Matt Janczuk Captures Devil’s Bowl Speedway’s Vermont 200 & Big $10,000 Payday Sunday

Story By: DEVIL’S BOWL SPEEDWAY – WEST HAVEN, VT – There may never be a more perfect victory at Devil’s Bowl Speedway than the one that Matt Janczuk earned on Sunday, September 3.

The Oneida, N.Y., driver led every lap in a dominant run to scoop up a record payday in the sixth annual Fabian Earth Moving Vermont 200.

The purse started at $10,000 for the Vermont 200 winner and offered up to $5,811 in lap leader bonuses, which Janczuk claimed in their entirety to earn the richest winner’s prize in the history of not only Devil’s Bowl Speedway, but also in Vermont motorsports history and the whole of the Northeast-style General Motors “602” crate engine-powered, dirt Sportsman Modified division.

Janczuk, who is Chief of Police in Hamilton, N.Y., and owns 10 victories at his home track at Utica-Rome Speedway in 2023, struck first on Sunday by winning his qualifying heat race, and he then drew the pole position to start first in the 200-lap feature. A hard, smooth, and slick surface made for some exciting racing and lots of passing while also being somewhat easy on equipment.

Janczuk broke free from the get-go, turning his fastest lap of the race on the opening circuit. A relatively calm race was slowed by 13 cautions – though none for serious wreckage – and Janczuk passed the test at every restart. Still, he had plenty of stout company up front, and a long green-flag run in the final quarter of the race gave him substantial lapped traffic to wade through, but the lead was never in question.

At different points in the race, Dom Roselli, Demetrios Drellos, Jack Lehner, and Brian Krummel each took turns in second place, with Payton Talbot, Walter J. Hammond, Brian Calabrese, Gary Edwards III, Frankie Hoard III, and several others strongly in contention. Krummel appeared to be the one who would challenge Janczuk for the win as the race wound down, but a mechanical failure with a dozen laps remaining knocked him out of the race. Lehner and Talbot then put on an entertaining show with Lehner crossing the finish line in second place and Talbot third.

The engines from the cars of Janczuk, Lehner, and Talbot were impounded following the race and an extensive and thorough inspection was performed at Hunt’s Machine in Schenectady, N.Y., on Wednesday morning. All three engines were fully compliant with Devil’s Bowl Speedway and DIRTcar rules, except for Lehner’s carburetor spacer.

As such, Lehner was disqualified, giving Talbot the runner-up finish officially. Talbot has been the only driver other than Janczuk to win at Utica-Rome in 2023, scoring three wins there and six more at Fonda Speedway on his way to that track’s championship.

The disqualification moved Edwards up to third place officially, with former Vermont 200 winner Zach Sobotka fourth and Canadian driver Cody McPherson – who won the Northeast Crate Nationals 100 at Devil’s Bowl in May – fifth. The top 10 was completed in order by Drellos, Tyler Willard, Devil’s Bowl regulars Tim LaDuc and Kevin Chaffee, and Drew Boniface.

An impressive field of 80 drivers representing no less than 18 tracks and series in the U.S. and Canada attempted to qualify for the 36-car starting grid. Gavin Eisele won the $200 Bill McGaffin Photos/Showstopper Photos Fast Time Award in time trials. Heat races were won Drellos, Richard Murtaugh, Eisele, Janczuk, Lehner, and Talbot. Consolation race wins went to Travis Green, Tyler Corcoran, and Boniface, and the two B-Main winners were McPherson and Ryan Dolbear.

The McGee Automotive Family Sprint Cars of New England (SCoNE) tour made its fourth and final appearance of the 2023 season at Devil’s Bowl, and Stephentown, N.Y.’s Matt Tanner won the 25-lap A-Main for the seventh time at Devil’s Bowl since 2020. But Tanner’s win was no cakewalk, as he drove from the 11th starting position to the lead 10 laps in, but then battled with Will Hull in heavy lapped traffic at the end of the race.

Hull nosed ahead to lead lap 24 in a three-wide move, but Tanner was able to get by him on the backstretch in the final lap to take the win. Chase Moran came from 10th place to pass SCoNE point leader Chris Donnelly late in the running and secure the final podium spot.

Donnelly, who started 15th, survived a mid-race crash that sent him airborne and Sam Comeau flipping to hold onto fourth; Comeau was uninjured. Floyd Billington rebounded from an early spin to drive from 22nd place at a lap-2 restart to finish fifth. Jake Williams was sixth, followed by Cory Sparks, Mike Thompson, Joe Kata, and rookie Jason Goff. Heat winners were Williams, Billington, and Tanner.

