Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – VERNON, NY – It would be hard to argue that no one is hotter right now on the Crate 602 Sportsman circuit than Payton Talbot.
After scoring a win Wednesday night in Fonda’s STSS event, Talbot was again in Victory Lane on Thursday at Utica-Rome, again topping Brian Calabrese as he had the night before.
“We’re slowly getting better. This thing has been a rocket the last 3 or 4 races. It felt real good to get a win last night with the STSS series. To come here and win, it just feels amazing,” Talbot said.
As it was at Fonda Wednesday, Calabrese drew the pole. Talbot started 6th and was 2nd when there was a caution with 8 laps down. Talbot got the good restart and that was pretty much the race.
“Hats off to Brian, he raced me really clean. We had a good race there and then a real good restart, and that helped a lot. I can’t thank Andy Belmont, my crew and sponsors enough.”
Following Calabrese were Matt Janczuk in 3rd, Chip Constantino 4th and John Dumond 5th. Completing the top 10 running order were Josh Coonradt 6th, Seth Martin 7th, David Dickey 8th, Kevin Chaffee 9th and David Hackett 10th.
Easily, the best feature racing at Utica-Rome on Thursday was in the 20 lap Pro Stock feature. You can’t beat having cars 3 wide on the backstretch on the last lap for excitement. And it was Luke Horning taking the win.
Horning started 7th and picked off cars, passing AJ Walters for the lead on lap 7.
“The bottom in 1 and 2 was really good, I could go hammer down,” Horning said. “I had a couple of good runs on AJ but couldn’t get by him.”
Bret Belden entered the fray and it was a 3 car battle for the top spot.
“Then Bret got by me and I knew I had to go to the top, AJ wasn’t going to get off the bottom. What a great race track, both top and bottom.”
As the race wound down, all three were racing right together swapping positions every lap. After being 3 wide on the outside going into turn 3 of the last lap, Horning gave it all he had.
“It was a little nerve wracking. I was ready to park the thing in the stands before I finished 2nd.
Horning held on for the win with Walters holding off Belden for 2nd. Michael Achzet finished 4th and Ed Kotray 5th.
Crate 602 Sportsman
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 14T-Payton Talbot[6]; 2. 21C-Brian Calabrese[1]; 3. 33X-Matt Janczuk[11]; 4. 63-Chip Constantino[5]; 5. 31J-John Dumond[2]; 6. 00X-Josh Coonradt[8]; 7. 621-Seth Martin[3]; 8. 23-David Dickey[20]; 9. 8-Kevin Chaffee[14]; 10. 82H-David Hackett[7]; 11. 22X-Mike Richmond[19]; 12. 74-Matt Perry[16]; 13. 10-Jim Nagle[23]; 14. 16S-Jeremy Slosek[18]; 15. 77X-Zack Welch[17]; 16. 12B-Tyler Bobar[25]; 17. 9K-Blaine Klinger[13]; 18. 77L-Ed Lukas[4]; 19. 262-Matthew Richardson[24]; 20. 2K-Josh Amodio[22]; 21. 57-Eric Jensen[21]; 22. 08-Dalton Doyle[10]; 23. 10A-AJ Digsby[9]; 24. 113JR-Frank Guererri[15]; 25. 4-Carson Rothwell[12]
Consolation (8 Laps): 1. 57-Eric Jensen[2]; 2. 2K-Josh Amodio[3]; 3. 10-Jim Nagle[5]; 4. 262-Matthew Richardson[8]; 5. 28J-Joey Buonagurio[4]; 6. 12B-Tyler Bobar[1]; 7. 06-Tim Guild[9]; 8. 90-Brodie Davis[7]; 9. 12P-Connor Prokop[12]; 10. 55-Kyle Weiler[6]; 11. 60-Brad Poppleton[10]; 12. 11-Josh Persse[11]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 77L-Ed Lukas[1]; 2. 21C-Brian Calabrese[7]; 3. 08-Dalton Doyle[2]; 4. 9K-Blaine Klinger[3]; 5. 77X-Zack Welch[5]; 6. 12B-Tyler Bobar[6]; 7. 10-Jim Nagle[8]; 8. 