Payton Talbot Scores Short Track Super Series Sportsman Main Event Win Saturday At Fonda

Story By: RON SZCZERBA / FONDA SPEEDWAY – FONDA, NY – Payton Talbot capped off an amazing 2023 season at the Fonda Speedway by taking home the victory in the Short Track Super Series Sportsman feature as part of Fonda 200 Weekend.

Joe Toth and Brian Calabrese started the 25-lap STSS Crate 602 Sportsman feature on the front row and after contact by the two on lap one in turn three, Calabrese was the lap one leader. Calabrese was in lap traffic by lap five with Talbot the new second place car on a lap eight restart.

The halfway point saw Calabrese, Talbot, Toth, Michael Ballestero, and 13th place starter Tyler Peet completing the top five. At the completion of lap 14, Talbot took over the lead from Calabrese with lap traffic coming into play four laps later. While Talbot pulled away to his seventh win of the season, the story of the race was the comeback by Chad Edwards after starting the event in the 19th position after winning consolation event number one.

Edwards was running in the top ten when he was run up high in turn two on lap nine and dropped back to the 17th position. The never quit attitude was definitely in play for Edwards as by lap 21 when the caution came out he was already in the top five. Lap after lap Edwards continued his march to the front, taking the second position away from Toth on the final lap.

Talbot was the winner of the event followed by Edwards, Toth, Peet, and 14th place starter Tim Hartman Jr.

“Yeah this car was awesome,” Talbot said after the win in the Ted’s Body Shop #14T Bicknell car. “I think that we struggled there for the first five or six laps and then once we found the top it was good. I’ve always loved the top here, I’m more comfortable on the top than I am on the bottom. What a way to top off the year, I want to thank everyone that’s behind me. What a way to cap off the year.”

“I started 19th, got up to sixth and I got a little impatient and tried to go down the middle on a restart,” Edwards said after his second place finish. “I almost went into the wall and fell back to where I started and then just worked my way back up. Thanks to Mikey Jackson for getting us going on a new shock package with Andrew Buff and Jams Performance and this car really came to life tonight.”

“Definitely a good run,” third place finisher Joe Toth said after the race. “I started on the pole and went backwards so to finish third behind those two after all they have done here dominating on a weekly basis. I had help from Bob Henry Sr. to get the car dialed in here and I want to thank Andy Belmont for letting me travel all over the place with his race cars.”

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 14T-Payton Talbot[4]; 2. 10%-Chad Edwards[19]; 3. 14-Joe Toth[1]; 4. 12T-Tyler Peet[13]; 5. 22H-Tim Hartman Jr.[14]; 6. 21C-Brian Calabrese[2]; 7. 63-Chip Constantino[9]; 8. 14Z-Troy Zilles[11]; 9. 96-Michael McCallion[5]; 10. B24-Brendan Gibbons[24]; 11. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell[20]; 12. 78-Tanner Warner[23]; 13. 27B-Michael Ballestero[3]; 14. 25-Stephen Gray[17]; 15. 314-Clayton Dumond[8]; 16. 89-Dylan Madsen[25]; 17. 2K-Michael Kalkbrenner[12]; 18. 00-Donovan Lussier[27]; 19. 72-James Friesen[10]; 20. 9K-Blaine Klinger[28]; 21. 82-David Hackett[15]; 22. 711-Chris Crane Jr[16]; 23. 42H-Kadon Hohensheldt[18]; 24. 35-Greg Crooker[29]; 25. 31J-John Dumond[6]; 26. 8-Josh Kane[21]; 27. 43-Tavien Blowers[26]; 28. 77J-Jeff Higham[7]; 29. 4M-David Manchester[22]; 30. 1B-Brett Mortensen[30]

LAP LEADERS – 1-13 Calabrese, 14-25 Talbot

DID NOT QUALIFY – Roger Hummer, Mike Hill, Kyle Dingman, Zack Welch, Connor Prokop, Brandon Tyler, Mark Mortensen, Dylan Eldred, Josh Coonradt, Mike Arnold, John Santolin, Tim Deffer, Cody Clark, Tyler Bobar, Dave DiPietro, Jean-Francois Tessier, Wesley Sutliff, Chris Kugler, Keith Buckhart, Walter Cook, Zach Dufel, Connor Crane, Seth Martin, John Feagles, Clyde Peek, Karl Barnes, John Anderson, Dale Van Allen, Collin Williams, Harry Shaffer, Dan Santabarbara, Michael Wagner-Fitzgerald, Donnie Campbell, Robert Perry

