have to thank everybody that’s made this happen.”

Over the last week or so, Hackel has left his position as a fabricator at PMC Race Cars to become more involved in Killer Crate, his primary sponsor and a company he’s been a partner in for six years.

His team also made the switch from PMC to a brand new Bicknell race car, debuting it this weekend at both Utica-Rome and Fonda.  While Utica rained out, the new car was able to make it’s maiden voyage on Saturday night and now it’s one-for-one.

“There’s been a lot of changes in my life, with my race team and everything about it,” he said.  “However, I’ve got some of the best people around me and I have to thank them for making all of this happen.”

Hackel led the entire way from his pole starting spot, but it wasn’t an easy task.  As the laps clicked off, the likes of Friesen, Drellos, Lehner, Sheppard, Delorenzo and Warner were all hounding the back bumper of the #97.

In fact, on the final restart, with just nine laps remaining, Hackel knew Stewart Friesen was there.  The Halmar #44 was lined up right to his inside.  However, that didn’t rattle him.

“I just thought that I better hit (the restart) it right,” he said.  “Stew’s the man here. Of our era, he’s the guy at Fonda so I knew I better hit my marks and the Pro Power under the hood took off like it should.”

Hackel used every trick in the book to get it done on Saturday night.

“I knew I had to squeeze him a little bit but I’m sure he understands,” he said.  “I was trying to win.”

While he’s won in the Modified division at other tracks, Saturday’s career first at the famed Fonda Fairgrounds meant so much to Hackel

“I’ve been sitting in these cars since I was 13 years old,” he said.  “All I’ve ever wanted to do was get to victory lane.  I’ve wanted to race Stewart (Friesen) and (Matt) Sheppard and all these guys that I grew up watching and, finally, the hard work’s finally paying off.”

In finding his way to victory lane, Hackel was extremely humble.  He knows this wasn’t just his accomplishment.  It was a true team effort.

“These guys have stuck with me through the years,” he said.  “We’re finally starting to see the fruits of everybody’s hard work.  Thanks so much to Bob Godgart with Killer Crate for everything he’s done.  I have to thank my dad for what he does for me.  Thanks to my family, all of the guys that have been with me forever, my grandfather and all of our sponsors.  This is just amazing.”

Friesen drove from position number eight on the starting grid to come home with a solid second place finish.

Demetrios Drellos remains in a tight point battle with Matt DeLorenzo following Saturday night’s third place finish.  Coupled with seventh for MattyD, the driver of the #111 now heads in to championship Saturday next weekend with a six-point edge over the defending champ.

Jack Lehner brought the Nelson #85 home in fourth and Alex Yankowski completed the top five.

Matt Sheppard was sixth but made a massive rebound after flattening his right rear American Racer before the one-third mark of the event.  In fact, DeLorenzo also rebounded quite nicely from a flat tire which saw him have to restart at the tail.

Rocky Warner, JaMike Sowle and David Schilling completed the top ten.

In the Sportsman feature event, it was Brett Mortensen finding his way to victory lane after a spirited battle with “Happy” Harry Shaffer.

Mortensen drove around the #21H with just 11 laps remaining as the two exited turn four and from there, Mortensen put his machine on cruise control as he went on to capture career win number two in the class.

“It’s been a rough season for us,” Mortensen said.  “We started off real fast and then kind of lost the car for a little while.  Then, DKM helped us out and now we’re back on track.”

Mortensen was able to work through the field from his seventh starting spot and read the track perfectly while battling the leader.

“It took a little while for the top to come around in turns one and two,” he said.  “I struggled to catch Harry.  Once the top came in, however, I knew it was game over and I was on my way.”

After he got the lead, only a caution with 10 laps remaining slowed down the progress of driver #1B.

“This was the perfect track for my driving style,” he said.  “When the car handles as well as it did in the feature, anyone can drive it.”

Shaffer drove home to a runner-up finish while Chad Edwards narrowly beat Payton Talbot to the line for third.  Chip Constantino completed the top five.

