Story By: FULTON SPEEDWAY – FULTON, NY – Matt Caprara became the latest first-time Modified winner at Fulton Speedway after taking the checkered flag in Saturday night’s Burke’s Home Center/Gypsum Companies Main event.
He joins Alan Fink, Andrew Buff and Brandon Carvey as first-time Modified winners on the fabled Fulton Highbanks in 2024.
Jason Parkhurst Jr. edged Kyle Devendorf by .007 seconds to capture the companion Dot Foods DIRTcar Sportsman main. Brandon Barron captured his second career Billy Whittaker Cars and Trux Hobby Stock Feature while Austin Harmer took the win in E & V Energy Novice Sportsman main. Jason Parkhurst Sr. earned a $500 payoff from track tow truck driver Brian Vivenzio in a special eight-lap dash open to track regulars who had runner-up finishes but no wins on the season.
Tim Harris and Dylan Zacharias led the 26 car Tracey Road Modified field to green with Zacharias jumping out to the early lead. Zacharias would set a quick early pace and lead the first seven laps before a Milton CAT Caution for Robert Gage slowed the pace.
On the ensuing restart, Zacharias would maintain control of the top spot but it was then the eighth starting Caprara began to show his strength. Caprara, using an extreme high line, got by Bob Henry Jr. for third and battled with sixth starting Brent Joy for the runner-up spot. Joy and Caprara would take turns holding down second until lap 14 when Caprara finally assumed control of the spot.
Once clear of Joy, Caprara continued his charge forward and it became obvious he had a car capable of winning. He tracked down Zacharias’ #27z between laps 15 and 19 before powering around the Palermo, NY driver to take the top spot on lap 20.
Caprara would build a comfortable lead between laps 20 and 27 before a caution on lap slowed the pace and eliminated two of his top challengers in heartbreaking fashion. Marshall Hurd, who started 12th, had hustled his way to third, but drew the lap-27 caution with what appeared to be a blown engine. Then, on the subsequent restart, Zacharias’ strong run came to an abrupt ending as he pulled to the infield with a broken transmission.
A strong running Dave Marcuccilli inherited the second position and would be the only threat Caprara would face the rest of the way. The Montezuma native, who started 15th, gave chase to Caprara over the final eight laps but Caprara was just too strong and took the checkered flag some five car lengths to the good. Marcuccilli finished second, his fourth straight top-5 finish dating back to July 27, ahead of Amy Holland who made a late charge to finish third. Larry Wight started 23rd and made an impressive charge to place fourth at the line ahead of 19th starting Ronnie Davis III. Andrew Ferguson, 2024 Track Point Champion Tim Sears Jr., Billy Dunn, Joy and Jason Parkhurst Jr. rounded out the top-10.
Following a lap 20 caution flag, it was a thrilling final five laps of the 25-lap Dot Foods DIRTcar Sportsman feature as four drivers slugged it out for the win. Jason Parkhurst Jr. held the lead to the checkered, but Zach Buff, last week’s winner Hunter Hollenbeck and Kyle Devendorf raced under a blanket over the five lap sprint to the end.
On the final lap it was Devendorf who had the best shot at Parkhurst. The Brewerton driver drew even with Parkhurst in turns three and four and they drag raced to the checkered flag. Parkhurst crossed the Mylaps.com transponder loop, the official scoring line, just .007 second ahead to take the win. Devendorf took second ahead of Buff and Hollenbeck. Baldwinsville’s Gregg Carner, back racing on a part-time basis after several years off, had a great run to round out the top-5.
Brandon Barron captured his first career Fulton Speedway feature on August 10. The Ontario, NY hot shoe backed it up Saturday with win number 2. Barron wrestled the lead from Adam Hunt on lap 9 and hustled his #28 to victory ahead of point leader John Pietrowicz. Hunt, Brennan Fitzgibbons and Ron Hawker rounded out the tp-5.
Hastings, NY’s Austin Harmer captured his third E & V Energy Novice Sportsman feature of the season holding off a determined Cale Gareau for the win. Elbridge’s Sam Groom took third with Brian Harber and Kingston Sprague rounding out the top-5 finishers.
