RPW Exclusive: Taking Lead Early, Matt Sheppard Cruises To Fifth Win Of ’24 At Utica-Rome

Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – VERNON, NY – After a dominating win Friday night in the Modified feature at Utica-Rome speedway, Matt Sheppard seemed to be bemused by talk that his team was in a slump.

“Everybody seems to think we’re in a slump,” Sheppard said in Victory Lane. “But we’ve had 6 podiums in a row and that’s a horrible slump to be in.”

There was no doubt about who was the fastest at Utica-Rome Friday night. Sheppard, who started 10th, was up to 4th by the 3rd lap when the first caution flew. On the restart, Sheppard swept into 2nd and took the lead from Addison Bowman on lap 6 with a slide job.

As Sheppard pulled out to a 6 second lead, Stewart Friesen was battling his way towards the front after starting 12th. Friesen was up to 3rd when the caution waved on lap 20 and he took 2nd on the restart and the caution flew again on lap 22. The side-by-side restart with Friesen caught Sheppard’s attention.

“We got out to a good lead and really didn’t want to see that caution. Anytime you see the 44 beside you at Utica-Rome, you have to be worried,” Sheppard said. “Thankfully for me, this car was outstanding tonight.”

Indeed it was as Super Matt pulled out to a 3.7 second advantage over Friesen by the time the checkered flag flew.
Willy Decker finished 3rd. Pat Ward advanced from 17th to finish 4th with Bowman finishing 5th.

Completing the top 10 were Michael Trautschold 6th, Rocky Warner 7th, Brandon Walters 8th, Alex Yankowski 9th and Justin Wright 10th.

“This thing was really good,” Sheppard concluded. “We made a few adjustments to where we were when the track was slick a few weeks ago. This car just came right back to life.”

The win was Sheppard’s 76th at Utica-Rome Speedway.

Clayton Dumond is on a roll on the Utica-Rome/Fonda circuit. After winning his 2nd career win at Fonda last Saturday, Dumond raced into Utica-Rome’s Crate 602 Sportsman Victory Lane for the first time Friday night.

Dumond took the lead early in the race, but he had some heavy competition not far behind in Matt Janczuk and Payton Talbot. An early race restart increased Dumond’s stress level.

“As soon as he (Janczuk) rolled up next to me on the restart, I was scared,” Dumond said. “I didn’t think the lead would last.”

But as the race progressed, Dumond maintained his lead.

“I was just trying to hit my marks,” Clayton said. “Janczuk’s hard to beat here. I’m still surprised.”
Dumond gave credit to some in Victory Lane.

“Chad Edwards gave me some pointers, I have to thank Chad a lot. And my brother helped me a lot after the heat race.”
Following Janczuk in 2nd was Talbot 3rd, Allan Hodge 4th and Josh Amodio 5th.

David Dickey placed 6th with Mike Richmond 7th, Jim Nagle 8th, Stephen Denton 9th and Blaine Klinger 10th.

After 14 years to get his first Pro Stock win, Devon Camenga grabbed his 2nd win in the last 3 Utica-Rome events.

“It would have been nice to have 3 in-a-row,” Camenga said in Victory Lane. “But waiting 14 years for the first win, 2 of the last 3, I’ll take it.”

Camenga took the lead with a 3 wide pass on lap 6 and outraced Bret Belden to the finish.

“It was so great to race with him. I knew he would race me super clean. He would creep up on me in 1 and 2 and I was better in 3 and 4. When I saw the huge gaggle of lapped cars, I just bombed it around the outside and hoped that he would get a little wadded up.”

And as the laps wound down, Camenga did increase his lead to take the win over Belden. Ivan Joslin advanced from 20th starting spot to finish 3rd. Hunter Keith was 4th and Jason Morrison 5th.

Rounding out the top 10 were Tim Wood in 6th, Jim Normoyle 7th, Shane Playford 8th, Mike Kazluaskas 9th and Johnny Holmes 10th.

Late race restarts can sometimes make all the difference in racing and that was the case in the Limited Sportsman at Utica-Rome on Friday.

With 5 laps to go, the caution flew. The field tightened up and Josh Coonradt, who had been a distant 3rd, passed Andrew McFadden for 2nd. And with 2 to go, Josh made the pass of Jayden Wust to take the win, his 5th Limited Sportsman victory of the season.

