RPW Exclusive: A Most Fitting Win: Stewart Friesen Victorious On Autism Awareness Night At Fonda

Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – FONDA, NY – It’s always a special event for the Friesen family, Stewart, Jessica and Parker.

It was the annual One Zee Tees/Aim Autism Awareness Night at Fonda Speedway. The featured event was the fundraising Aim Autism BBQ and as it’s been in the past, it was most successful.

And it was a successful night on track for Stewart’s #44 Modified as he blitzed his way from 10th starting spot to take the lead at halfway and go on to win on the special night.

“Thanks for all the great race fans that come out and supporting this place and supporting our barbecue,” Friesen said. “We raised a heck of a lot of money today, about $35,000 for the Crossroads Center for Children. Thanks so much to the management here to allow us to do this. It’s a big deal. That number makes a difference for Crossroads and we are proud to be here to do it.”

Friesen was on the move quickly in the 30 lap feature. After one unsuccessful attempt to start the race, the 2nd attempt was better and saw Codi Clark as the early leader.

As Friesen was quickly moving towards the front, Clark was stretching his lead out to over 6 seconds. Friesen was 5th by lap 5 and passed Jamike Sowle, Bobby Hackel and Pep Corradi in succession to move into 2nd.

Friesen still had a 6 second deficit to make up on Clark, but he did it in a hurry. Friesen was caught up to Clark by lap 16 and he made the race winning pass 2 laps later.

Mike Maresca was the only car that appeared to have good enough speed to give Friesen a battle But after making some gains on Friesen in lapped traffic, Stewart was able to put a buffer of 2 lapped cars in between himself and Maresca and opened the lead again.

At the finish, Friesen had a margin of victory of 2.6 seconds over Maresca. Clark, going through a very tough season at Fonda, finished 3rd. Alex Yankowski was 4th and Jack Lehner 5th.

Rounding out the Modified feature top 10 running order were Hackel 6th, Rocky Warner 7th, Ronnie Johnson 8th, Jessica Friesen 9th and Dave Constantino 10th.

It was Friesen’s 6th win at Fonda this year and the 94th of his career. And for Friesen’s tire specialist, Jay Castimore, it was a milestone win for him, his 800th as a crew member.

“It’s super special. We’re super fortunate to have Jaybird on our team. To get his 800th win, it’s a number that I can’t even think about,” Friesen said. “He’s been dedicated to our team and the sport and other race teams for many, many years. Proud to be with him here tonight to reach this milestone.”

With the 50/50 donation, the final tally on the fundraiser was $38,416 according to Stewart’s social media page. His main sponsor, Halmar International added another $11,584 for an even $50,000 donation to the Crossroads Center for Children.

A truly outstanding job by the Friesen family, Halmar International and all the fans who helped to make this such a successful fundraiser.

Mark Mortensen has had a season of frustration in the Fonda Speedway Crate 602 Sportsman division. But his season brightened considerably on Saturday as Mortensen posted an impressive victory.

“It definitely feels good. We have just been trying to figure out the whole coil thing. I have to thank DKM and Elmo’s. I got to thank Brendan Gibbons. He has been running me through the coil and load stuff and trying to get me to understand that better,” Mortensen said. “Jack Lehner, he’s helped and so has Erik Nelson. A lot of people who have been behind us and are kind of pushing us.”

Mortensen took the lead on lap 9 from early leader Blaine Klinger and proceeded to stretch out a big lead over Mike Kalkbrenner, who had gotten past Klinger for 2nd.

Mortensen’s big lead was wiped away when with 5 laps to go, 602 Crate Sportsman point leader Payton Talbot clipped the yuke tire, spun and brought out the caution.

But Mortensen was not to be denied victory on this night as he sailed through the final 5 laps of the 25 lap feature to take the win by 1.825 seconds over Kalrbrenner. Klinger finished 3rd with Chip Constantino 4th and Tyler Peet 5th.

Finishing spots 6 thru 10 went to Brendan Gibbons 6th, Tanner Warner 7th, Ricky Quick 8th, Dylan Madsen 10th.

Tim Wilmot was Saturday’s Limited Sportsman winner for his first of the season and the 2nd of his career.

“We’ve been fighting it all year. I’m just happy for this one,” Wilmot said. “I can’t thank my crew enough.”

The early part of the race was caution marred, but they got it going and Wilmot was out in front of Corky Warner. With 5 to go, Warner was putting the heat on Wilmot for the lead. But Wilmot was able to hang on to win by nearly a second over Warner. Jeff Bobilin was 3rd, Adam Tranka 4th and Phil Arnold 5th.

