Story By: RON SZCZERBA / FONDA SPEEDWAY – FONDA, NY – On Friday evening at the “Track of Champions” Fonda Speedway, the Amsterdam Truck Center Modifieds held their qualifying events for the Fonda 200 while the Swagger Factory Apparel Crate 602 Sportsman held their qualifying events for their Saturday night feature as well.
When the checkered flag flew on the Amsterdam Truck Center STSS Modified qualifying heat races, Max McLaughlin, Bobby Hackel, and Jack Lehner all celebrated their $500 race wins in victory lane while Troy Zilles, Blaine Klinger, and Payton Talbot celebrated their $150 race wins for the STSS Crate 602 Sportsman heat race victories.
Max McLaughlin started on the pole and led every lap of STSS Modified heat race number one, collecting $500 from One Zee Tees.
“A fast car makes a driver look better,” McLaughlin said after his heat race win. “It definitely helps. I’m lucky to have a series of events with the World of Outlaws raining out this weekend to be able to come here and drive a fast race car to compete for $53,000. Yesterday definitely helped getting a lot more track time, I wasn’t very good in hot laps, and it took me about 15 laps in the feature to get comfortable again.”
“It’s just so much different, the Late Model drives off the right front and these cars drive off the right rear, McLaughlin continued to say. I felt like I was gonna flip over on lap one of practice yesterday, but I just really had to get used to the car. Travelling all over the country racing a Late Model I feel has made me a better race car driver.”
Bobby Hackel started on the pole for STSS Modified heat race number two and led every lap as well, collecting $500 from Fastline Performance.
“The track is beautiful tonight,” Hackel said after his heat race win. “Kudos to the track prep guys that got beat up all year, they deserve some credit, they gave us a great track the last two nights so thanks to them for all of their hard work. Speaking of hard work, I really have to thank my guys, when we rolled out of here last night we thought that our Fonda 200 was done after our wreck.”
“Everybody put their nose to the grindstone, we pulled this car out at home, swapped motors, and long story short we made it here just in time today after doing all that. It needs a little bit of work to be as good as last night (Thursday), the car last night was a rocket ship but I’m not gonna complain, I’m sitting in victory lane here between the two Lehner cars. 200 laps is a long race, we’ll go home tonight and work with my partners and I just thank everybody who got me here and supports me.”
Jack Lehner followed suit in STSS Modified heat race number three, started on the pole, led every lap, and collected $500 from Bedell Racing Engines.
“This thing has been really good right off the trailer,” Lehner said after his heat race win. “I actually made my first small adjustment before the heat race; it’s been a great car. We had a tough group there in the heat race with the invert. We didn’t do great in hot laps timing fourth fast, but the invert put us on the pole for the heat race.”
“This is definitely a confidence booster,” Lehner continued to say. “To keep the 9 and the 44 behind us the only bad thing is we have been in clean air the last couple nights, so I’d like to see how we’re gonna be racing in traffic. Definitely a stellar way to start the weekend.”
In STSS Crate 602 Sportsman heat race number one, Troy Zilles started outside pole and led all 12-laps of the event collecting $150 from Parillo Services.
“We’ve got a pretty good piece, so hopefully we can keep it going, this heat race win gives me momentum going into the rest of the weekend.”
Blaine Klinger was the winner of STSS Crate 602 Sportsman heat race number two, starting on the pole, leading every lap, and collecting $150 from Madsen Overhead Doors.
“This year we struggled really bad between Utica and Fonda,” Klinger said. “We found a little something at Fonda at the end of the year, we came here to practice last night, it’s a long drive, but it’s worth it because we dialed the car in because I knew that time trials were gonna be key. I’m just thankful to be here, I’ve never been in victory lane at Fonda, so I guess this kind of counts.”
STSS Crate 602 Sportsman heat race number three saw Josh Coonradt lead from his pole position start until lap six when third place starter Payton Talbot got by for the lead and the win collecting $150 from Ted’s Body Shop.
“This thing was awesome,” Talbot said. “It was a little snug, I tried the top there for a couple of laps and kept with Josh (Coonradt). I figured if I could hit it once real good and at least get to the outside of him I could drive it in harder into turn one and get by him and it panned out for us. This is an awesome opportunity, and I can’t thank Andy Belmont enough.”