Following Wust in 2nd and McFadden in 3rd were Eric Jensen 4th and Carson Rothwell 5th. Hayden Coons was 6th, Maddy Broedel 7th, Eymarah Bowman 8th, Kristen Swartz 9th and Ernie Staelens 10th.

Kyle Simmons was Friday’s winner in the 4 Cylinders. Kamrin Krause was 2nd, Jeff Connolly 3rd, Wayne Russel Jr. was 4th and Hank Wedgren 5th. Russell Jr. was the single cam winner.

The All Star Slingshot win went to Brett Putnam. Paul Holic finished 2nd, Ayden Goodier 3rd, Nicholas Jenkins 4th and Sullivan Dickey 5th.

Addisyn Roger was the Junior Slingshot winner with Preston Trautschold 2nd and Parker Fowler 3rd.

Friday, June 21st will feature the Thunder on the Thruway Series: Modifieds ($4,000 to win), Crate 602 Sportsman ($1,500 to win), Pro Stocks ($1,000 to win) – All divisions plus Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modifieds.

3 Bastards Brewing Modifieds

A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[10]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen[12]; 3. 1X-Willy Decker[5]; 4. 42P-Pat Ward[17]; 5. 12B-Addison Bowman[1]; 6. 28T-Michael Trautschold[6]; 7. JS98-Rocky Warner[9]; 8. 22W-Brandon Walters[3]; 9. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[11]; 10. 19W-Justin Wright[14]; 11. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[7]; 12. 23-Brandon Loucks[2]; 13. 76-Jamike Sowle[20]; 14. 77-Alan Barker[4]; 15. 44C-Ed Downing[19]; 16. 16S-Jeremy Slosek[15]; 17. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[8]; 18. 97S-Randy Shantel[16]; 19. 82H-Ron Holmes[13]; 20. 16-Aaron Jacobs[21]; 21. 369-Jim Walsh[18]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Brandon Loucks[2]; 2. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[7]; 3. 28T-Michael Trautschold[4]; 4. 77-Alan Barker[3]; 5. 82H-Ron Holmes[1]; 6. 97S-Randy Shantel[6]; 7. 44C-Ed Downing[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22W-Brandon Walters[2]; 2. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[4]; 3. 44-Stewart Friesen[7]; 4. JS98-Rocky Warner[5]; 5. 19W-Justin Wright[3]; 6. 42P-Pat Ward[6]; 7. 76-Jamike Sowle[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1X-Willy Decker[3]; 2. 12B-Addison Bowman[1]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard[6]; 4. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[4]; 5. 16S-Jeremy Slosek[2]; 6. 369-Jim Walsh[5]; 7. 16-Aaron Jacobs[7]

Hot Laps: 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:18.248[12]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen, 00:18.414[6]; 3. 19W-Justin Wright, 00:18.596[20]; 4. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:18.677[21]; 5. 28T-Michael Trautschold, 00:18.691[15]; 6. 42P-Pat Ward, 00:18.812[18]; 7. 22W-Brandon Walters, 00:18.932[17]; 8. 97-Bobby Hackel IV, 00:18.982[7]; 9. 1X-Willy Decker, 00:19.036[3]; 10. 1Z-Jessica Friesen, 00:19.049[5]; 11. 77-Alan Barker, 00:19.073[1]; 12. 82H-Ron Holmes, 00:19.177[8]; 13. 23-Brandon Loucks, 00:19.298[10]; 14. 12B-Addison Bowman, 00:19.360[2]; 15. 16S-Jeremy Slosek, 00:19.560[13]; 16. 76-Jamike Sowle, 00:19.613[14]; 17. 97S-Randy Shantel, 00:19.673[11]; 18. 369-Jim Walsh, 00:20.226[16]; 19. 44C-Ed Downing, 00:20.616[4]; 20. (DNS) 16-Aaron Jacobs; 21. (DNS) JS98-Rocky Warner