Kenny Gates scored career win 96 in the Pro Stocks at Fonda on Saturday night.

“The beginning of the race had to be entertaining,” Gates said. “We were high, low, side-by-side for multiple laps.”

And indeed it was Three wide coming out of turn two at the start, it was Nick Stone with the early lead. Ivan Joslin led briefly until Stone moved back in front. The 4th starting Gates took the lead right at the halfway mark.

As Gates pulled away, changing positions saw Chucky Dumblewski get by Stone and finish 2nd, Stone finished 3rd with Joslin 4th and Jason Morrison 5th.

It was a sweep by the Brother’s Hollenbeck in the 4 Cylinders as Ken Hollenbeck was the overall and Single Cam winner with brother Kerrie Hollenbeck finishing 2nd overall and the Dual Cam winner. Jay Ingersoll finished 3rd, Hayleigh Gates 4th and John Napoli 5th.

Fonda’s regular season is already winding down with only 2 points races left. Next Saturday, August 3rd, it will be all divisions plus M2 Metal Crate Late Models $1,000 to win.

Modifieds

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 44-Stewart Friesen[10]; 2. 7MM-Michael Maresca[6]; 3. 4-Cody Clark[1]; 4. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[8]; 5. 85-Jack Lehner[9]; 6. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[7]; 7. 1-Rocky Warner[15]; 8. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[11]; 9. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[12]; 10. 34-Dave Constantino[4]; 11. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[2]; 12. 76-Jamike Sowle[3]; 13. 93-Ryan Odasz[16]; 14. 21C-Brian Calabrese[5]; 15. 24-Adam McAuliffe[17]; 16. 42-Tucker O’Connor[14]; 17. 24P-Brian Pessolano[13]; 18. 27-Jason Reome[20]; 19. 22W-Brandon Walters[19]; 20. 66-Don Bellen[21]; 21. 16-Aaron Jacobs[18]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Cody Clark[1]; 2. 76-Jamike Sowle[2]; 3. 21C-Brian Calabrese[3]; 4. 7MM-Michael Maresca[4]; 5. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[8]; 6. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[6]; 7. 24P-Brian Pessolano[5]; 8. 1-Rocky Warner[7]; 9. 24-Adam McAuliffe[10]; 10. 22W-Brandon Walters[9]; 11. 66-Don Bellen[11]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 34-Dave Constantino[2]; 2. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[6]; 3. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[1]; 4. 44-Stewart Friesen[9]; 5. 85-Jack Lehner[8]; 6. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[5]; 7. 42-Tucker O’Connor[3]; 8. 93-Ryan Odasz[4]; 9. 16-Aaron Jacobs[10]; 10. 27-Jason Reome[7]

Hot Laps: 1. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:18.063[20]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen, 00:18.137[6]; 3. 4-Cody Clark, 00:18.314[2]; 4. 1-Rocky Warner, 00:18.333[19]; 5. 34-Dave Constantino, 00:18.415[3]; 6. 7MM-Michael Maresca, 00:18.448[11]; 7. 1Z-Jessica Friesen, 00:18.458[5]; 8. 97-Bobby Hackel IV, 00:18.709[7]; 9. 22W-Brandon Walters, 00:18.784[18]; 10. 42-Tucker O’Connor, 00:18.840[13]; 11. 85-Jack Lehner, 00:18.876[10]; 12. 93-Ryan Odasz, 00:18.896[14]; 13. 24P-Brian Pessolano, 00:19.030[15]; 14. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi, 00:19.140[4]; 15. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:19.274[1]; 16. 76-Jamike Sowle, 00:19.401[17]; 17. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson, 00:19.622[9]; 18. 24-Adam McAuliffe, 00:20.180[12]; 19. 27-Jason Reome, 00:20.575[16]; 20. (DNS) 16-Aaron Jacobs; 21. (DNS) 66-Don Bellen

