Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – VERNON, NY – Brian Calabrese won his 2nd ever Short Track Super Series Crate 602 Sportsman race that was held as part of the Richie Evans Remembered event at Utica-Rome Speedway Thursday.
And he had to outrace some very tough competition to grab the victory.
“It’s never easy when you have those two behind you (Matt Janczuk and Payton Talbot). I felt like they were 2 inches away from me the whole race,” Calabrese said.
Calabrese started 5th, but was able to take the lead from Zach Sobotka on a lap 3 restart and he really wasn’t challenged the rest of the way.
“The flagger was giving me the distance, but it can close quickly. Got jammed up behind these lapped cars.”
Calabrese is happy to see that his racing fortunes at Utica-Rome are improving.
“I used to hang my head leaving here, I would be so mad at this place,” Brian said. “This was such a tough racetrack to get around. Now, we can come here and dominate.”
Janczuk and Talbot had an excellent race for 2nd with the drivers swapping the positions several times before Matt claimed the runner-up spot at the finish.
“A lot of good cars in this class,” Janczuk said. “And it makes us work harder. Congratulations to Brian, he’s been fast every time he’s been here this year. Hats off to him. He’s got that thing going and it just makes me work a little bit harder. “We’ll keep working at it and we’ll take 2nd.”
Talbot was able to finish 3rd despite issues the team had after the heat race.
“Right after the heat race, we pulled in and had a sheared bolt in the rear end,” Talbot said. “We took and changed that and changed the whole rear end actually. We started 9th and it was tough with Matt and Brian starting in front of us. We got by Matt, but I don’t know if we had anything for Brian. The right rear got hot there on lap 15 or so and Matt rolled us back on the bottom.”
Tyler Peet drew the worst in the redraw, but he was able to advance to 4th. Sobotka finished 5th with Kyle Devendorf 6th, Chip Constantino 7th, Josh Amodio 8th, Jim Nagle 9th and Zack Welch 10th.
Andrew McFadden led the whole way to grab the checkers in the Limited Sportsman race. It was his 2nd win at Utica-Rome this season.
“I usually love the top around here. But tonight, we found something on the bottom. We had some problems early in the year, and we’ve kind of have it figured out now,” McFadden said. “The car was really good. So I hope we can keep it rolling for the rest of the year.”
Eric Jensen and Carson Rothwell swapped 2nd during the race with Jensen claiming the spot at the finish. Rothwell finished 3rd with Eymarah Bowman 4th and Corky Warner 5th.
The race was red flagged on lap 8 when Rocco Constantino had a flip on the backstretch. It was good news as Rocco walked away, seemingly uninjured.
Sportsman
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 21C-Brian Calabrese[5]; 2. 33X-Matt Janczuk[7]; 3. 14T-Payton Talbot[9]; 4. 12T-Tyler Peet[12]; 5. 38-Zach Sobotka[1]; 6. 5D-Kyle Devendorf[3]; 7. 63-Chip Constantino[6]; 8. 2K-Josh Amodio[13]; 9. 10-Jim Nagle[10]; 10. 77X-Zack Welch[14]; 11. 23-David Dickey[22]; 12. 89-Dylan Madsen[21]; 13. 12B-Tyler Bobar[4]; 14. 31J-John Dumond[17]; 15. 9K-Blaine Klinger[25]; 16. 44-Gordon Smith[26]; 17. 27-Michael Ballestero[18]; 18. 7H-Allan Hodge[11]; 19. 69-Blake Sarpriacone[16]; 20. 74-Matt Perry[27]; 21. 03-Joshua Jock[24]; 22. 123-Dale Welty[20]; 23. 5EJ-EJ Gallup[2]; 24. 78-Tanner Warner[15]; 25. 82H-David Hackett[8]; 26. 44C-Stephen Denton[19]; 27. 77L-Ed Lukas[23]
Did Not Qualify: 35R-Jim Ryan; 48L-Luke Powell; 16S-Jeremy Slosek; 52-Ron Proctor; 0-Austin Cooper; 12-George Schweigart; 318-Dave Richer; 14-Seth Martin
- American Racer/Lias Tire Bonus (FREE Tire Certificate): Jim Nagle (ninth)
- Beyea Custom Headers Redraw Bonus ($25): Tyler Peet (Redrew 12th)
- Fastline Performance Bonuses ($100 Certificates): Matt Janczuk (second) & Dylan Madsen (12th)
Fastline Performance ‘Hot Lap Hero ($50): Brian Calabrese (19.810) - Henry’s Exhaust Bonus ($50 Certificate): David Dickey (11th)