Veteran Pro Stock campaigner Kenny Gates loves the bottom groove at Fonda Speedway.  However, Saturday night, he was forced to change his line as leader Devon Camenga was running there.

That was just what he needed as Gates went through the middle of the track on a lap 6 restart and drove around Camenga for the top spot and held on to capture his fifth win of the 2023 season (91st of his career) and tighten up the points race with just one event remaining.

This car is friggin’ awesome,” Gates said.  “It’s rolling right now so hopefully we can keep it going.”

Point leader Ivan Joslin came home in the second position so Gates was able to pick up four points on him.  The multi-time champion now sits 16 markers behind Joslin with just one race remaining and 10 ahead of third place Beau Ballard.

“This year, this car’s been good all along,” he said.  “We’ve just had some bad luck here and there.  My crew’s worked so hard to get me back to victory lane and we were able to get it done tonight.”

Camenga crossed the line third with Luke Horning and Josh Coonradt completing the top five.

AJ Greco was victorious in the Limited Sportsman feature while Wayne Russell Jr. (Single Cam) and Kerrie Hollenbeck (Dual Cam) won the two Four-Cylinder main events.

Modifieds

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 97H-Bobby Hackel IV[1]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen[8]; 3. 111-Demetrios Drellos[11]; 4. 85-Jack Lehner[4]; 5. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[14]; 6. 9S-Matt Sheppard[17]; 7. 3D-Matt Delorenzo[9]; 8. 1-Rocky Warner[5]; 9. 76-Jamike Sowle[3]; 10. 20-David Schilling[18]; 11. 4-Cody Clark[10]; 12. 35-Chris Curtis[20]; 13. 24-Dave Camara[2]; 14. 21C-Brian Calabrese[6]; 15. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[23]; 16. 22-Ancel Collins[19]; 17. 24P-Brian Pessolano[13]; 18. 82-Ron Holmes[16]; 19. 93-Danny Varin[12]; 20. 34-Dave Constantino[22]; 21. 10S-Dylan Scribner[21]; 22. 18-Bobby Varin[15]; 23. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[7]; 24. 20S-Carl Schilling[24]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Rocky Warner[3]; 2. 111-Demetrios Drellos[7]; 3. 3D-Matt Delorenzo[6]; 4. 24-Dave Camara[2]; 5. 24P-Brian Pessolano[5]; 6. 82-Ron Holmes[1]; 7. 22-Ancel Collins[8]; 8. 34-Dave Constantino[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 97H-Bobby Hackel IV[1]; 2. 76-Jamike Sowle[2]; 3. 21C-Brian Calabrese[3]; 4. 93-Danny Varin[7]; 5. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[6]; 6. 9S-Matt Sheppard[8]; 7. 35-Chris Curtis[4]; 8. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[3]; 2. 85-Jack Lehner[2]; 3. 44-Stewart Friesen[5]; 4. 4-Cody Clark[6]; 5. 18-Bobby Varin[1]; 6. 20-David Schilling[4]; 7. 10S-Dylan Scribner[7]; 8. 20S-Carl Schilling[8]

Hot Laps: 1. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson, 00:18.615[13]; 2. 3D-Matt Delorenzo, 00:18.709[8]; 3. 4-Cody Clark, 00:18.720[3]; 4. 111-Demetrios Drellos, 00:18.749[9]; 5. 93-Danny Varin, 00:18.766[22]; 6. 44-Stewart Friesen, 00:18.776[10]; 7. 20-David Schilling, 00:18.792[17]; 8. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:18.802[24]; 9. 1-Rocky Warner, 00:18.869[23]; 10. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:18.946[19]; 11. 97H-Bobby Hackel IV, 00:19.057[11]; 12. 85-Jack Lehner, 00:19.111[14]; 13. 76-Jamike Sowle, 00:19.135[20]; 14. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:19.178[1]; 15. 22-Ancel Collins, 00:19.273[4]; 16. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi, 00:19.279[6]; 17. 34-Dave Constantino, 00:19.290[5]; 18. 18-Bobby Varin, 00:19.468[21]; 19. 24P-Brian Pessolano, 00:19.509[15]; 20. 82-Ron Holmes, 00:20.087[12]; 21. 10S-Dylan Scribner, 00:20.112[18]; 22. (DNS) 24-Dave Camara; 23. (DNS) 35-Chris Curtis; 24. (DNS) 20S-Carl Schilling

