Friesen Full To The Finish In Second Straight Friends Of Mike Triumph

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Friesen Full To The Finish In Second Straight Friends Of Mike Triumph

By: Pete MacDonald

Sprakers, NY’s Stewart Friesen picked up his second straight Friends of Mike win at the Bridgeport Speedway on Tuesday night earning him $5,000 when race long leader Craig VonDohren ran out of fuel with just two laps to go. Ryan Watt would get by Friesen temporarily when VonDohren slowed but the pass was negated by the caution. It was Friesen’s first win in the Mike Petruska owned 66.

Craig VonDohren who has led in every race he has been to at Bridgeport this year looked to be on his way to his first win in a long time at the spacious 5/8 mile speed plant located in Southwestern New Jersey until he ran out of fuel coming off of turn two  with just a couple of circuits remaining. I really don’t think Friesen was going to touch him that late in the going, he had restart after restart and he just couldn’t make it stick with VonDohren running the top.

“I really didn’t think I was going to get by him because he was such a rocket ship out there, being out front was so important because clean air is everything here. I just didn’t want to pile in the back of him when he came back down the track, We led here back in the spring and had some bad luck with a couple flat tires but we’re happy and we’ll take it”, said Friesen post race.

Ryan Watt would hold on for second with Danny Johnson(who was the last car to arrive to the speedway), David Hunt and Neal Williams rounding out the top five. Williams was penalized late when RoC officials said he jumped the final restart when it looked like he just pulled to the outside to try and get a better restart.

The race was marred by a lap 43 incident when Billy Pauch and Tommy Beamer tangled going down into turn three with the front end collapsing on Beamer’s mount. After Beamer had come to a stop Kyle Hieber who was running toward the back of the pack had a car directly in front of him dodge Beamer leaving Hieber with nowhere to go plowing into the rear of Beamer. Both drivers escaped without injury but both cars were absolutely destroyed.

Tire management seemed to be the name of the game on Tuesday with many cars suffering flat tires during the 50 lap affair. One Bridgeport faithful driver compared it to racing on knives. I know of at least two drivers that suffered more than one flat tire during the duration of the feature.

Heat races for the 36 Modifieds in attendance were won by Mike Iles, Billy Pauch, Ryan Godown and David Hunt with  Danny Johnson and Sammy Piazza winning the B-Main’s.

Ryan Godown suffered overheating problems in his Bill Hewlett owned 901 and pulled off early in the going.

Teenage sensation Tyler Dippel was making his first ever Bridgeport Speedway start, he would finish 25th after suffering a blown motor. Duane Howard also suffered a blown motor in his heat race and would be done for the night.

New Egypt Speedway Sportsman Point Leader Clay Butler made his first big block modified start in a very long time on Tuesday bringing home his 4b in a very respectable eighth place.

Prior to heat races event organizer Danny Serrano gave Sam Martz a plaque celebrating the fact that Martz is the only driver to compete in all ten Friends of Mike races held between the New Egypt and Bridgeport Speedways.

Brett Kressley  continued his dominance when he shows up at Bridgeport winning the Bill Hill Memorial 28 lap Sportsman feature over Steve Davis, Jim Britt, Brandon Grosso and Jeremy Harrington.

Photo Gallery from Tuesday is found at: http://racersguide.com/photos/

Any questions comments or concerns I can be reached at racersguide@gmail.com or on Twitter @PMacDonald51, Thanks!

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