Tracks: Fonda celebrates a night of first time champions
21 August 2000
Varin, Davis, Noviczski, & Horning, Jr.Fonda, NY - The 2000 version of the BBL "Night of Features" was a Night of First Time Champions at the historic "Track of Champions" on Saturday night.
Bobby Varin of Sharon Springs, NY chased winner Tony Pepicelli to the line in the first modified feature of the night. Varin's second place finish put him 50 points up on the title and all he had to do was take the green in the second 20 lap mod feature.
With the crowning of Varin as champion he becomes only the fifth driver to take that honor at Fonda Speedway in the past 20 years. Varin joins four other drivers, Jack Johnson, Dave Lape, Mike Romano and Dave Camara who have worn the "Track of Champions" crown since 1980.
Jim Davis of Ballston Spa, NY was crowned the Fonda Speedway 2000 Sportsman Champion. Rob Noviczski of Rotterdam, NY took home his first ever title in the Pro Stock division. Dave Horning, Jr. led the Street Stock division in wins and on Saturday capped it off with his first ever track championship.
The IMCA Modified points will run through September before a champion is crowned in that division. As the speedway breaks for the annual fair, George Catanzano sits one point ahead of Steve Bidwell for the title.
Tony Pepicelli and Mike Romano were the modified winners on the BBL Night of Features. Other wins on the double feature night went to Craig Boehler, a first career win, and Mike Ballestero in sportsman, Ken Gates and Rob Noviczski in pro stocks. The Street Stock "A" feature win went to Dan Rickard and Dave Horning, Jr. was the Street Stock "B" feature winner. The IMCA Mod win went to George Catanzano.
The Modified B main winner was Jeff Trombley who started in the rear of the field and quickly made his way through the pack for the win.
The Sportsman B main win went to Tim Mayne, making it his second trip to victory lane on the 2000 season.
Mike Fritz liked it so well in victory lane last Saturday he made another visit this Saturday for the Pro Stock B Main qualifying event.
The Kenny Shoemaker book signing received overwhelming response from the fans at Fonda on Saturday. Over 400 of the books were sold and signed by Kenny in the pits and in front of the Fonda grandstand.
Fonda is closed now for the Montgomery County Fair August 29 thru September 4. Racing will resume at the speedway on Saturday, September 16 with a Sportsman Open plus the Street Stock, Pro Stock, IMCA. Racing will start at 4:00 p.m.
Alton Palmer sat on the pole of the first modified feature. The caution flew on the first lap when Kenny Martin launched his car off the speedway in turn three and wound up into the front of Mike Romano's tow vehicle. Severe damage was done to Martin's car and Romano's truck. The truck was done for the night, but Martin came back in the second feature in the Jim Burton sportsman car renumbered with a No. 93.
Palmer survived one more caution and led until lap five when Tony Pepicelli powered by for the lead.
Pepicelli pulled away from the field. By the halfway point Varin had made his way around Palmer and was after Pepicelli. Varin was not able to get close enough to make a run on Pepicelli. Pepicelli recorded his second win this season at Fonda
Frank Hoard led the second modified main event to the green. The caution immediately flew for point's leader Varin as he spun in turn two.
On the restart the cars jammed up in turn three sending Hoard around and the cars scrambling around him.
Mike Romano jumped into the lead on the restart and only needed to survive one more yellow to win his fourth big block event of the season.
Craig Boehler led the first sportsman feature to the green. Boehler pulled away from the field. No yellows ever flew and the only one who got close enough to challenge Boehler was the T31 of Drew Fallis. Boehler continued on to visit checkerboard square for his first career win.
Mike Ballestero led the second sportsman main event to the green flag. On lap two Jeff Jones flipped his No. 20 on the frontstretch after the rear end of the car caught the inside concrete wall. Jones was unhurt.
Ballestero took off on the restart to be chased by John McAuliffe and Frank Hoard, Jr. Hoard moved around McAuliffe on lap four and the top three remained that way until the checker.