Sportsman

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 1B-Brett Mortensen[7]; 2. 21H-Harry Shaffer[1]; 3. 10%-Chad Edwards[19]; 4. 14T-Payton Talbot[17]; 5. 63-Chip Constantino[6]; 6. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell[5]; 7. B24-Brendan Gibbons[8]; 8. 9K-Blaine Klinger[9]; 9. 14Z-Troy Zilles[14]; 10. 25-Stephen Gray[23]; 11. 74-Matt Perry[3]; 12. 91H-Zach Dufel[4]; 13. 31J-John Dumond[2]; 14. 314-Clayton Dumond[16]; 15. 96-Michael McCallion[18]; 16. 8-Josh Kane[27]; 17. 1M-Mark Mortensen[15]; 18. 78-Tanner Warner[10]; 19. 4M-David Manchester[25]; 20. 42H-Kadon Hohensheldt[22]; 21. 99-Clyde Peek[28]; 22. 66-Don Bellen[21]; 23. 27-Jason Reome[20]; 24. 85R-Wesley Sutliff[26]; 25. 7J-Dan Santabarbara[12]; 26. 12P-Connor Prokop[24]; 27. 117N-Butchie Irwin[11]; 28. 28B-Tim Dwyer[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell[4]; 2. 9K-Blaine Klinger[6]; 3. 1B-Brett Mortensen[5]; 4. 117N-Butchie Irwin[8]; 5. 28B-Tim Dwyer[2]; 6. 314-Clayton Dumond[9]; 7. 10%-Chad Edwards[7]; 8. 42H-Kadon Hohensheldt[3]; 9. 4M-David Manchester[10]; 10. 99-Clyde Peek[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 63-Chip Constantino[4]; 2. 21H-Harry Shaffer[2]; 3. 74-Matt Perry[3]; 4. 7J-Dan Santabarbara[9]; 5. 14Z-Troy Zilles[5]; 6. 14T-Payton Talbot[8]; 7. 27-Jason Reome[7]; 8. 25-Stephen Gray[6]; 9. 85R-Wesley Sutliff[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 31J-John Dumond[2]; 2. 78-Tanner Warner[6]; 3. 91H-Zach Dufel[3]; 4. B24-Brendan Gibbons[5]; 5. 1M-Mark Mortensen[4]; 6. 96-Michael McCallion[8]; 7. 66-Don Bellen[1]; 8. 12P-Connor Prokop[9]; 9. 8-Josh Kane[7]

Hot Laps: 1. 10%-Chad Edwards, 00:19.803[7]; 2. 314-Clayton Dumond, 00:19.846[4]; 3. 96-Michael McCallion, 00:19.893[15]; 4. 1M-Mark Mortensen, 00:19.928[17]; 5. 63-Chip Constantino, 00:19.961[2]; 6. 1B-Brett Mortensen, 00:19.985[16]; 7. 14T-Payton Talbot, 00:19.998[25]; 8. 7J-Dan Santabarbara, 00:20.000[22]; 9. 78-Tanner Warner, 00:20.098[27]; 10. B24-Brendan Gibbons, 00:20.150[8]; 11. 25-Stephen Gray, 00:20.179[9]; 12. 117N-Butchie Irwin, 00:20.190[11]; 13. 14Z-Troy Zilles, 00:20.199[28]; 14. 21H-Harry Shaffer, 00:20.252[23]; 15. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell, 00:20.351[26]; 16. 4M-David Manchester, 00:20.478[14]; 17. 85R-Wesley Sutliff, 00:20.510[24]; 18. 8-Josh Kane, 00:20.513[12]; 19. 9K-Blaine Klinger, 00:20.524[13]; 20. 31J-John Dumond, 00:20.598[5]; 21. 27-Jason Reome, 00:20.599[21]; 22. 28B-Tim Dwyer, 00:20.736[6]; 23. 42H-Kadon Hohensheldt, 00:20.859[10]; 24. 99-Clyde Peek, 00:21.016[18]; 25. 91H-Zach Dufel, 00:21.035[3]; 26. 66-Don Bellen, 00:21.060[1]; 27. 74-Matt Perry, 00:25.126[19]; 28. (DNS) 12P-Connor Prokop