Modifieds
A Feature 1 (35 Laps): 1. 11C-Matt Caprara[8]; 2. M1-David Marcuccilli[15]; 3. 5H-Amy Holland[10]; 4. 99L-Larry Wight[23]; 5. 32R-Ronald Davis III[19]; 6. 34-Andrew Ferguson[7]; 7. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[16]; 8. 49-Billy Dunn[21]; 9. 17J-Brent Joy[6]; 10. 38-Jason Parkhurst[14]; 11. 31W-Lance Willix[9]; 12. 18$-Sean Beardsley[20]; 13. 06J-Jordan Bennett[18]; 14. 19C-Brandon Carvey[13]; 15. 28-Alan Fink[26]; 16. 94X-Willy Decker Jr[3]; 17. 38H-Tim Harris[1]; 18. 92-Andrew Buff[25]; 19. 31-Corey Barker[11]; 20. 01R-Robert Gage[5]; 21. 3-Chris Mackey[17]; 22. (DNF) 17-Rich Keller[22]; 23. (DNF) 27Z-Dylan Zacharias[2]; 24. (DNF) 58M-Marshall Hurd[12]; 25. (DNF) 88H-Chris Hulsizer[24]; 26. (DNF) B2-Bob Henry Jr[4]
B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 49-Billy Dunn[3]; 2. 17-Rich Keller[1]; 3. 99L-Larry Wight[2]; 4. X-Chad Phelps[8]; 5. 31B-Ryan Dolbear[6]; 6. 92-Andrew Buff[5]; 7. 28-Alan Fink[7]; 8. 11J-Justin Crisafulli[10]; 9. 00W-Wade Chrisman[9]; 10. 00-Connor Sellars[11]; 11. 88H-Chris Hulsizer[4]
Brian TTB Bridesmaid Dash (8 Laps): 1. 38-Jason Parkhurst[2]; 2. 06J-Jordan Bennett[3]; 3. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias[6]; 4. B2-Bob Henry Jr[4]; 5. 34-Andrew Ferguson[5]; 6. 01R-Robert Gage[1]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11C-Matt Caprara[3]; 2. 01R-Robert Gage[2]; 3. 58M-Marshall Hurd[5]; 4. 38H-Tim Harris[1]; 5. 3-Chris Mackey[4]; 6. 17-Rich Keller[6]; 7. (DNF) 11J-Justin Crisafulli[7]; 8. (DNS) 10R-Ryan Richardson
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias[1]; 2. 5H-Amy Holland[4]; 3. M1-David Marcuccilli[6]; 4. 17J-Brent Joy[2]; 5. 06J-Jordan Bennett[5]; 6. 99L-Larry Wight[8]; 7. 92-Andrew Buff[7]; 8. (DNF) 00-Connor Sellars[3]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 94X-Willy Decker Jr[1]; 2. 31W-Lance Willix[3]; 3. 19C-Brandon Carvey[5]; 4. 31-Corey Barker[4]; 5. 32R-Ronald Davis III[7]; 6. 49-Billy Dunn[6]; 7. 31B-Ryan Dolbear[2]; 8. X-Chad Phelps[8]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. B2-Bob Henry Jr[1]; 2. 38-Jason Parkhurst[5]; 3. 34-Andrew Ferguson[2]; 4. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[7]; 5. 18$-Sean Beardsley[4]; 6. 88H-Chris Hulsizer[6]; 7. 28-Alan Fink[3]; 8. 00W-Wade Chrisman[8]
Hot Laps 1: 1. 49-Billy Dunn, 00:16.482; 2. M1-David Marcuccilli, 00:16.551; 3. 38-Jason Parkhurst, 00:16.556; 4. 31W-Lance Willix, 00:16.565; 5. 5H-Amy Holland, 00:16.571; 6. 83X-Tim Sears Jr, 00:16.577; 7. 32R-Ronald Davis III, 00:16.648; 8. 11J-Justin Crisafulli, 00:16.709; 9. 88H-Chris Hulsizer, 00:16.712; 10. 06J-Jordan Bennett, 00:16.713; 11. 19C-Brandon Carvey, 00:16.715; 12. 00-Connor Sellars, 00:16.722; 13. 58M-Marshall Hurd, 00:16.742; 14. 92-Andrew Buff, 00:16.777; 15. 18$-Sean Beardsley, 00:16.794; 16. 99L-Larry Wight, 00:16.820; 17. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias, 00:16.821; 18. 11C-Matt Caprara, 00:16.827; 19. 31-Corey Barker, 00:16.828; 20. 31B-Ryan Dolbear, 00:16.852; 21. B2-Bob Henry Jr, 00:16.869; 22. 94X-Willy Decker Jr, 00:16.871; 23. 34-Andrew Ferguson, 00:16.896; 24. 3-Chris Mackey, 00:16.908; 25. 17-Rich Keller, 00:16.966; 26. 17J-Brent Joy, 00:16.976; 27. 01R-Robert Gage, 00:17.014