Taylor’s Trailers Crate 602 Sportsman

A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 314-Clayton Dumond[2]; 2. 10A-Matt Janczuk[12]; 3. 14T-Payton Talbot[11]; 4. 7H-Allan Hodge[8]; 5. 2K-Josh Amodio[7]; 6. 23-David Dickey[5]; 7. 22X-Mike Richmond[10]; 8. 10-Jim Nagle[14]; 9. 44C-Stephen Denton[4]; 10. 9K-Blaine Klinger[6]; 11. 31J-John Dumond[9]; 12. 67W-Zack Welch[3]; 13. 262-Matthew Richardson[1]; 14. 11Z-Nick Zielinski[24]; 15. 621-Seth Martin[17]; 16. 63-Chip Constantino[16]; 17. 82H-David Hackett[13]; 18. 20K-Kyle Perry[23]; 19. 4C-Michelle Courcy[22]; 20. 4J-JJ Courcy[21]; 21. 40D-Butchie Irwin[18]; 22. 69-Blake Sarpriacone[19]; 23. 5EJ-EJ Gallup[15]; 24. 77L-Ed Lukas[20]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 44C-Stephen Denton[3]; 2. 10A-Matt Janczuk[8]; 3. 67W-Zack Welch[2]; 4. 7H-Allan Hodge[5]; 5. 82H-David Hackett[4]; 6. 63-Chip Constantino[6]; 7. 69-Blake Sarpriacone[1]; 8. 4C-Michelle Courcy[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 262-Matthew Richardson[1]; 2. 9K-Blaine Klinger[4]; 3. 22X-Mike Richmond[6]; 4. 31J-John Dumond[5]; 5. 10-Jim Nagle[7]; 6. 621-Seth Martin[3]; 7. 77L-Ed Lukas[2]; 8. 20K-Kyle Perry[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 14T-Payton Talbot[6]; 2. 23-David Dickey[3]; 3. 314-Clayton Dumond[1]; 4. 2K-Josh Amodio[4]; 5. 5EJ-EJ Gallup[5]; 6. 40D-Butchie Irwin[2]; 7. 4J-JJ Courcy[8]; 8. 11Z-Nick Zielinski[7]

Hot Laps: 1. 22X-Mike Richmond, 00:20.002[20]; 2. 14T-Payton Talbot, 00:20.122[22]; 3. 7H-Allan Hodge, 00:20.184[11]; 4. 262-Matthew Richardson, 00:20.219[19]; 5. 77L-Ed Lukas, 00:20.246[15]; 6. 69-Blake Sarpriacone, 00:20.262[21]; 7. 10-Jim Nagle, 00:20.268[17]; 8. 621-Seth Martin, 00:20.300[16]; 9. 10A-Matt Janczuk, 00:20.335[13]; 10. 63-Chip Constantino, 00:20.347[2]; 11. 314-Clayton Dumond, 00:20.347[7]; 12. 44C-Stephen Denton, 00:20.394[5]; 13. 40D-Butchie Irwin, 00:20.413[12]; 14. 82H-David Hackett, 00:20.430[10]; 15. 67W-Zack Welch, 00:20.437[23]; 16. 9K-Blaine Klinger, 00:20.461[14]; 17. 31J-John Dumond, 00:20.491[8]; 18. 20K-Kyle Perry, 00:20.610[18]; 19. 4C-Michelle Courcy, 00:20.727[4]; 20. 11Z-Nick Zielinski, 00:20.746[24]; 21. 23-David Dickey, 00:20.747[6]; 22. 5EJ-EJ Gallup, 00:20.814[9]; 23. 4J-JJ Courcy, 00:20.837[3]; 24. (DNS) 2K-Josh Amodio

Next Generation Graphix Pro Stocks

A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 110-Devon Camenga[11]; 2. 81-Bret Belden[9]; 3. 49-Ivan Joslin[20]; 4. 14H-Hunter Keith[1]; 5. 715-Jason Morrison[5]; 6. 22-Tim Wood[7]; 7. 74N-Jim Normoyle[8]; 8. 6-Shane Playford[10]; 9. 15K-Mike Kazluaskas[3]; 10. 28H-Johnny Holmes[2]; 11. 101-Ed Kotary[4]; 12. 94-Ryan Denton[17]; 13. 28G-Gus Gould[14]; 14. 14K-Mike Keith[15]; 15. 44-Ray Richer[22]; 16. 81A-Michael Achzet[6]; 17. 7-Eric Stumpf[16]; 18. 2H-Luke Horning[12]; 19. 13-George Cushman[13]; 20. 63-Matt Rose[18]; 21. 22W-AJ Walters[21]; 22. (DNS) 11-George Wright Sr