Pro Stocks

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 35-Ken Gates[3]; 2. 49-Ivan Joslin[5]; 3. 110-Devon Camenga[2]; 4. 2H-Luke Horning[8]; 5. 00X-Josh Coonradt[6]; 6. 6-Shane Playford[7]; 7. 15-Beau Ballard[10]; 8. 74N-Jim Normoyle[11]; 9. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[12]; 10. 1D-Nick Santuccione[16]; 11. 715-Jason Morrison[4]; 12. 28H-Johnny Holmes[13]; 13. 75-Gary Silkey[1]; 14. 96-Andy Graves[9]; 15. 5C-Randy Cosselman[14]; 16. 81A-Michael Achzet[15]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 715-Jason Morrison[5]; 2. 49-Ivan Joslin[6]; 3. 75-Gary Silkey[1]; 4. 2H-Luke Horning[8]; 5. 96-Andy Graves[4]; 6. 74N-Jim Normoyle[3]; 7. 28H-Johnny Holmes[7]; 8. 81A-Michael Achzet[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 110-Devon Camenga[3]; 2. 35-Ken Gates[4]; 3. 6-Shane Playford[7]; 4. 00X-Josh Coonradt[6]; 5. 15-Beau Ballard[8]; 6. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[5]; 7. 5C-Randy Cosselman[2]; 8. 1D-Nick Santuccione[1]

Hot Laps: 1. 110-Devon Camenga, 00:21.790[3]; 2. 35-Ken Gates, 00:21.857[7]; 3. 00X-Josh Coonradt, 00:22.093[4]; 4. 6-Shane Playford, 00:22.099[14]; 5. 28H-Johnny Holmes, 00:22.426[9]; 6. 49-Ivan Joslin, 00:22.532[11]; 7. 75-Gary Silkey, 00:22.540[16]; 8. 96-Andy Graves, 00:22.645[8]; 9. 7C-Caden Dumblewski, 00:22.645[6]; 10. 5C-Randy Cosselman, 00:22.708[5]; 11. 81A-Michael Achzet, 00:22.820[1]; 12. 1D-Nick Santuccione, 00:23.881[15]; 13. (DNS) 15-Beau Ballard; 14. (DNS) 2H-Luke Horning; 15. (DNS) 715-Jason Morrison; 16. (DNS) 74N-Jim Normoyle

Four Cylinders

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 54S-Wayne Russell Jr[1]; 2. 33D-Kerrie Hollenbeck[7]; 3. 42S-Hayleigh Gates[3]; 4. 26D-Len St Andrews[4]; 5. 212S-TJ Marlitt[10]; 6. 43S-Tom Hill[6]; 7. 34S-Brittany Ladd[5]; 8. 26S-Luke Sheldon[11]; 9. 77D-Tim Warner[2]; 10. 12S-Ken Hollenbeck[8]; 11. (DNS) 23D-Doug McSpirit