Crate 602 Sportsman

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 1M-Mark Mortensen[3]; 2. 2K-Mike Kalkbrenner[5]; 3. 9K-Blaine Klinger[2]; 4. 63-Chip Constantino[7]; 5. 12T-Tyler Peet[9]; 6. B24-Brendan Gibbons[12]; 7. 78-Tanner Warner[13]; 8. 84-Ricky Quick[8]; 9. 89-Dylan Madsen[11]; 10. 10%-Chad Edwards[14]; 11. 8-Josh Kane[4]; 12. 55-Jonny Feagles[17]; 13. 40D-Butchie Irwin[16]; 14. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell[15]; 15. 1H-Harry Shaffer[1]; 16. 12P-Connor Prokop[19]; 17. 4-Al McCoy[20]; 18. 14T-Payton Talbot[10]; 19. 25-Stephen Gray[18]; 20. 1B-Brett Mortensen[6]; 21. 99-Clyde Peek[21]; 22. (DNS) 797-Dan Santabarbara

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1M-Mark Mortensen[3]; 2. 1H-Harry Shaffer[1]; 3. 2K-Mike Kalkbrenner[4]; 4. 63-Chip Constantino[6]; 5. 14T-Payton Talbot[10]; 6. 89-Dylan Madsen[8]; 7. 78-Tanner Warner[9]; 8. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell[5]; 9. 55-Jonny Feagles[11]; 10. 12P-Connor Prokop[7]; 11. 99-Clyde Peek[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 9K-Blaine Klinger[1]; 2. 1B-Brett Mortensen[4]; 3. 12T-Tyler Peet[9]; 4. 8-Josh Kane[3]; 5. 84-Ricky Quick[7]; 6. B24-Brendan Gibbons[10]; 7. 10%-Chad Edwards[8]; 8. 40D-Butchie Irwin[5]; 9. 25-Stephen Gray[6]; 10. 4-Al McCoy[2]; 11. 797-Dan Santabarbara[11]

Hot Laps: 1. 10%-Chad Edwards, 00:19.772[2]; 2. 89-Dylan Madsen, 00:19.839[10]; 3. 14T-Payton Talbot, 00:19.869[19]; 4. 8-Josh Kane, 00:19.996[8]; 5. 1B-Brett Mortensen, 00:20.004[12]; 6. 12T-Tyler Peet, 00:20.062[15]; 7. 78-Tanner Warner, 00:20.072[21]; 8. 40D-Butchie Irwin, 00:20.101[6]; 9. 84-Ricky Quick, 00:20.106[17]; 10. 1M-Mark Mortensen, 00:20.159[13]; 11. 9K-Blaine Klinger, 00:20.175[9]; 12. 55-Jonny Feagles, 00:20.212[3]; 13. 63-Chip Constantino, 00:20.214[1]; 14. B24-Brendan Gibbons, 00:20.225[4]; 15. 25-Stephen Gray, 00:20.309[5]; 16. 2K-Mike Kalkbrenner, 00:20.340[7]; 17. 1H-Harry Shaffer, 00:20.663[18]; 18. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell, 00:21.036[20]; 19. 4-Al McCoy, 00:21.159[11]; 20. 99-Clyde Peek, 00:21.200[14]; 21. (DNS) 12P-Connor Prokop

Pro Stocks

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 35-Ken Gates[4]; 2. 7D-Chucky Dumblewski[6]; 3. 8N-Nick Stone[2]; 4. 49-Ivan Joslin[3]; 5. 715-Jason Morrison[1]; 6. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[8]; 7. 96-Andy Graves[5]; 8. 15M-Mike Hill[10]; 9. 75-Gary Silkey[7]; 10. 74N-Jim Normoyle[9]; 11. 1D-Nick Santuccione[11]; 12. 62-Nick Danna[12]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 49-Ivan Joslin[4]; 2. 715-Jason Morrison[2]; 3. 96-Andy Graves[6]; 4. 75-Gary Silkey[1]; 5. 74N-Jim Normoyle[5]; 6. 1D-Nick Santuccione[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8N-Nick Stone[3]; 2. 35-Ken Gates[5]; 3. 7D-Chucky Dumblewski[6]; 4. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[4]; 5. 15M-Mike Hill[1]; 6. 62-Nick Danna[2]

Hot Laps: 1. 8N-Nick Stone, 00:22.377[12]; 2. 49-Ivan Joslin, 00:22.566[7]; 3. 35-Ken Gates, 00:22.722[4]; 4. 75-Gary Silkey, 00:23.357[11]; 5. 96-Andy Graves, 00:23.444[5]; 6. 74N-Jim Normoyle, 00:23.530[9]; 7. 15M-Mike Hill, 00:23.837[6]; 8. 1D-Nick Santuccione, 00:24.351[10]; 9. (DNS) 62-Nick Danna; 10. (DNS) 7C-Caden Dumblewski; 11. (DNS) 7D-Chucky Dumblewski; 12. (DNS) 715-Jason Morrison