Monkton, Vt.’s Pat Miner wrapped up an undefeated weekend in the Hoosier Daddy Racing Novice Sportsman division by winning a 25-lap feature. Miner swept his heat and feature races at Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Friday night, and then scored a rare Triple Crown at Devil’s Bowl by winning his heat and the bonus Tom’s Auto Reconditioning “Dash for Cash” on Saturday and the feature on Sunday.

Donald Williams finished behind Miner as the runner-up, with Matt Wade, Bobbi Jo Hults, and championship point leader Tyler Travis in tow. The top 10 was rounded out by Boomer Patterson, Randy Edson, Eric Shaw, Aaron Clark, and Ed Bell.

Whiting, Vt.’s Logan Denis won the three-segment event for the Friend Construction 500cc Mini Sprint division, which was broken up over the two-day weekend. Denis was the class of the field, finishing second in the opening segment on Saturday and posting a win and a fourth in Sunday’s two legs. His total low score of 7 points (2, 1, 4) gave him a runaway victory over John Smith’s 13 points (5, 5, 3), Roger LaDuc (14 points), Ray Hanson (14 points), and Gage Provencher (17 points). Hanson won the Saturday segment and Provencher won the final leg.

Devil’s Bowl Speedway returns to action on Saturday, September 9 at 6:00 p.m., as Heritage Family Credit Union presents the annual “Member Night.” All HFCU members will receive free grandstand general admission with proof of current, valid membership. All weekly divisions (except Crown Vics) will be on the card along with the annual Kids Bicycle Races at intermission. Grandstand general admission is $15 for adults and free for children aged 12 and under.

Sportsman Modified

A Feature 1 (200 Laps): 1. 33X-Matt Janczuk[1]; 2. 14B-Jack Lehner[6]; 3. 14T-Payton Talbot[7]; 4. 21-Gary Edwards III[27]; 5. 38-Zach Sobotka[10]; 6. 7X-Cody McPherson[28]; 7. 111-Demetrios Drellos[11]; 8. 777-Tyler Willard[5]; 9. 54-Tim LaDuc[15]; 10. 73-Kevin Chaffee[18]; 11. 11-Drew Boniface[21]; 12. 64-Tyler Corcoran[20]; 13. T69-Travis Green[19]; 14. 78-Vince Quenneville[26]; 15. 21C-Brian Calabrese[12]; 16. 02-David Boisclair[13]; 17. 51-Justin Comes[17]; 18. 11S-Josh Sunn[31]; 19. 10-Jim Nagle[33]; 20. 00X-Jason Gray[25]; 21. 13-Frankie Hoard III[9]; 22. 18-Gavin Eisele[8]; 23. 30-Nicholas Root[14]; 24. 50X-Evan Roberts[34]; 25. 33-Pat Reiser[30]; 26. 33M-Richard Murtaugh[4]; 27. 7-Josh Leclaire[16]; 28. 17-Brian Krummel[24]; 29. 35R-Neil Stratton[22]; 30. 23T-Scott Towslee[36]; 31. 31B-Ryan Dolbear[29]; 32. 72-James Friesen[32]; 33. 80-Dom Roselli[3]; 34. 66-Adam Piper[35]; 35. 98H-Walter J Hammond[2]; 36. 12S-Alex Bell[23]

B Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 7X-Cody McPherson[2]; 2. 33-Pat Reiser[3]; 3. 72-James Friesen[4]; 4. 50X-Evan Roberts[1]; 5. 36-Brian Whittemore[5]; 6. 32X-Scott Duell[6]; 7. 10X-Cory Castell[8]; 8. 88H-Walter Hammond Jr[10]; 9. 11X-Josh Masterson[9]; 10. 00-Steve Miller[11]; 11. 357-Marty Kelly III[15]; 12. 25JR-William Lussier Jr[7]; 13. FOX28-Tyler Stevenson[16]; 14. 813-Jason Quenneville[17]; 15. 23T-Scott Towslee[19]; 16. 75-Dave Camara[14]; 17. 42-Camden Duffy[18]; 18. 879-Darryl Mitchell[21]; 19. (DNS) 97-Allan Hammond; 20. (DNS) 13A-Troy Audet; 21. (DNS) 44-Gordon Smith; 22. (DNS) 19T-Travis Billington