Limited Sportsm

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 12AJ-AJ Greco[3]; 2. 22L-Lance Hill[7]; 3. 12B-Tyler Bobar[4]; 4. 428-Brandon Tyler[2]; 5. 1D-Kyle Dingman[9]; 6. 22-Mike Hill[18]; 7. 55-Jonny Feagles[12]; 8. 4-John Anderson[8]; 9. 14W-Timothy Wilmot[11]; 10. 24-Kirsten Swartz[6]; 11. 216-Phil Arnold[22]; 12. 85R-Bob Rowback[14]; 13. 11B-Jeff Bobilin[25]; 14. 55K-Kolton Weiler[28]; 15. 5-Collin Williams[27]; 16. 15A-Aaron Armitage[30]; 17. 2K-Mike Kalkbrenner[13]; 18. 87J-Joel Knudsen Jr[26]; 19. 19-Tim Deffer[10]; 20. 16H-Dylan Huston[1]; 21. 395-Craig Coons[20]; 22. 88-Chris Kugler[16]; 23. 618-Bobby Rhinehardt[29]; 24. 37-Ryan Sweet[17]; 25. 11D-Cian DiMezza[23]; 26. 10-Andrew MacFadden[24]; 27. 99-Brandon Goodell[21]; 28. 92J-Jim Mallia[15]; 29. (DNS) 32-Steve Wagoner; 30. (DNS) 538-Gus Kamburelis

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 12AJ-AJ Greco[2]; 2. 16H-Dylan Huston[1]; 3. 24-Kirsten Swartz[4]; 4. 32-Steve Wagoner[3]; 5. 2K-Mike Kalkbrenner[5]; 6. 88-Chris Kugler[7]; 7. 538-Gus Kamburelis[6]; 8. 216-Phil Arnold[9]; 9. 11B-Jeff Bobilin[8]; 10. 55K-Kolton Weiler[10]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 22L-Lance Hill[4]; 2. 19-Tim Deffer[6]; 3. 1D-Kyle Dingman[5]; 4. 428-Brandon Tyler[1]; 5. 85R-Bob Rowback[3]; 6. 37-Ryan Sweet[7]; 7. 395-Craig Coons[10]; 8. 11D-Cian DiMezza[8]; 9. 87J-Joel Knudsen Jr[9]; 10. 618-Bobby Rhinehardt[2]

Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. 12B-Tyler Bobar[2]; 2. 14W-Timothy Wilmot[6]; 3. 55-Jonny Feagles[8]; 4. 4-John Anderson[4]; 5. 92J-Jim Mallia[1]; 6. 22-Mike Hill[3]; 7. 99-Brandon Goodell[5]; 8. 10-Andrew MacFadden[9]; 9. 5-Collin Williams[7]; 10. 15A-Aaron Armitage[10]

Hot Laps: 1. 55-Jonny Feagles, 00:20.237[9]; 2. 1D-Kyle Dingman, 00:20.333[8]; 3. 22-Mike Hill, 00:20.336[13]; 4. 12AJ-AJ Greco, 00:20.375[11]; 5. 88-Chris Kugler, 00:20.781[18]; 6. 19-Tim Deffer, 00:20.833[6]; 7. 92J-Jim Mallia, 00:20.866[20]; 8. 12B-Tyler Bobar, 00:20.873[3]; 9. 24-Kirsten Swartz, 00:21.024[23]; 10. 32-Steve Wagoner, 00:21.244[26]; 11. 538-Gus Kamburelis, 00:21.352[16]; 12. 4-John Anderson, 00:21.481[1]; 13. 10-Andrew MacFadden, 00:21.513[19]; 14. 11B-Jeff Bobilin, 00:21.584[4]; 15. 14W-Timothy Wilmot, 00:21.650[29]; 16. 37-Ryan Sweet, 00:21.719[24]; 17. 85R-Bob Rowback, 00:21.925[22]; 18. 22L-Lance Hill, 00:22.278[12]; 19. 55K-Kolton Weiler, 00:22.353[27]; 20. 216-Phil Arnold, 00:22.563[2]; 21. 99-Brandon Goodell, 00:22.574[10]; 22. 16H-Dylan Huston, 00:22.761[14]; 23. 428-Brandon Tyler, 00:22.943[25]; 24. 2K-Mike Kalkbrenner, 00:23.069[15]; 25. 618-Bobby Rhinehardt, 00:26.426[21]; 26. 15A-Aaron Armitage, 00:28.637[30]; 27. 11D-Cian DiMezza, 00:28.637[7]; 28. 395-Craig Coons, 00:28.637[5]; 29. (DNS) 87J-Joel Knudsen Jr; 30. (DNS) 5-Collin Williams