Defending Champs Williamson & Comfort Back In Canandaigua Victory Lane

COLUMN BY: Tom Skibinski  / LAND OF LEGENDS RACEWAY – CANANDAIGUA, NY –  It took an extra month for ninth-year promoter Paul Cole to finally get cars in competition on the track, yet the wait certainly proved worthy for the packed pit area and capacity grandstand crowd that arrived at Land Of Legends Raceway to officially launch its 63rd season of motorsports.

Following a handful of failed attempts to host springtime practice sessions prior to May 21, as well as the initial four race events cancelled due to rain and the resulting wet conditions, weather finally cooperated in time to welcome back racers and their loyal fans to the Ontario County Fairgrounds.

Open-wheel aces Mat Williamson and Karl Comfort and full-fender veterans Jimmy Grant and Justin Eldredge couldn’t wait to return as they got off to triumphant starts in the highly anticipated lead-off May 30 ‘Saturday Spectacular’ presented by Proctor Enterprises and Wilbert’s U-Pull It. Second-year regular Spencer Burley and first-time visitor Preston Trautschold were just as successful, each etching their name in the track recordbook after posting flag-to-flag victories.

On this night the Humane Society of Yates County was recognized as the beneficiary of the season-opening 50/50 drawing.

Two-time reigning Pepsi Big-Block Modified points king Williamson led all but nine circuits to capture the headline 30-lap feature and pocket the $2,000 winner’s share while Comfort led just the final three in the 25-lap Stirling Lubricants Sportsman headliner, both in pursuit of another coveted title at the fairgrounds.

Grant grabbed the lead on lap four and never looked back in the 20-lap Proctor Enterprises Street Stock feature while race-long leader Eldredge survived a handful of yellow flags over the second half of the race to claim the 15-lap Smith Brothers Drywall Hobby Stock main.

Second-generation standout Burley proved just as dominant, out-distance defending DisBatch Brewing Company 305 Sprint Car points champion Bobby Parrow to capture a convincing 20-lap A-Main victory while pre-teen Trautschold easily won the 12-lap MighTea Boba New Legends Sportsman nightcap to conclude opening day.

With the ’26 opener originally scheduled the first weekend in May before continued rain and resulting saturated grounds scrapped the initial four shows, sunny skies throughout the day and cool temperatures come nightfall produced ideal race conditions for the 103 teams signed in for the annual lid-lifter that ultimately closed out the last full month of Spring.

Prior to Saturday, the latest opener kicked off DIRTcar founder Glenn Donnelly’s first full season at the fairgrounds on May 20, 1978 and the Modified main was won by Alan Johnson. 2026 now marks the 50th consecutive campaign in Canandaigua for the long-time Weedsport NY-based operation.

The month-long delay had little effect on Williamson’s success rate as the Canadian standout had his no. 6 S&W Service Centre-Becker Bros. Trucking/Bicknell entry on rails throughout en route to his second consecutive opening day victory.

“Had a new CC (Performance) motor in tonight. Bought it from Will Thomas with not many laps on it, but we were still worried because last year the car was so damn good with an older motor in it and we were scared to put a new one under the hood,” remarked Williamson, after notching his 12th career Big-Block win at the fairgrounds, seven of which came last season. “Just a total team effort on that motor to make it run as good as it did tonight on the slick stuff.”

After the top-two finishers from the three heat race qualifiers redrew, pole-sitter Williamson diced with front row partner Justin Haers until settling the score once and for all on lap 10, pacing the 18-car starting field over the final 21 circuits in the caution-free feature run off in just over 10 minutes.

“Justin is always fun to race with, he’s really good on the top side here,” Williamson noted. “Just kinda bided my time on the bottom and tried not to get the tires hot. Obviously happy with the results tonight.”

Three-time LOLR points champ Haers proved a worthy challenger yet still settled for runner-up honors nearly a half straightaway behind under the checkered flag while ‘Super’ Matt Sheppard earned the show position. Ninth-place starter Alex Payne was the biggest mover, advancing to fourth in the closing laps while Zach Payne hung on for fifth at the line.

While the non-stop Big-Block feature was practically decided by the midway point, Comfort needed 23 laps to get the job done despite falling into fifth on the 24-car Sportsman starting grid.

“Great battle out there, Kevin (Ridley) is super fast so I knew it would be a tough one to get by him,” stated Comfort, following his late-race pass of Ridley that forced the lone lead change just over a mile from the finish. “But I had to sneak up on him and not show myself too soon. Lost a lot of races in the past letting the leader see me too early and didn’t want it happening again tonight.”

Veteran Ridley and teenager Chris Darling pulled away at the drop of starter Scott Hixson’s initial green flag followed by Frank Guererri Jr. while Comfort and Richard Murtaugh III jockeyed for position among the front-five. Halfway through, the leaders swapped the top spot navigating around heavy traffic while a trio of yellow flags flew to keep the frontrunners bunched as the laps clicked off.

