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Brett Hearn, Mark Kislowski Win At Fonda |
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09/25/07 -
By JR KENNERUP
FONDA, NY - The Fonda Speedway closed out their 2007 racing season on Sunday afternoon with a Race of Champions Dart Dirt Modified and Sportsman doubleheader on McDonald’s sponsored weekend.
In the 100 lap RoC Dart Dirt Modified Tour event Brett Hearn led all 100 laps from his pole starting position to claim the $7,500 win. AJ Romano chased Hearn for all 100 laps in second and finished there after starting third. Brian Weaver in the Craig Decker owned car started 14th and raced his way up to third. Bobby Varin ended up fourth after starting 16th and Stewart Friesen finished fifth.
In the 40 lap RoC Dart Dirt Sportsman feature Mark Kislowski took the lead from Steve Vrooman with four laps to go to go on to the $1,500 win. Jason Memmerick finished second with Larry Wight finishing third after starting 20th. Alan Barker ended up fourth and Vrooman slipped back to fifth at the checkers.
"The measure of anxiety wondering if you’re going to blow a right rear tire at any minute is enough to make you worry," said race winner Brett Hearn.
"We were fine on fuel because we went out full. I spent the whole racing worrying about the right rear tire and not trying to get on it too hard to save some rubber if I needed it at the end. We caught some good breaks with the yellows as we were getting into heavy lap traffic when they came out."
Brett outgunned Dustin Delaney for the lead at the start and after each restart would open up a big lead then after a few laps would start backing off conserving his tires.
"That was my game plan to do that and have some reserve in my tank and save my right rear tire."
Brett raced the Knoth/Hastings-owned big block powered car on the afternoon. Brett was asked if he thought that was an advantage on this day.
"When you can hook up a big block it’s going to jump away from a small block. What could have been a disadvantage became an advantage for us today."
With four laps to go during the 13th yellow of the race Brett and AJ Romano checked out each others tires to how they were.
"I felt a lot better after AJ told me I had rubber left. He pulled up alongside of me and gave me thumbs up and I got to trust him. So I waved him by and I checked on his right rear and it was good so I knew then that my tire was in good shape and he wasn’t trying to pull a fast one on me.
"This is huge for those guys," said Brett when talking about the win for his car owners.
"They get excited to win Saturday nights and for them to win a big race like this especially when it wasn’t on our original schedule. You have to feel good for them. We came here last week as a last minute decision and I wasn’t sure if I was coming today with my stuff. But my stuff we need to get properly prepared for Syracuse so I ran this car which handles so good here."
Brett who won his 22nd career Fonda feature on this day had this quote to sum up his day.
"Racing on a daytime track sometime you have to win the lottery before you can win the race. "
"To get into second right off the bat was crucial," said second place finisher AJ Romano who followed Hearn on the start.
"The only down side being was on double file restarts I was going to be on the outside. Certainly I didn’t want to get hung out there and I was thrilled to see lap 50 come so there were no double file restarts.
"I think it would have been foolish to race him on the restarts," summed AJ.
"Once we fired I slowly just dropped down into the bottom groove and it worked and no one hit me and I didn’t hit anyone. Everybody used good judgment on the restarts and didn’t try to wad in there to try and take both of us out."
Asked if he had anything for Brett, AJ answered: "Obviously he was faster and the only way I was going to win the race was to get to a bunch of lap cars and Brett would slip out of the groove and I could take the lead. But I stayed where I was as no one was pressuring me cause if I pushed Brett we both would have raced harder and that wouldn’t been good for either one of us."
Qualifying for the 35 Modifieds on hand saw heat wins go to Dave Camara, Pat Ward, Friesen, and Marc Johnson while Ray Zemken and Brett Graham won the consi’s.
Alan Barker and John Scarborough brought the Sportsman field to green with Scarborough jumping out to the lead over Barker, Dave Constantino, Luke Munroe and Jason Memmerick.
Second generation driver Danny Varin was on the move early from his sixth place starting spot as he quickly moved into fifth on lap three. Following a lap eight restart Varin bolted into third and hounded Constantino for second until lap 21 when he made the pass for second.
Scarborough had a huge lead and that was reduced to no lead as he entered heavy lap traffic on lap 23. As Scarborough attempted to go to the outside of the slower lap cars he slid up and out of the groove. This enabled Varin to slip under for the lead in turn two but still in lap traffic Varin’s lead would only last a straightaway. Going into turn three David Towns came out of nowhere to grab the lead from Varin.
Excessive tire wear started to hamper many of the racers with less than 15 laps to go. After Scarborough blew his engine on lap 26 Varin gave up second with a flat tire on lap 33. Towns would surrender the lead due to a flat tire on lap 34 and this moved Steve Vrooman into the lead.
A restart with five to go shuffled the field considerably as Mark Kislowski ducked under Vrooman in turn four to take the lead he would never give up. Vrooman got freight trained and found himself after the dust settled back in fifth.
Kislowski in for his second consecutive win at Fonda with Memmerick, 14 year old Larry Wight who started 20th and Barker who chased the leader across the line.
Qualifying for the 24 Sportsman in attendance saw heat wins go to Varin, Kislowski, and Barker.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART DIRT MODIFIED TOUR COMBINED RACE #2 McDonald’s 100 FINISH: Brett Hearn, AJ Romano, Brian Weaver, Bobby Varin, Stewart Friesen, Pat Ward, Mitch Gibbs, Marc Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, Matt DeLorenzo, Ted Lamb, Jr., Willy Decker, Ancel Collins, Todd Morey, Brett Graham, Josh Pieniazek, , Ryan Odasz, Jimmy Davis, Ray Zemken, Tim Fuller, Dan Hartgraves, Dave Camara, Robert King, Dustin Delaney, Jack Johnson, Billy Decker.
DNQ’S; Chuck McKee, Erik Nelson, Zachary Graham, Darwin Greene, Craig Hanson, Robert Perry, John Wolfe, Mike Colsten, Jeff Heotzler.
LAP LEADERS; Hearn ( 1 – 100 )
SMALL BLOCK BONUS $500; Weaver
TRACK PROVISIONALS; Hartgraves, Davis
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART DIRT SPORTSMAN TOUR COMBINED RACE # 2 McDonald’s 40 FINISH: Mark Kislowski, Jason Memmerick, Larry Wight, Alan Barker, Steve Vrooman, Dave Constantino, Sparky Lowe, Bill Wilder, Jack Miller, Danny Creeden, Casey Williams, Pete Sisler, Danny Varin, Mike Loney, Joey Colsten, DT Pickard, Luke Munroe, David Towns, Jeremy Wilder, John Scarborough, Jim Meka, John McAuliffe, Angela Hoard.
DQ; Derrick McGrew
LAP LEADERS; Scarborough ( 1 – 22 ), Towns ( 23 – 34 ), Vrooman ( 35 ), Kislowski ( 36 – 40 )
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