RPW Exclusive: Varin Scores Top 5 In High Limit A-Main At Ransomville; Preston Surprises Many With Speed

Column By: MARTY CZEKALA / RPW – RANSOMVILLE, NY – Friday night, 410 weekend continued throughout the Northeast with Kubota High Limit Racing rolling their way through Western New York for the first time at Ransomville.

Unlike the first two nights when local drivers started on the pole and led early at Ohsweken, this wasn’t the case at Ransomville.

As Justin Peck, Tyler Courtney, Aaron Reutzel and Rico Abreu were battling for the top four spots, Danny Varin was the highest finisher from the Northeast in fifth. It was the best High Limit finish for the driver of the No. 01 and his best since his upset win with the All Star Circuit of Champions at Utica-Rome in 2023.

“Off to a rusty start, but we’re very pleased,” Varin said post-race. “I wasn’t comfortable with the car when we first got here and worked on it all night. This is the first timeout this year with a Sprint Car. Very happy.”

With a couple of bar adjustments before the feature, it was when the No. 01 team found speed before A-Main time.

“I was winged out, bearing the left rear all night and losing grip on the right rear, so I pulled that right rear in a little bit,” said Varin. “When you climb into a 360, it’s a blast. We love the group that we race with and Central New York. When you climb into a 410, it’s what I want to be doing.

Jonathan Preston had a good start to his week, finishing second in his Wednesday heat at Ohsweken, 1.7 seconds behind Giovanni Scelzi. His result was good to start and he finished sixth in the dash before finishing 22nd.

Friday night, Preston turned heads, not only edging out Abreu in hot laps but qualifying edging out Abreu by 0.011 seconds. Preston qualified for the dash as the fastest qualifier out of the transfer spots in heat one. A fifth-place starting spot in the feature, Preston fell down to ninth in the end. However, a place inside the top 10 is a win for Preston.

“I’ve been fast off the trailer,” said Preston. “I’m struggling feature time; I gotta dial in at the end of my night. It takes a lot to fund these cars and what we’re working with; I’m very impressed.”

Despite not making the feature Friday night, Jordan Thomas has had much to be happy about from the start of the week. Wednesday night with the World of Outlaws at Ohsweken, Thomas drew a great spot for the dash and passed Chris Windom to start on pole. Leading early in the feature, Thomas approached lap traffic and getting into dirty air allowed series points leader David Gravel to pass for the lead. Thomas finished fifth for his best 410 finish.

“Our expectations were blown out of the water,” Thomas said. “We were looking to just qualify for the show. I can’t be too upset about that. We’re trying to venture out a little bit more with the 410 stuff and the five nights here put a test to where we’re at.”