Sportsman
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 38JR-Jason Parkhurst Jr[8]; 2. 5D-Kyle Devendorf[15]; 3. 01-Zachary Buff[2]; 4. 72-Hunter Hollenbeck[11]; 5. 44C-Gregg Carner[14]; 6. 63-Teddy Clayton Jr[10]; 7. 6-Cody Manitta[9]; 8. 16X-Savannah Laflair[4]; 9. 51X-David Moyer[6]; 10. 39S-Josh Fellows[3]; 11. 33JR-Clayton Brewer III[18]; 12. 20K-Kyle Perry[17]; 13. 21B-Ryan Barrett[5]; 14. 83X-Brett Sears[16]; 15. 06W-Dorian Wahdan[1]; 16. 37-TJ Frost[20]; 17. 4-Emmett Waldron[19]; 18. 48-Kearra Backus[21]; 19. 42K-Dave Kingsley[23]; 20. (DNF) B2-Kelly Smith[22]; 21. (DNF) 17A-Mike Button[12]; 22. (DNF) 0-Tony Finch II[13]; 23. (DNF) 9D-Brett Draper[24]; 24. (DNF) 51-Jimmy Moyer[7]; 25. (DNF) 11C-Austin Cooper[25]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 72-Hunter Hollenbeck[6]; 2. 16X-Savannah Laflair[3]; 3. 5D-Kyle Devendorf[8]; 4. 06W-Dorian Wahdan[1]; 5. 51X-David Moyer[4]; 6. 83X-Brett Sears[5]; 7. 4-Emmett Waldron[7]; 8. 48-Kearra Backus[2]; 9. 42K-Dave Kingsley[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 6-Cody Manitta[5]; 2. 01-Zachary Buff[1]; 3. 51-Jimmy Moyer[4]; 4. 21B-Ryan Barrett[3]; 5. 17A-Mike Button[6]; 6. 20K-Kyle Perry[8]; 7. (DNF) 9D-Brett Draper[7]; 8. (DNF) 11C-Austin Cooper[2]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 38JR-Jason Parkhurst Jr[4]; 2. 0-Tony Finch II[6]; 3. 39S-Josh Fellows[2]; 4. 63-Teddy Clayton Jr[5]; 5. 44C-Gregg Carner[7]; 6. 33JR-Clayton Brewer III[3]; 7. 37-TJ Frost[8]; 8. B2-Kelly Smith[1]
Hobby Stocks
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 28-Brandon Barron[4]; 2. 17-John Pietrowicz[7]; 3. 13-Adam Hunt[2]; 4. 14-Brennan Fitzgibbons[6]; 5. 14JR-Ronald Hawker[5]; 6. 13G-Aidan Galvin[1]; 7. 88X-Chuck Thomas[3]; 8. 4-Casey Cunningham[8]; 9. 14J-Russ Marsden[9]
Hot Laps 1: 1. 28-Brandon Barron, 00:19.429; 2. 17-John Pietrowicz, 00:19.659; 3. 13-Adam Hunt, 00:19.675; 4. 14JR-Ronald Hawker, 00:19.995; 5. 4-Casey Cunningham, 00:20.259; 6. 13G-Aidan Galvin, 00:20.767
Novice Sportsman
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 55H-Austin Harmer[4]; 2. 5G-Cale Gareau[6]; 3. 14-Samuel Groom[2]; 4. 18-Brian Harber[10]; 5. 29K-Kingston Sprague[12]; 6. 55-Andrew Eaton[5]; 7. 63-Dylan Woodworth[7]; 8. 20-Nick Galusha[9]; 9. 00-Dennis Wischman[8]; 10. 21A-Daniel Smith[11]; 11. 73-Doug Shattell[1]; 12. (DNF) 89-Belle Hogan[3]; 13. (DNS) 7K-Kaylee Cooper
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 89-Belle Hogan[2]; 2. 55-Andrew Eaton[3]; 3. 63-Dylan Woodworth[5]; 4. 73-Doug Shattell[1]; 5. 20-Nick Galusha[6]; 6. 21A-Daniel Smith[7]; 7. 7K-Kaylee Cooper[4]
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 5G-Cale Gareau[3]; 2. 14-Samuel Groom[1]; 3. 55H-Austin Harmer[2]; 4. 00-Dennis Wischman[5]; 5. 18-Brian Harber[6]; 6. 29K-Kingston Sprague[4]