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 110-Devon Camenga[7]; 2. 81-Bret Belden[5]; 3. 14H-Hunter Keith[2]; 4. 101-Ed Kotary[3]; 5. 13-George Cushman[4]; 6. 7-Eric Stumpf[8]; 7. (DNS) 11-George Wright Sr; 8. (DNS) 44-Ray Richer

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2H-Luke Horning[7]; 2. 22-Tim Wood[4]; 3. 715-Jason Morrison[3]; 4. 28H-Johnny Holmes[2]; 5. 28G-Gus Gould[1]; 6. 94-Ryan Denton[6]; 7. 49-Ivan Joslin[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 6-Shane Playford[5]; 2. 81A-Michael Achzet[3]; 3. 74N-Jim Normoyle[4]; 4. 15K-Mike Kazluaskas[2]; 5. 14K-Mike Keith[1]; 6. 63-Matt Rose[7]; 7. 22W-AJ Walters[6]

Hot Laps: 1. 2H-Luke Horning, 00:22.245[8]; 2. 22-Tim Wood, 00:22.446[21]; 3. 110-Devon Camenga, 00:22.488[3]; 4. 81A-Michael Achzet, 00:22.646[1]; 5. 6-Shane Playford, 00:22.935[16]; 6. 14H-Hunter Keith, 00:22.971[11]; 7. 101-Ed Kotary, 00:23.011[13]; 8. 49-Ivan Joslin, 00:23.108[9]; 9. 28H-Johnny Holmes, 00:23.324[7]; 10. 94-Ryan Denton, 00:23.475[5]; 11. 22W-AJ Walters, 00:23.684[20]; 12. 14K-Mike Keith, 00:23.937[12]; 13. 63-Matt Rose, 00:24.820[18]; 14. (DNS) 81-Bret Belden; 15. (DNS) 13-George Cushman; 16. (DNS) 28G-Gus Gould; 17. (DNS) 15K-Mike Kazluaskas; 18. (DNS) 715-Jason Morrison; 19. (DNS) 74N-Jim Normoyle; 20. (DNS) 44-Ray Richer; 21. (DNS) 7-Eric Stumpf; 22. (DNS) 11-George Wright Sr

Fastline Performance Limited Sportsman

A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 00X-Josh Coonradt[8]; 2. 43J-Jayden Wust[4]; 3. 10-Andrew MacFadden[3]; 4. 57-Eric Jensen[5]; 5. 4-Carson Rothwell[6]; 6. 12-Hayden Coons[2]; 7. 26-Maddy Broedel[10]; 8. 5-Eymarah Bowman[7]; 9. 24-Kirsten Swartz[9]; 10. 17S-Ernie Staelens[1]; 11. 44D-Kadyn Depasquale[12]; 12. 55-Kolton Weiler[14]; 13. 60-Brad Poppleton[11]; 14. 0-Kyle Coley[13]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 00X-Josh Coonradt[7]; 2. 10-Andrew MacFadden[4]; 3. 57-Eric Jensen[5]; 4. 12-Hayden Coons[3]; 5. 24-Kirsten Swartz[2]; 6. 60-Brad Poppleton[1]; 7. 0-Kyle Coley[6]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 43J-Jayden Wust[4]; 2. 5-Eymarah Bowman[6]; 3. 4-Carson Rothwell[5]; 4. 17S-Ernie Staelens[1]; 5. 26-Maddy Broedel[3]; 6. 44D-Kadyn Depasquale[2]; 7. 55-Kolton Weiler[7]

Hot Laps: 1. 00X-Josh Coonradt, 00:20.233[4]; 2. 57-Eric Jensen, 00:20.446[6]; 3. 10-Andrew MacFadden, 00:20.506[7]; 4. 24-Kirsten Swartz, 00:20.806[11]; 5. 26-Maddy Broedel, 00:20.940[2]; 6. 4-Carson Rothwell, 00:21.389[9]; 7. 12-Hayden Coons, 00:21.472[14]; 8. 55-Kolton Weiler, 00:21.481[12]; 9. 60-Brad Poppleton, 00:21.802[8]; 10. (DNS) 5-Eymarah Bowman; 11. (DNS) 0-Kyle Coley; 12. (DNS) 44D-Kadyn Depasquale; 13. (DNS) 17S-Ernie Staelens; 14. (DNS) 43J-Jayden Wust