B Feature 2 (20 Laps): 1. 31B-Ryan Dolbear[1]; 2. 11S-Josh Sunn[2]; 3. 10-Jim Nagle[6]; 4. 66-Adam Piper[5]; 5. 5-Tanner Siemons[4]; 6. 2-Brent Warren[3]; 7. 07-Hunter Nutter[14]; 8. 25-Billy Lussier[7]; 9. 52-Ron Proctor[13]; 10. 24-Jimmy Davis[9]; 11. 85P-Mike Palmer[16]; 12. 23D-David Dickey[15]; 13. 88-Fire Swamp[8]; 14. 98T-Tanner Warner[21]; 15. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer[18]; 16. (DNS) 44D-William Duprey; 17. (DNS) 60-Jim Ryan; 18. (DNS) 2J-Pat Jones; 19. (DNS) 23I-Rusty Smith; 20. (DNS) 66B-Jason Bruno; 21. (DNS) 53-Gary English

Consi1 (15 Laps): 1. T69-Travis Green[5]; 2. 35R-Neil Stratton[2]; 3. 00X-Jason Gray[3]; 4. 50X-Evan Roberts[1]; 5. 11S-Josh Sunn[4]; 6. 72-James Friesen[6]; 7. 66-Adam Piper[8]; 8. 98T-Tanner Warner[7]; 9. 10X-Cory Castell[10]; 10. 24-Jimmy Davis[11]; 11. 44D-William Duprey[13]; 12. 97-Allan Hammond[12]; 13. 52-Ron Proctor[16]; 14. 357-Marty Kelly III[14]; 15. FOX28-Tyler Stevenson[15]; 16. 23I-Rusty Smith[9]; 17. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer[17]; 18. 44-Gordon Smith[19]; 19. 879-Darryl Mitchell[18]

Consi 2 (15 Laps): 1. 64-Tyler Corcoran[1]; 2. 12S-Alex Bell[2]; 3. 78-Vince Quenneville[9]; 4. 31B-Ryan Dolbear[7]; 5. 33-Pat Reiser[3]; 6. 5-Tanner Siemons[13]; 7. 32X-Scott Duell[8]; 8. 25JR-William Lussier Jr[5]; 9. 88-Fire Swamp[12]; 10. 88H-Walter Hammond Jr[10]; 11. 00-Steve Miller[11]; 12. 2J-Pat Jones[16]; 13. 75-Dave Camara[6]; 14. 23D-David Dickey[19]; 15. 85P-Mike Palmer[14]; 16. 19X-Freddie Little[17]; 17. 23T-Scott Towslee[4]; 18. 514-James Hanson[18]; 19. 53-Gary English[15]

Consi 3 (15 Laps): 1. 11-Drew Boniface[1]; 2. 17-Brian Krummel[6]; 3. 21-Gary Edwards III[3]; 4. 7X-Cody McPherson[4]; 5. 2-Brent Warren[2]; 6. 36-Brian Whittemore[7]; 7. 10-Jim Nagle[9]; 8. 25-Billy Lussier[8]; 9. 11X-Josh Masterson[5]; 10. 60W-Anthony Warren[10]; 11. 60-Jim Ryan[12]; 12. 13A-Troy Audet[11]; 13. 07-Hunter Nutter[13]; 14. 33R-Travis Bruno[15]; 15. 813-Jason Quenneville[14]; 16. 42-Camden Duffy[18]; 17. 66B-Jason Bruno[17]; 18. 751-Alex Layn[16]; 19. (DNS) 19T-Travis Billington

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 111-Demetrios Drellos[2]; 2. 98H-Walter J Hammond[4]; 3. 02-David Boisclair[1]; 4. 50X-Evan Roberts[6]; 5. 00X-Jason Gray[3]; 6. T69-Travis Green[5]; 7. 98T-Tanner Warner[8]; 8. 23I-Rusty Smith[9]; 9. 24-Jimmy Davis[11]; 10. 44D-William Duprey[12]; 11. 357-Marty Kelly III[10]; 12. 52-Ron Proctor[7]; 13. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer[13]; 14. 879-Darryl Mitchell[14]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 33M-Richard Murtaugh[1]; 2. 777-Tyler Willard[4]; 3. 30-Nicholas Root[3]; 4. 35R-Neil Stratton[6]; 5. 11S-Josh Sunn[2]; 6. 72-James Friesen[9]; 7. 66-Adam Piper[5]; 8. 10X-Cory Castell[7]; 9. 97-Allan Hammond[12]; 10. 12-Katrina Bean[11]; 11. FOX28-Tyler Stevenson[8]; 12. 9TH-Chris Murray[13]; 13. 46-RYAN STORTINI[14]; 14. 44-Gordon Smith[10]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 18-Gavin Eisele[1]; 2. 13-Frankie Hoard III[6]; 3. 54-Tim LaDuc[2]; 4. 64-Tyler Corcoran[4]; 5. 33-Pat Reiser[5]; 6. 25JR-William Lussier Jr[3]; 7. 31B-Ryan Dolbear[8]; 8. 78-Vince Quenneville[7]; 9. 00-Steve Miller[11]; 10. 5-Tanner Siemons[9]; 11. 53-Gary English[10]; 12. 19X-Freddie Little[12]; 13. 211-Anthony Ryan[13]