06-Tim Guild[4]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 33X-Matt Janczuk[3]; 2. 82H-David Hackett[2]; 3. 10A-AJ Digsby[1]; 4. 8-Kevin Chaffee[8]; 5. 16S-Jeremy Slosek[7]; 6. 57-Eric Jensen[6]; 7. 55-Kyle Weiler[4]; 8. 60-Brad Poppleton[5]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 63-Chip Constantino[2]; 2. 14T-Payton Talbot[1]; 3. 4-Carson Rothwell[5]; 4. 113JR-Frank Guererri[6]; 5. 22X-Mike Richmond[3]; 6. 2K-Josh Amodio[7]; 7. 90-Brodie Davis[8]; 8. 11-Josh Persse[4]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 00X-Josh Coonradt[2]; 2. 31J-John Dumond[1]; 3. 621-Seth Martin[4]; 4. 74-Matt Perry[6]; 5. 23-David Dickey[5]; 6. 28J-Joey Buonagurio[8]; 7. 262-Matthew Richardson[7]; 8. 12P-Connor Prokop[3]
Hot Laps: 1. 33X-Matt Janczuk, 00:20.054[16]; 2. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:20.107[4]; 3. 9K-Blaine Klinger, 00:20.128[18]; 4. 14T-Payton Talbot, 00:20.128[30]; 5. 31J-John Dumond, 00:20.172[12]; 6. 2K-Josh Amodio, 00:20.214[1]; 7. 8-Kevin Chaffee, 00:20.250[5]; 8. 90-Brodie Davis, 00:20.253[8]; 9. 00X-Josh Coonradt, 00:20.269[7]; 10. 262-Matthew Richardson, 00:20.325[26]; 11. 77L-Ed Lukas, 00:20.328[19]; 12. 12B-Tyler Bobar, 00:20.342[2]; 13. 23-David Dickey, 00:20.348[9]; 14. 63-Chip Constantino, 00:20.387[6]; 15. 57-Eric Jensen, 00:20.428[17]; 16. 12P-Connor Prokop, 00:20.432[25]; 17. 06-Tim Guild, 00:20.535[14]; 18. 16S-Jeremy Slosek, 00:20.537[29]; 19. 22X-Mike Richmond, 00:20.540[27]; 20. 77X-Zack Welch, 00:20.549[32]; 21. 10-Jim Nagle, 00:20.711[21]; 22. 74-Matt Perry, 00:20.732[22]; 23. 4-Carson Rothwell, 00:20.782[28]; 24. 08-Dalton Doyle, 00:20.784[11]; 25. 113JR-Frank Guererri, 00:20.791[13]; 26. 82H-David Hackett, 00:20.800[15]; 27. 621-Seth Martin, 00:20.920[20]; 28. 28J-Joey Buonagurio, 00:21.182[3]; 29. 55-Kyle Weiler, 00:22.729[31]; 30. 60-Brad Poppleton, 00:23.199[24]; 31. 11-Josh Persse, 00:23.826[23]; 32. 10A-AJ Digsby, 00:20.563[10]
Pro Stocks
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 2H-Luke Horning[7]; 2. 22W-AJ Walters[1]; 3. 81-Bret Belden[6]; 4. 81A-Michael Achzet[4]; 5. 101-Ed Kotary[3]; 6. 6-Shane Playford[8]; 7. 74N-Jim Normoyle[5]; 8. 22-Tim Wood[2]; 9. 63-Matt Rose[14]; 10. 14H-Hunter Keith[13]; 11. 28H-Johnny Holmes[11]; 12. 13-George Cushman[16]; 13. 25Y-Ken Griffin[9]; 14. 14K-Mike Keith[12]; 15. 17-Ernie Staelens[15]; 16. 44-Ray Richer[17]; 17. 57-Chuck McSpirit[10]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2H-Luke Horning[2]; 2. 6-Shane Playford[1]; 3. 22W-AJ Walters[5]; 4. 81A-Michael Achzet[8]; 5. 25Y-Ken Griffin[6]; 6. 28H-Johnny Holmes[9]; 7. 14H-Hunter Keith[7]; 8. 17-Ernie Staelens[4]; 9. 44-Ray Richer[3]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 81-Bret Belden[8]; 2. 22-Tim Wood[2]; 3. 74N-Jim Normoyle[3]; 4. 101-Ed Kotary[5]; 5. 57-Chuck McSpirit[1]; 6. 14K-Mike Keith[4]; 7. 63-Matt Rose[6]; 8. 13-George Cushman[7]
Hot Laps: 1. 22-Tim Wood, 00:21.904[17]; 2. 81A-Michael Achzet, 00:21.967[1]; 3. 22W-AJ Walters, 00:22.290[16]; 4. 74N-Jim Normoyle, 00:22.565[11]; 5. 13-George Cushman, 00:22.868[3]; 6. 63-Matt Rose, 00:23.294[14]; 7. 14K-Mike Keith, 00:23.308[8]; 8. 25Y-Ken Griffin, 00:23.702[4]; 9. 14H-Hunter Keith, 00:23.861[7]; 10. 28H-Johnny Holmes, 00:24.022[5]; 11. 17-Ernie Staelens, 00:24.056[15]; 12. 57-Chuck McSpirit, 00:24.513[10]; 13. 44-Ray Richer, 00:24.918[13]; 14. 101-Ed Kotary, 00:25.486[9]; 15. (DNS) 81-Bret Belden; 16. (DNS) 2H-Luke Horning; 17. (DNS) 6-Shane Playford