In the first pro stock main event Jim Duncan brought the field to the green. Duncan held the lead until a caution came out on lap six when Duncan, Brian Jordan and Hondo Carpenter tried to go three wide in turn three but got tangled up causing the caution.
Duncan held the lead on the restart but the No. 619 of Chris Morris overtook him on the backstretch for the lead.
Morris was under heavy assault from Ken Gates. Gates was able to take over on the frontstretch as the Morris car began to smoke and slowed and made its way to pits.
Gates continued on to the first pro stock checker of the night.
The second pro stock event of the night saw Dave Viall and Mark Sullivan on the point at the green.
Point leader Rob Noviczski slipped under Viall in turn two to claim the lead. Noviczski continued to put distance between his No. 221 and the rest of the field and was just catching the lap cars as the yellow flew on lap 14.
Noviczski now sat in the lead with three lap cars behind him. On the restart, Mark Sullivan who was now second shot past the lap traffic to grab second but his was not strong enough for Noviczski. Noviczski took the checker for the seventh time this season.
Jim Rajczi led the IMCA Modified division main event for the first six laps. George Catanzano chased Rajczi and challenged him on the high side lap after lap. Catanzano was finally able to take Rajczi on the backstretch.
With Catanzano out front and Rajczi second, Steve Bidwell was making his moves on Steve Hough. Bidwell passed Hough with one lap to go for third but was set back one spot for jumping on one of the restarts and had to settle for fourth. Mike Bungay followed Bidwell for fifth.
Street Stock A feature had three different leaders, Joe Smith led the first lap, then Rocky Warner took over until lap six when Dan Rickard was able to get by and continue on to record his first win of the season.
Street Stock B began with a caution on lap one when Ken Barth's racer drifted high into the backstretch wall and than back in front of the field.
Bob VanAernam grabbed the lead on the restart and led until the final circuit when Dave Horning, Jr. squeezed enough from his No. 17 and crossed the line ahead of VanAernam. It was Horning's ninth win of the season.
Modified Feature #1 (20 laps) 1. TONY PEPICELLI, 2) Bobby Varin, 3) Craig Criscone, 4) Mike Romano, 5) Dave Lape, 6) Tim Clemons, 7) Jeff Trombley, 8) Bobby Albert, 9) A. J. Romano, 10) Frank Hoard, 11) Alton Palmer, 12) Ken Hanson, 13) Ron Holmes, 14) Lee Nutting, 15) Bob Savoie, 16) Jerry Pennock, Jr., 17) Floyd Billington, 18) Rich Pennonk, Jr., 19) Bob Vedder, 20) Mike Fusco, 21) Harry Shaffer, 22) Danny Ody, 23) David Townes, 24) John Kollar, 25) Matt DeLorenzo, 26) Kenny Martin.
Modified Feature #2 (20 laps) 1. MIKE ROMANO, 2) Ron Holmes, 3) Tim Clemons, 4) Bobby Varin, 5) Mike Fusco, 6) Alton Palmer, 7) Tony Pepicelli, 8) Craig Criscone, 9) Floyd Billington, 10) Bobby Albert, 11) Dave Lape, 12) Jerry Pennock, Jr., 13) Ken Hanson, 14) Bob Vedder, 15) Paul Luskin, 16) Harry Shaffer, 17) Dave Sargent, 18) Bob Enright, 19) Lee Nutting, 20) Matt DeLorenzo, 21) David Townes, 22) George Audi, Jr., 23) John Marsh, 24) Kenny Martin, 25) Jeff Trombley, 26) Danny Ody.
DQ'd Bob Savoie (illegal carb.)