Consolation (8 Laps): 1. 89-Dylan Madsen[3]; 2. 23-David Dickey[1]; 3. 77L-Ed Lukas[11]; 4. 03-Joshua Jock[5]; 5. 35R-Jim Ryan[6]; 6. 74-Matt Perry[7]; 7. 9K-Blaine Klinger[13]; 8. 44-Gordon Smith[8]; 9. 48L-Luke Powell[10]; 10. 16S-Jeremy Slosek[15]; 11. 52-Ron Proctor[9]; 12. 0-Austin Cooper[12]; 13. 12-George Schweigart[14]; 14. (DNS) 318-Dave Richer; 15. (DQ) 14-Seth Martin[4]
Heat #1 (8 Laps): 1. 33X-Matt Janczuk[2]; 2. 21C-Brian Calabrese[3]; 3. 63-Chip Constantino[6]; 4. 2K-Josh Amodio[1]; 5. 31J-John Dumond[5]; 6. 23-David Dickey[9]; 7. 03-Joshua Jock[8]; 8. 52-Ron Proctor[7]; 9. 9K-Blaine Klinger[4]
Heat #2 (8 Laps): 1. 12T-Tyler Peet[1]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka[2]; 3. 82H-David Hackett[5]; 4. 77X-Zack Welch[4]; 5. 27-Michael Ballestero[3]; 6. 318-Dave Richer[6]; 7. 35R-Jim Ryan[8]; 8. 48L-Luke Powell[9]; 9. 12-George Schweigart[7]
Heat #3 (8 Laps): 1. 5D-Kyle Devendorf[1]; 2. 5EJ-EJ Gallup[5]; 3. 12B-Tyler Bobar[4]; 4. 78-Tanner Warner[8]; 5. 44C-Stephen Denton[6]; 6. 89-Dylan Madsen[3]; 7. 74-Matt Perry[9]; 8. 77L-Ed Lukas[2]; 9. 16S-Jeremy Slosek[7]
Heat #4 (8 Laps): 1. 14T-Payton Talbot[2]; 2. 10-Jim Nagle[1]; 3. 7H-Allan Hodge[3]; 4. 69-Blake Sarpriacone[5]; 5. 123-Dale Welty[7]; 6. 14-Seth Martin[6]; 7. 44-Gordon Smith[4]; 8. 0-Austin Cooper[8]
Penske Racing Shocks Hot Lap Group 1: 1. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:19.810[2]; 2. 33X-Matt Janczuk, 00:20.123[7]; 3. 2K-Josh Amodio, 00:20.201[3]; 4. 9K-Blaine Klinger, 00:20.205[1]; 5. 31J-John Dumond, 00:20.294[4]; 6. 63-Chip Constantino, 00:20.300[8]; 7. 52-Ron Proctor, 00:20.656[5]; 8. 03-Joshua Jock, 00:20.708[6]; 9. 23-David Dickey[9]
Penske Racing Shocks Hot Lap Group 2: 1. 27-Michael Ballestero, 00:20.122[6]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka, 00:20.198[3]; 3. 12T-Tyler Peet, 00:20.199[5]; 4. 77X-Zack Welch, 00:20.231[9]; 5. 82H-David Hackett, 00:20.365[8]; 6. 318-Dave Richer, 00:20.567[2]; 7. 12-George Schweigart, 00:20.729[4]; 8. 35R-Jim Ryan, 00:20.818[1]; 9. 48L-Luke Powell, 00:20.936[7]
Penske Racing Shocks Hot Lap Group 3: 1. 89-Dylan Madsen, 00:20.107[4]; 2. 77L-Ed Lukas, 00:20.120[2]; 3. 5D-Kyle Devendorf, 00:20.128[5]; 4. 12B-Tyler Bobar, 00:20.217[1]; 5. 5EJ-EJ Gallup, 00:20.266[9]; 6. 44C-Stephen Denton, 00:20.426[8]; 7. 16S-Jeremy Slosek, 00:20.495[7]; 8. 78-Tanner Warner, 00:20.552[3]; 9. 74-Matt Perry, 00:20.787[6]
Penske Racing Shocks Hot Lap Group 4: 1. 7H-Allan Hodge, 00:20.064[3]; 2. 14T-Payton Talbot, 00:20.085[5]; 3. 10-Jim Nagle, 00:20.199[1]; 4. 44-Gordon Smith, 00:20.430[6]; 5. 69-Blake Sarpriacone, 00:20.448[8]; 6. 14-Seth Martin, 00:20.453[7]; 7. 123-Dale Welty, 00:20.799[2]; 8. 0-Austin Cooper, 00:22.535[4]
Limited Sportsman
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 10-Andrew MacFadden[2]; 2. 57-Eric Jensen[1]; 3. 4-Carson Rothwell[4]; 4. 5-Eymarah Bowman[7]; 5. 78-Corky Warner[15]; 6. 43J-Jayden Wust[3]; 7. 77N-Bobby Newman[9]; 8. 1B-Jeff Bobilin[8]; 9. 26B-Maddy Broedel[6]; 10. 9J-James Galarneau[10]; 11. 60-Brad Poppleton[14]; 12. 0-Kyle Coley[13]; 13. 25X-Josh Andrews[12]; 14. 44-Rocco Constantino[5]; 15. 44D-Kadyn Depasquale[11]
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 5-Eymarah Bowman[5]; 2. 26B-Maddy Broedel[2]; 3. 57-Eric Jensen[3]; 4. 1B-Jeff Bobilin[7]; 5. 77N-Bobby Newman[6]; 6. 44D-Kadyn Depasquale[1]; 7. 0-Kyle Coley[8]; 8. 60-Brad Poppleton[4]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 44-Rocco Constantino[2]; 2. 10-Andrew MacFadden[4]; 3. 4-Carson Rothwell[1]; 4. 43J-Jayden Wust[7]; 5. 9J-James Galarneau[3]; 6. 25X-Josh Andrews[6]; 7. (DQ) 78-Corky Warner[5]
Hot Laps: 1. 57-Eric Jensen, 00:20.704[9]; 2. 10-Andrew MacFadden, 00:20.776[10]; 3. 26B-Maddy Broedel, 00:20.871[4]; 4. 9J-James Galarneau, 00:21.398[8]; 5. 44-Rocco Constantino, 00:21.569[6]; 6. 1B-Jeff Bobilin, 00:21.622[2]; 7. 0-Kyle Coley, 00:21.982[5]; 8. 43J-Jayden Wust, 00:22.003[15]; 9. 25X-Josh Andrews, 00:23.332[1]; 10. (DNS) 5-Eymarah Bowman; 11. (DNS) 44D-Kadyn Depasquale; 12. (DNS) 77N-Bobby Newman; 13. (DNS) 60-Brad Poppleton; 14. (DNS) 4-Carson Rothwell; 15. (DNS) 78-Corky Warner