GRECO’S NAPA HARD CHARGER AWARD – Edwards +17

Consolation 1 (8 Laps): 1. 10%-Chad Edwards[1]; 2. 4M-David Manchester[3]; 3. 89-Dylan Madsen[6]; 4. 1B-Brett Mortensen[8]; 5. 91H-Zach Dufel[4]; 6. 711X-Connor Crane[10]; 7. 55-Jonny Feagles[14]; 8. 12P-Connor Prokop[13]; 9. 47-Walter Cook[2]; 10. 1D-Kyle Dingman[9]; 11. 22-Mike Hill[7]; 12. 67W-Zack Welch[11]; 13. 99-Clyde Peek[16]; 14. H2-Roger Hummer[5]; 15. 621-Seth Martin[12]; 16. 428-Brandon Tyler[15]

Consolation 2 (8 Laps): 1. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell[2]; 2. 78-Tanner Warner[3]; 3. 43-Tavien Blowers[4]; 4. 4-Cody Clark[15]; 5. 28D-Dylan Eldred[5]; 6. 76A-Mike Arnold[9]; 7. 19-Tim Deffer[13]; 8. 00X-Josh Coonradt[7]; 9. 307-Karl Barnes[6]; 10. 6-John Santolin[11]; 11. 29-Dale Van Allen[10]; 12. (DNS) 20-John Anderson; 13. (DNS) 5W-Collin Williams; 14. (DNS) 1H-Harry Shaffer; 15. (DQ) 1M-Mark Mortensen[1]

Consolation 3 (8 Laps): 1. 8-Josh Kane[1]; 2. B24-Brendan Gibbons[2]; 3. 00-Donovan Lussier[4]; 4. 12B-Tyler Bobar[3]; 5. 27Z-Dave DiPietro[5]; 6. 76-Jean Francois Tessier[9]; 7. 9K-Blaine Klinger[6]; 8. 35-Greg Crooker[7]; 9. 88W-Michael Wagner Fitzgerald[10]; 10. 85R-Wesley Sutliff[11]; 11. 17C-Donnie Campbell[12]; 12. (DNS) 7J-Dan Santabarbara; 13. (DNS) 88-Chris Kugler; 14. (DNS) 74-Robert Perry; 15. (DNS) 4B-Keith Buckhart

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 14Z-Troy Zilles[2]; 2. 14T-Payton Talbot[4]; 3. 12T-Tyler Peet[5]; 4. 10%-Chad Edwards[11]; 5. 4M-David Manchester[6]; 6. H2-Roger Hummer[1]; 7. 22-Mike Hill[3]; 8. 1D-Kyle Dingman[10]; 9. 67W-Zack Welch[8]; 10. 12P-Connor Prokop[9]; 11. 428-Brandon Tyler[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 77J-Jeff Higham[1]; 2. 314-Clayton Dumond[2]; 3. 22H-TIM HARTMAN[4]; 4. 1M-Mark Mortensen[7]; 5. 78-Tanner Warner[10]; 6. 28D-Dylan Eldred[8]; 7. 00X-Josh Coonradt[3]; 8. 76A-Mike Arnold[11]; 9. 6-John Santolin[5]; 10. 19-Tim Deffer[9]; 11. (DNS) 4-Cody Clark

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 31J-John Dumond[1]; 2. 21C-Brian Calabrese[4]; 3. 82-David Hackett[3]; 4. 8-Josh Kane[7]; 5. 12B-Tyler Bobar[10]; 6. 27Z-Dave DiPietro[9]; 7. 35-Greg Crooker[11]; 8. 76-Jean Francois Tessier[8]; 9. 85R-Wesley Sutliff[6]; 10. 88-Chris Kugler[2]; 11. 4B-Keith Buckhart[5]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 14-Joe Toth[2]; 2. 2K-Michael Kalkbrenner[4]; 3. 711-Chris Crane Jr[3]; 4. 47-Walter Cook[1]; 5. 91H-Zach Dufel[7]; 6. 89-Dylan Madsen[11]; 7. 1B-Brett Mortensen[9]; 8. 711X-Connor Crane[10]; 9. 621-Seth Martin[5]; 10. 55-Jonny Feagles[6]; 11. 99-Clyde Peek[8]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 63-Chip Constantino[2]; 2. 72-James Friesen[1]; 3. 25-Stephen Gray[10]; 4. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell[7]; 5. 43-Tavien Blowers[9]; 6. 307-Karl Barnes[8]; 7. 20-John Anderson[6]; 8. 29-Dale Van Allen[3]; 9. 5W-Collin Williams[4]; 10. 1H-Harry Shaffer[5]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 27B-Michael Ballestero[1]; 2. 96-Michael McCallion[3]; 3. 42H-Kadon Hohensheldt[4]; 4. B24-Brendan Gibbons[6]; 5. 00-Donovan Lussier[7]; 6. 9K-Blaine Klinger[9]; 7. 7J-Dan Santabarbara[8]; 8. 88W-Michael Wagner Fitzgerald[10]; 9. 17C-Donnie Campbell[5]; 10. (DNS) 74-Robert Perry