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 33X-Matt Janczuk[1]; 2. 21C-Brian Calabrese[2]; 3. 7-Josh Leclaire[3]; 4. 12S-Alex Bell[4]; 5. 23T-Scott Towslee[6]; 6. 75-Dave Camara[7]; 7. 32X-Scott Duell[5]; 8. 88H-Walter Hammond Jr[10]; 9. 88-Fire Swamp[8]; 10. 85P-Mike Palmer[12]; 11. 2J-Pat Jones[11]; 12. 514-James Hanson[9]; 13. 23D-David Dickey[13]

Heat 5 (10 Laps): 1. 14B-Jack Lehner[2]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka[1]; 3. 51-Justin Comes[4]; 4. 11-Drew Boniface[3]; 5. 21-Gary Edwards III[6]; 6. 11X-Josh Masterson[5]; 7. 36-Brian Whittemore[7]; 8. 10-Jim Nagle[10]; 9. 13A-Troy Audet[8]; 10. 07-Hunter Nutter[12]; 11. 33R-Travis Bruno[11]; 12. 66B-Jason Bruno[9]; 13. 19T-Travis Billington[13]

Heat 6 (10 Laps): 1. 14T-Payton Talbot[1]; 2. 80-Dom Roselli[2]; 3. 73-Kevin Chaffee[4]; 4. 2-Brent Warren[3]; 5. 7X-Cody McPherson[7]; 6. 17-Brian Krummel[8]; 7. 25-Billy Lussier[5]; 8. 60W-Anthony Warren[6]; 9. 60-Jim Ryan[10]; 10. 813-Jason Quenneville[9]; 11. 751-Alex Layn[12]; 12. 42-Camden Duffy[11]; 13. 1D-Wayne Stearns[13]

Qualifying 1 (10 Laps): 1. 02-David Boisclair, 00:21.505[2]; 2. 111-Demetrios Drellos, 00:21.533[6]; 3. 00X-Jason Gray, 00:21.533[3]; 4. 98H-Walter J Hammond, 00:21.568[1]; 5. T69-Travis Green, 00:21.832[7]; 6. 50X-Evan Roberts, 00:21.832[5]; 7. 52-Ron Proctor, 00:21.888[8]; 8. 98T-Tanner Warner, 00:21.907[13]; 9. 23I-Rusty Smith, 00:21.948[4]; 10. 357-Marty Kelly III, 00:22.055[11]; 11. 24-Jimmy Davis, 00:22.117[12]; 12. 44D-William Duprey, 00:22.729[10]; 13. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer, 00:22.858[9]; 14. 879-Darryl Mitchell, 00:23.977[14]

Qualifying 2 (10 Laps): 1. 33M-Richard Murtaugh, 00:21.638[14]; 2. 11S-Josh Sunn, 00:21.646[12]; 3. 30-Nicholas Root, 00:21.776[4]; 4. 777-Tyler Willard, 00:21.793[3]; 5. 66-Adam Piper, 00:21.893[9]; 6. 35R-Neil Stratton, 00:21.924[11]; 7. 10X-Cory Castell, 00:21.928[13]; 8. FOX28-Tyler Stevenson, 00:21.971[1]; 9. 72-James Friesen, 00:22.012[2]; 10. 44-Gordon Smith, 00:22.176[8]; 11. 12-Katrina Bean, 00:22.341[10]; 12. 97-Allan Hammond, 00:22.377[6]; 13. 9TH-Chris Murray, 00:22.575[7]; 14. 46-RYAN STORTINI, 00:22.860[5]

