Darren Smith holds off Larry Wight in Brewerton Season Opener

COLUMN BY: Robert Kenney Jr. / FULTON SPEEDWAY – CENTRAL SQUARE, NY  – Under cool spring temperatures and a brisk breeze that settled in as the sun disappeared, fans still packed the grandstands Friday night as Brewerton Speedway officially kicked off its 2026 season opener with a full night of racing action across four divisions.

The nights sponsor, Neivel Precision Plumbing added an additional $4000 in purse monies leading to a strong field of racers. Including 26 Tracey Road DIRTcar Big Block Modifieds and 25 DOT Foods Sportsman entries.

In the headline event for the Tracey Road DIRTcar Big Block Modifieds, Darren Smith put together a smooth and consistent drive to score the season opening victory. The closing laps kept fans on edge as Smith had to navigate heavy lap traffic while holding off a hard-charging Larry Wight, who was rapidly closing the gap in the final circuits. Despite the pressure, Smith stayed composed and crossed the line first to secure the opening night win.

The DOT Foods Sportsman feature belonged to Hunter Hollenbeck, who dominated the event from the drop of the green flag. Hollenbeck showed impressive speed throughout the feature and never relinquished control on his way to a convincing victory. The race did see one of the biggest incidents of the night when several cars piled up exiting turn four, briefly clogging the racing surface and bringing out the red flag so the crew could clear the track.

Last season’s Mirabito 4-Cylinder Superstock champion Chris Bonoffski picked up right where he left off in 2025, capturing the feature win in the division’s season opener. Bonoffski’s strong run continued the momentum from his championship campaign a year ago.

In the AmeriCU Mod Lite STARS feature, Joseph Garafolo just beat out the 88z of Zack Babcock to the line, rounding out the evening’s winners.

While a handful of cautions slowed the pace throughout the night, fans were treated to an exciting opening program filled with strong car counts, close racing, and an early reminder that another competitive season is ahead at Brewerton Speedway.

Next up is the VP Racing Fuels Presents Mod/Spts/ML/4-Cyl plus Novice Sportsman on Friday May 15th.

Neivel Precision Plumbing Opening Night May 8th Results

Tracey Road DIRTcar Modifieds 

A Feature 1 (35 Laps) | 00:28:32.782 1. 12-Darren Smith[4]; 2. 99L-Larry Wight[10]; 3. 28F-Alan Fink[3]; 4. 5D-Kyle Devendorf[1]; 5. 32R-Ronnie Davis III[6]; 6. 5H-Chris Hile[5]; 7. 27-Tanner Van Doren[8]; 8. 28-Matt Smith[11]; 9. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[9]; 10. 91-Felix Roy[14]; 11. 38JR-Jason Parkhurst Jr[19]; 12. 44H-Chris Hulsizer[20]; 13. 9X-Tyler Trump[15]; 14. 5-Amy Holland[2]; 15. 11T-Jeff Taylor[23]; 16. 18$-Sean Beardsley[7]; 17. 160-Max Hill[17]; 18. 24-Jimmy Witko Jr[18]; 19. 38-Tim Harris[25]; 20. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias[21]; 21. 15-Todd Root[13]; 22. 28X-Stephen Marshall[24]; 23. 6NN-Nick Nye[22]; 24. 63-Adam Roberts[16]; 25. 3-Chris Mackey[12]; 26. (DNS) X-Chad Phelps

Dot Foods DIRTcar Sportsman 

A Feature 1 (25 Laps) | 00:19:07.440 1. 72-Hunter Hollenbeck[2]; 2. 1-Jack Meeks[5]; 3. 6-Cody Manitta[3]; 4. 0-Tony Finch II[1]; 5. 32-Joe Trichilo[9]; 6. 3-Colby Herzog[7]; 7. 83-Brett Sears[12]; 8. 63-Teddy Clayton Jr[25]; 9. 44C-Stephen Denton[17]; 10. 14-Samuel Groom[8]; 11. R1-Riley Rogala[15]; 12. 16X-Savannah Laflair[6]; 13. 10-Trevor Houghton[16]; 14. 48-Luke Powell[14]; 15. 28H-Brian Harber[20]; 16. 73-Doug Shattell[19]; 17. 16-Earl Rudy[22]; 18. 12-Owen Bird[10]; 19. 10G-Jacob Gurecki[11]; 20. 20-Brayden Bullock[18]; 21. 57-Eric Jensen[13]; 22. 4S-Stephen Stasko[23]; 23. 31B-Quinn Wallis[4]; 24. 71-Tim Falter[21]; 25. (DNS) 17A-John Pietrowicz

Mirabito DIRTcar 4-Cylinder Superstocks

A Feature 1 (15 Laps) | 00:12:12.852 1. 16B-Chris Bonoffski[7]; 2. 46-Brad Whiteside[9]; 3. 96T-Tim Dunn[8]; 4. 113-Nathan Powers[6]; 5. 8-Don Whiteside[11]; 6. 27-Kenneth Evans[20]; 7. 21V-Corey Valade[14]; 8. 55-Anthony VanEpps[12]; 9. 21-Scott Beach[5]; 10. 9B-Dylan Burdick[19]; 11. 25K-Tim Koch[10]; 12. 17-Chuck Powelczyk[15]; 13. 22E-Eric Inman[13]; 14. 23B-Brian Mettler[16]; 15. 20-Eric Rawley[3]; 16. 99-Walt VanEpps[1]; 17. 22W-Rex White[18]; 18. 5K-Jack Taskey[2]; 19. 61-Timathy Hendrikx[17]; 20. 9V-Darik VanEpps[4]; 21. (DNS) 27A-Alexandra Parker; 22. (DNS) 33C-Chelsea Inman

AmeriCU Mod Lite STARS 

A Feature 1 (20 Laps) | 00:08:15.932 1. 55-Joseph Garafolo[1]; 2. 88Z-Zack Babcock[7]; 3. 5R-Matt Kitts[3]; 4. 9-Roger Olschewske Jr[5]; 5. 06-Mike Mullen[4]; 6. 39-Nick Graziano[9]; 7. 80X-Anthony Scott[2]; 8. 155-Nicholas Garafolo[11]; 9. 11X-Jack Lyon[8]; 10. 7X-Thomas Mackey[6]; 11. 83L-Levi Currier[13]; 12. 17-Daniel Kerr II[12]; 13. 8-Kent Chandler[10]