Penske Racing Shocks Hot Laps: 1. 89-Dylan Madsen, 00:19.635[64]; 2. 1M-Mark Mortensen, 00:19.691[38]; 3. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:23.991[21]; 4. 22H-TIM HARTMAN, 00:19.900[20]; 5. 91H-Zach Dufel, 00:20.015[40]; 6. 14Z-Troy Zilles, 00:20.120[7]; 7. 82-David Hackett, 00:20.175[15]; 8. 12B-Tyler Bobar, 00:20.244[57]; 9. 7J-Dan Santabarbara, 00:20.244[48]; 10. 27B-Michael Ballestero, 00:20.284[6]; 11. 76-Jean Francois Tessier, 00:20.304[45]; 12. 711X-Connor Crane, 00:20.320[58]; 13. 9K-Blaine Klinger, 00:20.353[54]; 14. 14T-Payton Talbot, 00:23.991[19]; 15. 12P-Connor Prokop, 00:20.366[49]; 16. 14-Joe Toth, 00:20.388[10]; 17. 4-Cody Clark, 00:20.415[32]; 18. 96-Michael McCallion, 00:23.991[18]; 19. 35-Greg Crooker, 00:20.435[63]; 20. 42H-Kadon Hohensheldt, 00:20.481[24]; 21. 25-Stephen Gray, 00:20.487[59]; 22. 78-Tanner Warner, 00:20.490[56]; 23. 63-Chip Constantino, 00:20.504[11]; 24. 10%-Chad Edwards, 00:20.523[61]; 25. 8-Josh Kane, 00:20.539[39]; 26. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell, 00:20.559[41]; 27. 1D-Kyle Dingman, 00:20.577[55]; 28. 43-Tavien Blowers, 00:23.991[53]; 29. H2-Roger Hummer, 00:20.629[1]; 30. 88W-Michael Wagner Fitzgerald, 00:20.701[60]; 31. 314-Clayton Dumond, 00:20.750[8]; 32. B24-Brendan Gibbons, 00:20.757[36]; 33. 4M-David Manchester, 00:20.763[31]; 34. 711-Chris Crane Jr, 00:23.991[16]; 35. 85R-Wesley Sutliff, 00:20.958[33]; 36. 76A-Mike Arnold, 00:21.040[62]; 37. 12T-Tyler Peet, 00:21.059[25]; 38. 00X-Josh Coonradt, 00:21.063[14]; 39. 307-Karl Barnes, 00:21.064[47]; 40. 74-Robert Perry, 00:21.197[12]; 41. 99-Clyde Peek, 00:21.211[46]; 42. 28D-Dylan Eldred, 00:21.217[44]; 43. 1B-Brett Mortensen, 00:21.235[52]; 44. 67W-Zack Welch, 00:21.318[43]; 45. 72-James Friesen, 00:21.348[5]; 46. 27Z-Dave DiPietro, 00:21.377[51]; 47. 19-Tim Deffer, 00:21.406[50]; 48. 22-Mike Hill, 00:21.468[13]; 49. 31J-John Dumond, 00:21.566[3]; 50. 77J-Jeff Higham, 00:21.617[2]; 51. 428-Brandon Tyler, 00:21.814[37]; 52. 47-Walter Cook, 00:21.935[4]; 53. 4B-Keith Buckhart, 00:23.991[27]; 54. 2K-Michael Kalkbrenner, 00:22.081[22]; 55. 55-Jonny Feagles, 00:22.087[34]; 56. 621-Seth Martin, 00:22.195[28]; 57. 17C-Donnie Campbell, 00:22.462[30]; 58. 6-John Santolin, 00:23.040[26]; 59. 20-John Anderson, 00:23.193[35]; 60. 00-Donovan Lussier, 00:23.991[42]; 61. 5W-Collin Williams, 00:23.991[23]; 62. 1H-Harry Shaffer, 00:23.991[29]; 63. (DNS) 88-Chris Kugler; 64. (DNS) 29-Dale Van Allen