The lap 19 restart proved most pivotal as hard-charging Comfort and second-place car of Darling made contact exiting turn four, a flat right-rear tire sending Darling pitside in the aftermath while Comfort was the new chaser in Ridley’s rear-view. Comfort mirrored his move around Darling with an outside maneuver four laps later, dropping Ridley to second at the stripe followed by Guererri, second-generation pilot Nick Cooper and 12th-starting Evan Nugent.

“Just kinda running the bottom, you know how I do, but it was just slow down low and there were a lot of fast cars,” figured Comfort, who won his first season-opener in 1999 and now stands fifth all-time at LOLR with 27 Sportsman wins. “Thought I just needed a caution to try something. Then I started trying the outside and I could flat-foot it all the way around. Thought Darling saw me, was outside and I kinda got out of it, then we hit and I thought we were both done but it all worked out.”

Drawing the pole to kick off the 10-mile Sprint Car A-Main, Burley took full advantage as he led the distance to become the 40th driver to claim victory in 305 competition at the fairgrounds since the division was launched in 2012.

“Feels pretty good. We’ve had a rough start to the season so it feels good to get the monkey off our back and get it done on opening night,” stated the low-key wingman after parking the potent #15B Elab Smokers Boutique-Mohawk Northeast sprint in Marine Blue victory lane for the first time to rekindle the family tradition. Father Todd Burley collected the overall Mr. DIRT Sportsman crown in 1992 and ended his Canandaigua career scoring 14 Sportsman wins and one in the Big-Block ranks.

Saturday was all about Spencer, who out-dueled front row partner Dan Craun on lap one then authored a flawless performance for the remainder to post a comfortable 10 car-length victory over two-time defending track champion Parrow at the line. After top-five contenders Ethan Gray and Darryl Ruggles combined to incur the only caution period on lap 19, Burley never flinched back under green despite Parrow pulling to his bumper for the winner-take-all restart.

“Glad it was single-file (restart) so I didn’t have to worry about anything,” added Burley, who placed eighth in ‘25 points with four top-five finishes in 11 events to conclude his rookie season. “As long as I hit my marks I knew I’d be good.”

Last year’s season-opener victor Parrow crossed the line second followed by Craun, Lance Dusett and returning veteran Mike Stelter.

The caution-free Street Stock feature led off the six-star card and three-time LOLR points king Grant was no match for his full-fender foes after taking the lead on lap four from Rick Crego and never looking back in the seven-minute main.

“Didn’t know how hard to run the car (early on), just a good pace I was setting there,” pointed out Grant, with three of his 35 feature wins now recorded in season-opening events at LOLR. “The corners were really different, I could run the middle down there and you had to run the bottom to catch the bite over there.”

“It’s good to be home, love this place and it’s our third win this week. We’re on a roll, gotta pinch myself to see if it’s real. Have to thank Proctor Roofing that came on new this year, Washburn Excavating and Nick Fratto, he’s a huge help, plus everybody that continues to support this team,” added Grant, who also scored wins at Genesee and Outlaw speedways leading up to his latest trophy in Canandaigua.

Defending Street Stock season champion C.J. Guererri finished three seconds behind Grant with Crego, Ely Mangiarelli and all-time LOLR winner Mike Welch rounding out the final front-five.

A big field of 20 Hobby Stockers signed in but it was the familiar face of Eldredge showing up in the winner’s circle after the caution-plagued affair.

“Those restarts were killing me, just glad that Marc (Minutolo) didn’t door me like he said on Facebook,” declared Eldredge, following his 14th feature win that includes the 2021 lid-lifter scored en route to the season championship. “The track was kinda rubbered up in the middle so I knew if I stayed right there I could hold him off.”

Eldredge held off Minutolo on five restarts following minor mishaps yet on the heels of the final lap slowdown Frank ‘Bubba’ Burnell Jr. was able to take over second but still fell a car-length behind the winner in a dramatic late-race dash. Jimmy Grant performed double-duty to finish fourth ahead of ninth starting Jared Hill.

Exactly one dozen entry-level New Legends signed in on Saturday and it was second-generation driver Trautschold leading the way to claim the 12-lap finale circling the legendary Finger Lakes layout for the very first time. Preston has already been competing in motorsports for half his life, yet what makes Saturday’s record-setting run more impressive is this anything-but-raw Roscoe NY racer does not even turn 11 years of age until October.

“The track was good tonight, got a better line going around in the car when I got the lead,” remarked the soft-spoken wheelman, winner of Slingshot track titles at Utice-Rome, Hamlin and Glen Ridge speedways in ‘25, who politely thanked sponsors Speed Connection, Seneca Auto Sales, Ted’s Body Shop, Bilstein Shocks and of course mom and dad in his maiden voyage to Marine Blue victory lane for the blue no. 20 Bicknell ride. “My dad said you’re gonna beat me when you get older. I don’t know, will see.”

Oh ya, father Mike Trautschold finished 10th in the Big-Block Modified main leaving Preston with bragging rights for the four-hour downstate trip back home.