Limited Sportsman

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 14W-Timothy Wilmot[2]; 2. 797-Corky Warner[3]; 3. 1B-Jeff Bobilin[6]; 4. 44J-Adam Tranka[9]; 5. 216-Phil Arnold[12]; 6. 47-Walter Cook[8]; 7. 37-Ryan Sweet[15]; 8. 12AJ-AJ Greco[5]; 9. 26B-Maddy Broedel[11]; 10. 13J-Jim Mallia[16]; 11. 26-Mason Gray[18]; 12. 66-Kathy Bellen[20]; 13. 24-Kirsten Swartz[4]; 14. 618-Bobby Rhinehardt[13]; 15. 14-Ginger Billy[17]; 16. 2-Brandon Tyler[14]; 17. 11-Josh Persse[1]; 18. 22L-Lance Hill[7]; 19. 4-Jimmy Beach[19]; 20. (DQ) 62-Shawn Gibbons[10]

Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 797-Corky Warner[2]; 2. 12AJ-AJ Greco[3]; 3. 11-Josh Persse[1]; 4. 22L-Lance Hill[4]; 5. 44J-Adam Tranka[5]; 6. 26B-Maddy Broedel[6]; 7. 618-Bobby Rhinehardt[7]; 8. 37-Ryan Sweet[9]; 9. 14-Ginger Billy[10]; 10. 4-Jimmy Beach[8]

Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 14W-Timothy Wilmot[1]; 2. 1B-Jeff Bobilin[3]; 3. 24-Kirsten Swartz[2]; 4. 47-Walter Cook[4]; 5. 62-Shawn Gibbons[7]; 6. 216-Phil Arnold[5]; 7. 2-Brandon Tyler[9]; 8. 13J-Jim Mallia[6]; 9. 26-Mason Gray[8]; 10. 66-Kathy Bellen[10]

Hot Laps: 1. 62-Shawn Gibbons, 00:20.246[8]; 2. 14W-Timothy Wilmot, 00:20.381[20]; 3. 618-Bobby Rhinehardt, 00:20.407[14]; 4. 1B-Jeff Bobilin, 00:20.491[5]; 5. 66-Kathy Bellen, 00:20.502[3]; 6. 26-Mason Gray, 00:20.522[9]; 7. 24-Kirsten Swartz, 00:20.635[15]; 8. 26B-Maddy Broedel, 00:20.720[6]; 9. 22L-Lance Hill, 00:20.875[11]; 10. 216-Phil Arnold, 00:20.894[1]; 11. 44J-Adam Tranka, 00:20.933[17]; 12. 797-Corky Warner, 00:21.014[19]; 13. 13J-Jim Mallia, 00:21.622[12]; 14. 37-Ryan Sweet, 00:22.386[16]; 15. 4-Jimmy Beach, 00:24.270[2]; 16. 12AJ-AJ Greco, 00:36.547[10]; 17. (DNS) 14-Ginger Billy; 18. (DNS) 47-Walter Cook; 19. (DNS) 11-Josh Persse; 20. (DNS) 2-Brandon Tyler

Four Cylinders

Feature (12 Laps): 1. 12S-Ken Hollenbeck[10]; 2. 33D-Kerrie Hollenbeck[8]; 3. 97JD-Jay Ingersoll[12]; 4. 42D-Hayleigh Gates[5]; 5. 3D-John Napoli[13]; 6. 23TD-Keith Tesiero Jr[7]; 7. 54S-Wayne Russell Jr[6]; 8. 212S-TJ Marlitt[4]; 9. K1S-William Liberatore[1]; 10. 17RD-Joe Bouck Jr[11]; 11. 29JD-John Ray[2]; 12. 420XS-Tim Warner[3]; 13. 98S-Stephanie Maille[9]

Hot Laps: 1. 3D-John Napoli, 00:25.942[8]; 2. 42D-Hayleigh Gates, 00:27.349[1]; 3. 29JD-John Ray, 00:27.833[9]; 4. (DNS) 12S-Ken Hollenbeck; 5. (DNS) 33D-Kerrie Hollenbeck; 6. (DNS) 97JD-Jay Ingersoll; 7. (DNS) K1S-William Liberatore; 8. (DNS) 98S-Stephanie Maille; 9. (DNS) 212S-TJ Marlitt; 10. (DNS) 54S-Wayne Russell Jr; 11. (DNS) 23TD-Keith Tesiero Jr; 12. (DNS) 420XS-Tim Warner