Sportsman Feature #1 (15 laps) 1. CRAIG BOEHLER, 2) Drew Fallis, 3) Johnny LeClair, 4) Tony Farone, 5) Mike Fraiser, 6) Jeremiah Munson, 7) Frank Hoard, Jr., 8) John McAuliffe, 9) Rich Wozniak, 10) Mike Ballestero, 11) Jeff Holt, 12) Jim Davis, 13) Ryan Odasz, 14) Steve Akers, 15) Ray Zemken, 16) Mike Kechum, 17) John Constantino, 18) Robert Perry, 19) Tim Mayne, 20) Frank Greco, 21) John Scarborough, 22) Jessica Zemken, 23) Jim Burton, 24) Jeff Jones.
Sportsman Feature #2 (15 laps) 1. MIKE BALLESTERO, 2) Frank Hoard, Jr. 3) John McAuliffe, 4) Drew Fallis, 5) Ray Zemken, 6) Johnny LeClair, 7) Rich Wozniak, 8) Jeremiah Munson, 9) Mike Fraisser, 10) Ryan Odasz, 11) Craig Boehler, 12) Steve Akers, 13) Robert Perry, 14) John Constantino, 15) Jeff Holt, 16) John Scarborough, 17) Jessica Zemken, 18) Frank Greco, 19) Tim Mayne, 20) Mike Ketchum, 21) Tony Farone, 22) Jim Davis, 23) Jim Burton, 24) Jeff Jones.
Pro Stock Feature #1 (15 laps) 1.KEN GATES, 2) Phlan Hart, 3) Mike Fritz, 4) Steve Burega, 5) Nick Stone, 6) Rob Noviczski, 7) Mark Sullivan, 8) Dave Viall, 9) Luke Klob, 10) Jim Duncan, 11) Hondo Carpenter, 12) Mike Noble, 13) Tom LaPlante, 14) Brian Jordan, 15) Steve Welch, 16) Chris Morris, 17) Kerry Jordan, 18) Chuck McSpirit, 19) Wayne Oliver, 20) Wayne Walker, 21) Steve Cosselman, 22) Jim Normoyle, 23) Jeff Patrick.
Pro Stock Feature #2 (15 laps) 1. ROB NOVICZSKI, 2) Phlan Hart, 3) Mark Sullivan, 4) Kenny Gates, 5) Hondo Carpenter, 6) Steve Welch, 7) Nick Stone, 8) Dave Viall, 9) Jim Duncan, 10) Mike Noble, 11) Luke Klob, 12) Steve Burega, 13) Jeff Patrick, 14) Chuck McSpirit, 15) Jim Normoyle, 16) Brian Jordan, 17) Tom LaPlante, 18) Wayne Walker, 19) Joe DeSieno, 20) Mike Fritz, 21) Chris Morris, 22) Evan Crahan, 23) Kerry Jordan.
IMCA Modifieds Feature (15 laps) 1. GEORGE CATANZANO, 2) Jim Rajczi, 3) Steve Hough, 4) Steve Bidwell, 5) Mike Bungay, 6) Craig Simmons, 7) Dan Ballard, 8) Geroge Proctor, 9) Joe Locorini, 10) Aaron Jacobs, 11) Bud Hernberg, 12) Bill Ward, Jr., 13) Skip Pabis, 14) Kevin Buff.
Street Stock "A" Feature (12 laps) 1. DAN RICKARD, 2) Scott Wells, 3) Joe Donato, 4) Shawn Simmons, 5) Mark Saglimbeni, 6) Joe Smith, 7) Don Oldick, 8) Rocky Warner, 9) Charlie Krause, 10) Brian Cosselman, 11) Richard Walters, 12) Rod Slater, 13) Steve Vrooman.
Street Stock "B" Feature ( 12 laps) 1. DAVE HORNING, JR., 2) Bob VanAernam, 3) Paul Chichester, 4) John Babcock, 5) Jim Olsen, 6) Dave Bayes, 7) Eric Harper, 8) Randy Cannell, 9) Dave Hewitt, 10) Don Warner, 11) Jerry Pepper, 12) Dick Nichols, 13) Rob VanAernam, 14) Ken Barth.