Qualifying 3 (10 Laps): 1. 18-Gavin Eisele, 00:21.464[6]; 2. 54-Tim LaDuc, 00:21.581[2]; 3. 25JR-William Lussier Jr, 00:21.636[11]; 4. 64-Tyler Corcoran, 00:21.678[5]; 5. 33-Pat Reiser, 00:21.695[12]; 6. 13-Frankie Hoard III, 00:21.826[13]; 7. 78-Vince Quenneville, 00:21.831[4]; 8. 31B-Ryan Dolbear, 00:21.896[7]; 9. 5-Tanner Siemons, 00:21.922[9]; 10. 53-Gary English, 00:22.076[1]; 11. 00-Steve Miller, 00:22.132[8]; 12. 19X-Freddie Little, 00:22.232[3]; 13. 211-Anthony Ryan, 00:22.577[10]

Qualifying 4 (10 Laps): 1. 33X-Matt Janczuk, 00:21.605[9]; 2. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:21.687[3]; 3. 7-Josh Leclaire, 00:21.712[1]; 4. 12S-Alex Bell, 00:21.809[6]; 5. 32X-Scott Duell, 00:21.937[11]; 6. 23T-Scott Towslee, 00:22.026[10]; 7. 75-Dave Camara, 00:22.157[12]; 8. 88-Fire Swamp, 00:22.163[7]; 9. 514-James Hanson, 00:22.220[2]; 10. 88H-Walter Hammond Jr, 00:22.226[8]; 11. 2J-Pat Jones, 00:22.313[13]; 12. 85P-Mike Palmer, 00:22.407[5]; 13. 23D-David Dickey, 00:22.457[4]

Qualifying 5 (10 Laps): 1. 38-Zach Sobotka, 00:21.720[13]; 2. 14B-Jack Lehner, 00:21.736[9]; 3. 11-Drew Boniface, 00:21.769[1]; 4. 51-Justin Comes, 00:21.853[11]; 5. 11X-Josh Masterson, 00:21.974[12]; 6. 21-Gary Edwards III, 00:21.988[4]; 7. 36-Brian Whittemore, 00:22.096[2]; 8. 13A-Troy Audet, 00:22.223[10]; 9. 66B-Jason Bruno, 00:22.275[7]; 10. 10-Jim Nagle, 00:22.287[5]; 11. 33R-Travis Bruno, 00:22.299[3]; 12. 07-Hunter Nutter, 00:22.329[6]; 13. 19T-Travis Billington, 00:22.408[8]

Qualifying 6 (10 Laps): 1. 14T-Payton Talbot, 00:21.600[12]; 2. 80-Dom Roselli, 00:21.734[7]; 3. 2-Brent Warren, 00:21.884[4]; 4. 73-Kevin Chaffee, 00:21.891[13]; 5. 25-Billy Lussier, 00:21.905[6]; 6. 60W-Anthony Warren, 00:22.037[10]; 7. 7X-Cody McPherson, 00:22.039[5]; 8. 17-Brian Krummel, 00:22.045[9]; 9. 813-Jason Quenneville, 00:22.084[8]; 10. 60-Jim Ryan, 00:22.121[1]; 11. 42-Camden Duffy, 00:22.351[11]; 12. 751-Alex Layn, 00:22.397[3]; 13. 1D-Wayne Stearns, 00:23.033[2]
15 entries
Novice Sportsman

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 00-Patrick Miner[4]; 2. 78-Don Williams[8]; 3. 510-Matthew Wade[14]; 4. 28X-Bobbi Hults[2]; 5. 9-Tyler Travis[3]; 6. 4X-Joshua Patterson[10]; 7. 12-Randy Edson[7]; 8. 77-Eric Shaw[9]; 9. 10X-Aaron Clark[13]; 10. 40-Ed Bell[12]; 11. 52X-Adam Lafountain[11]; 12. 75-Derrick Counter[5]; 13. 99-Russell Farr III[1]; 14. 49-Allen Hewitt[6]; 15. 5-Nick Austin Neil[15]
12 entries
500cc Mini Sprints

Segment 2 (10 Laps): 1. 24-Logan Denis[10]; 2. 68-Raymond Hanson[11]; 3. 54-Roger Laduc[8]; 4. 67-Kevin Smith[4]; 5. 10-John Smith[7]; 6. 9Q-Quinn Quenneville[2]; 7. 5-John Carleton[3]; 8. 4-Tommy Kasuba[9]; 9. 11A-Gage Provencher[5]; 10. 12-Aiden Benoure[1]; 11. 743-Ashleigh Kulzer[12]; 12. (DNS) 100-Lane Saville