STSS Modified Qualifier #1 (15 Laps): 1. 85-Max McLaughlin[1]; 2. 93-Danny Varin[2]; 3. 1-Rocky Warner[3]; 4. 20C-Craig Hanson[6]; 5. 35C-Chris Curtis[4]; 6. 76M-Ricky Quick[5]; 7. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[7]; 8. 24P-Brian Pessolano[8]; 9. 35B-Francois Bellemare[9]; 10. 50-Bill August[10]; 11. 22-Kurtis Hohensheldt[11]
STSS Modified Qualifier #2 (15 Laps): 1. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[1]; 2. 1D-Tyler Dippel[3]; 3. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[6]; 4. 21C-Brian Calabrese[5]; 5. 28T-Michael Trautschold[2]; 6. 3-Jeff Trombley[8]; 7. 98-Tanner Warner[7]; 8. 42-Tucker O’Connor[10]; 9. 76-Jamike Sowle[9]; 10. 7J-Dan Santabarbara[11]; 11. (DNS) 3W-Mat Williamson
STSS Modified Qualifier #3 (15 Laps): 1. 02-Jack Lehner[1]; 2. 35M-Mike Mahaney[2]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard[4]; 4. 4P-Anthony Perrego[6]; 5. 44-Stewart Friesen[3]; 6. 24-Adam McAuliffe[7]; 7. 71-Eric Mack[8]; 8. 16-Aaron Jacobs[11]; 9. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[5]; 10. (DNS) 27-Jason Reome; 11. (DNS) 9J-Marc Johnson
Hot Laps 1: 1. 35C-Chris Curtis, 00:17.801[7]; 2. 1-Rocky Warner, 00:17.852[1]; 3. 93-Danny Varin, 00:18.083[3]; 4. 85-Max McLaughlin, 00:18.113[4]; 5. 76M-Ricky Quick, 00:18.202[6]; 6. 20C-Craig Hanson, 00:18.263[9]; 7. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi, 00:18.567[5]; 8. 24P-Brian Pessolano, 00:18.641[10]; 9. 35B-Francois Bellemare, 00:18.795[8]; 10. 50-Bill August, 00:19.325[11]; 11. 22-Kurtis Hohensheldt, 00:19.460[2]
Hot Laps 2: 1. 3W-Mat Williamson, 00:17.913[8]; 2. 1D-Tyler Dippel, 00:18.008[1]; 3. 28T-Michael Trautschold, 00:18.119[4]; 4. 97-Bobby Hackel IV, 00:18.188[3]; 5. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:18.199[9]; 6. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:18.246[5]; 7. 98-Tanner Warner, 00:18.363[7]; 8. 3-Jeff Trombley, 00:18.367[6]; 9. 76-Jamike Sowle, 00:18.442[10]; 10. 42-Tucker O’Connor, 00:18.550[11]; 11. 7J-Dan Santabarbara, 00:20.026[2]
Hot Laps 3: 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:17.807[10]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen, 00:17.837[4]; 3. 35M-Mike Mahaney, 00:17.914[8]; 4. 02-Jack Lehner, 00:18.016[7]; 5. 1Z-Jessica Friesen, 00:18.076[9]; 6. 4P-Anthony Perrego, 00:18.143[6]; 7. 24-Adam McAuliffe, 00:18.893[3]; 8. 71-Eric Mack, 00:19.259[2]; 9. 27-Jason Reome, 00:20.054[5]; 10. (DNS) 9J-Marc Johnson, 00:20.054; 11. (DNS) 16-Aaron Jacobs, 00:20.054
Crate 602 Sportsman
