RUSH Late Models Take To The Fonda Speedway Saturday; Also Meet & Greet Night

Story By: RON SZCZERBA / FONDA SPEEDWAY – FONDA, NY – After the rainout last Saturday, June 7, the first racing program of the month of June will take place at the “Track of Champions” Fonda Speedway this Saturday, June 14 with M2 Metals presenting a RUSH Crate Late Model event.

Along with the Crate Late Models, all regular divisions will also be in action at Fonda as well including the Amsterdam Truck Center Modifieds, the Swagger Factory Apparel Crate 602 Sportsman, the Leatherstocking Credit Union Pro Stocks, the Montgomery County Office for Aging Inc. Limited Sportsman, and the Fonda Fair Four Cylinders.

The very popular Meet & Greet has also been rescheduled for this Saturday, June 14 and will take place on the front straightaway right after the scheduled 5:30 hot lap sessions are completed.

There have been five previous visits to the Fonda Speedway by the “new style” Late Models with two different series promoting those events, the Lucas Oil Late Model Series and the World of Outlaw Late Model Series. Jimmy Owens was the winner of both of the Lucas Oil Series events in 2010 and 2011 while Tim McCreadie (2013) and Shane Clanton (2015) took the victories in the World of Outlaw Series events.

Last year was the first ever visit to Fonda by the M2 RUSH Crate Late Models with Demetrios Drellos taking the win.

Derrick McGrew Jr. led the first 11 laps of the 20-lap Late Model feature event back in 2024 until a caution flag reset the field. On the restart, defending 2023 Fonda Speedway Modified Track Champion Demetrios Drellos got by the second place car of Dale Caswell and then on the next lap passed McGrew Jr. for the lead on the inside of turns one and two. Drellos went on to win followed by McGrew Jr. Caswell, AJ Miller, and Aaron Jacobs.

“Always a blast getting into this car,” Drellos said in victory lane. “I’ve been racing this car on Saturday nights, and I’ve got pretty comfortable with it. It’s good to win here at Fonda, sometimes you just need a change of pace and scenery. It’s a lot of fun and when it comes down to it if this is more fun than this is what we do.”

The M2 RUSH Crate Late Models will make another visit to Fonda later this season on Saturday, August 2, 2025.

AN “OLD STYLE” LATE MODEL HISTORY LESSON

With the “new style” Late Models mentioned above, there were also what I’ll call the “old style” Late Models that ran at Fonda between the years of 1963, 1968-1982 according to the book Fonda. During those years there were a total of 243 feature events held with 45 different drivers winning those events. Without going through the entire win list Dick Schoonover was the overall leader in wins with 32.

As far as Late Model Track Champions go in the history of the division, there were 15 Fonda Speedway Late Model Track Championships awarded with Dick Schoonover leading the way with four titles (1974, 1975, 1976, 1980), Norm Moyer with three titles (1968, 1970, 1971), and Keith Tesiero with two titles (1977, 1978). Single Late Model Track Championships at Fonda were also won by Harry Peek (1969), Harvey Brundage (1972), Earl Mewhorter (1973), Jack Cottrell (1979), Randy Glenski (1981), and Paul Jensen (1982).

M2 Metals RUSH Late Models

M2 Metals presents the first RUSH Late Model event of 2025 at the Track of Champions. All divisions will be in action. The Meet & Greet from June 7 has been rescheduled and will take place after hot laps.