Fonda Fair Four Cylinders

A Feature (12 Laps): 1. 13D-Kyle Simmons[2]; 2. 09D-Kamrin Krause[3]; 3. 31D-Jeff Connolly[9]; 4. 54S-Wayne Russell Jr[8]; 5. 35S-Hank Wedgren[4]; 6. H35S-Hank Wedgren Jr[6]; 7. 666D-Rudy King Jr[1]; 8. 212S-TJ Marlitt[5]; 9. 33D-John Haman[10]; 10. (DNS) 17RD-Joseph Bouck

Heat 1 (5 Laps): 1. 666D-Rudy King Jr[6]; 2. 13D-Kyle Simmons[5]; 3. 09D-Kamrin Krause[10]; 4. 35S-Hank Wedgren[2]; 5. 212S-TJ Marlitt[4]; 6. H35S-Hank Wedgren Jr[1]; 7. 17RD-Joseph Bouck[8]; 8. 54S-Wayne Russell Jr[7]; 9. 31D-Jeff Connolly[3]; 10. 33D-John Haman[9]

Hot Laps: 1. 54S-Wayne Russell Jr, 00:25.745[7]; 2. 212S-TJ Marlitt, 00:27.303[6]; 3. (DNS) 17RD-Joseph Bouck; 4. (DNS) 31D-Jeff Connolly; 5. (DNS) 33D-John Haman; 6. (DNS) 666D-Rudy King Jr; 7. (DNS) 09D-Kamrin Krause; 8. (DNS) 13D-Kyle Simmons; 9. (DNS) 35S-Hank Wedgren; 10. (DNS) H35S-Hank Wedgren Jr

All Star Slingshots

A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 6B-Brett Putnam[2]; 2. 115-Paul Holic[1]; 3. 85X-Jason Dufel[4]; 4. 56-Ayden Goodier[6]; 5. 8-Tadd Granger[3]; 6. 29-Billy Richardson[5]; 7. 7J-Nicholas Jenkins[8]; 8. 54-Sullivan Dickey[7]; 9. 83-Corbyn White[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 115-Paul Holic[1]; 2. 8-Tadd Granger[2]; 3. 29-Billy Richardson[5]; 4. 54-Sullivan Dickey[3]; 5. 83-Corbyn White[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 6B-Brett Putnam[4]; 2. 85X-Jason Dufel[3]; 3. 56-Ayden Goodier[2]; 4. 7J-Nicholas Jenkins[1]

Hot Laps: 1. 6B-Brett Putnam, 00:14.049[7]; 2. 115-Paul Holic, 00:14.408[5]; 3. 56-Ayden Goodier, 00:14.435[3]; 4. 7J-Nicholas Jenkins, 00:14.445[6]; 5. 54-Sullivan Dickey, 00:14.693[1]; 6. 29-Billy Richardson, 00:15.174[8]; 7. 83-Corbyn White, 00:15.542[9]; 8. (DNS) 85X-Jason Dufel; 9. (DNS) 8-Tadd Granger

Junior Slingshots

A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 28RS-Addisyn Roger[1]; 2. 20-Preston Trautschold[3]; 3. 22-Parker Fowler[2]; 4. 33X-Brody Janczuk[5]; 5. 27-Blake Banek[4]; 6. 67X-Jaxx Welch[6]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 28RS-Addisyn Roger[6]; 2. 22-Parker Fowler[2]; 3. 20-Preston Trautschold[5]; 4. 27-Blake Banek[4]; 5. 33X-Brody Janczuk[3]; 6. 67X-Jaxx Welch[1]

Hot Laps: 1. 28RS-Addisyn Roger, 00:14.519[4]; 2. 27-Blake Banek, 00:14.550[1]; 3. 22-Parker Fowler, 00:14.873[2]; 4. 20-Preston Trautschold, 00:15.203[5]; 5. 33X-Brody Janczuk, 00:15.557[3]; 6. 67X-Jaxx Welch, 00:15.850[6]