STSS 602 Sportsman Qualifier #1 (12 Laps): 1. 14Z-Troy Zilles[2]; 2. 1H-Harry Shaffer[1]; 3. 1B-Brett Mortensen[3]; 4. 21C-Brian Calabrese[4]; 5. 78-Tanner Warner[6]; 6. 10%-Chad Edwards[5]; 7. 27-Michael Ballestero[7]; 8. 12AJ-AJ Greco[9]; 9. 164-Brock Miller[8]; 10. 28D-Dylan Eldred[12]; 11. 24S-Kirsten Swartz[10]; 12. 797-Corky Warner[11]; 13. 2-Brandon Tyler[14]; 14. 99-Clyde Peek[13]
STSS 602 Sportsman Qualifier #2 (12 Laps): 1. 9K-Blaine Klinger[1]; 2. 12T-Tyler Peet[3]; 3. 89-Dylan Madsen[4]; 4. 22H-TIM HARTMAN[5]; 5. 63-Chip Constantino[2]; 6. 117-Butchie Irwin[8]; 7. 55-Jonny Feagles[7]; 8. 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell[14]; 9. 1M-Mark Mortensen[6]; 10. 12-George Schweigart[9]; 11. 71-Steve Cummings[11]; 12. 52-Ron Proctor[13]; 13. 47-Walter Cook[10]; 14. 11-Josh Persse[12]
STSS 602 Sportsman Qualifier #3 (12 Laps): 1. 14T-Payton Talbot[3]; 2. 4-Cody Clark[4]; 3. 00X-Josh Coonradt[1]; 4. 25-Stephen Gray[6]; 5. 82H-David Hackett[8]; 6. 31J-John Dumond[2]; 7. 1D-Kyle Dingman[5]; 8. 123-Dale Welty[7]; 9. 1JB-Jeff Bobilin[9]; 10. B62-Brendan Gibbons[10]; 11. 307-Karl Barnes[12]; 12. 6S-John Santolin[13]; 13. 19-Owen Lewis[11]; 14. (DNS) 7J-Dan Santabarbara
Hot Laps 1: 1. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:20.043[4]; 2. 1B-Brett Mortensen, 00:20.176[1]; 3. 14Z-Troy Zilles, 00:20.177[13]; 4. 1H-Harry Shaffer, 00:20.244[10]; 5. 10%-Chad Edwards, 00:20.290[9]; 6. 78-Tanner Warner, 00:20.361[5]; 7. 27-Michael Ballestero, 00:20.484[8]; 8. 164-Brock Miller, 00:20.540[6]; 9. 12AJ-AJ Greco, 00:20.600[7]; 10. 24S-Kirsten Swartz, 00:20.605[12]; 11. 797-Corky Warner, 00:20.654[2]; 12. 28D-Dylan Eldred, 00:20.792[14]; 13. 99-Clyde Peek, 00:21.263[3]; 14. 2-Brandon Tyler, 00:21.721[11]
Hot Laps 2: 1. 89-Dylan Madsen, 00:19.774[9]; 2. 12T-Tyler Peet, 00:19.829[7]; 3. 63-Chip Constantino, 00:19.846[4]; 4. 9K-Blaine Klinger, 00:19.931[5]; 5. 22H-TIM HARTMAN, 00:19.981[13]; 6. 1M-Mark Mortensen, 00:20.019[2]; 7. 55-Jonny Feagles, 00:20.027[1]; 8. 117-Butchie Irwin, 00:20.086[11]; 9. 12-George Schweigart, 00:20.269[12]; 10. 47-Walter Cook, 00:20.460[14]; 11. 71-Steve Cummings, 00:20.757[3]; 12. 11-Josh Persse, 00:21.401[6]; 13. 52-Ron Proctor, 00:21.602[10]; 14. (DQ) 14J-Jeremy Tyrrell, 00:19.952[8]
Hot Laps 3: 1. 4-Cody Clark, 00:19.493[4]; 2. 14T-Payton Talbot, 00:19.599[14]; 3. 31J-John Dumond, 00:19.741[5]; 4. 00X-Josh Coonradt, 00:19.755[8]; 5. 1D-Kyle Dingman, 00:19.760[13]; 6. 25-Stephen Gray, 00:19.785[9]; 7. 123-Dale Welty, 00:20.096[3]; 8. 82H-David Hackett, 00:20.107[11]; 9. 1JB-Jeff Bobilin, 00:20.192[12]; 10. B62-Brendan Gibbons, 00:20.288[1]; 11. 19-Owen Lewis, 00:20.668[2]; 12. 307-Karl Barnes, 00:20.785[7]; 13. 6S-John Santolin, 00:21.278[6]; 14. (DNS) 7J-Dan Santabarbara, 00:21.278