Bobby Varin Wins on C.D. Coville Night at ‘The Track of Champions,’ Now Fourth on the All Time Winner’s List
Story By: RON SZCZERBA / FONDA SPEEDWAY Photos By: JANE CELLA and DAVE DALESANDRO / RACERSGUIDE.COM
FONDA, NY- July 4, 2016- The 2016 racing season started out great for the Dover Brake #00 with top five finishes in the first three events. Then at the end of the month of May, Varin was out of the top 10 two weeks in a row before getting his first win of the season back on June 4. Since that first win Varin has had two more victories along with a fourth place finish including a victory on Saturday evening of Independence Day weekend.
The victory on Saturday, July 2 was the 55th of his career at Fonda which places him fourth on the all-time win list at the “Track of Champions” ahead of Kenny Shoemaker. The victory also came in a special 61-lap C.D. Coville tribute race which was worth $3061 to Varin and his Dover Brake sponsored racing team.
“I have to thank the “Shock Doctor” Jack Hanna who has us on a great setup right now,” Varin told Paul Szmal in victory lane where C.D. Coville presented him with the winning trophy. “I also have to thank all of the ladies on our crew who do a lot for us.”
Other winners on Saturday evening at Fonda were Chad Edwards (sportsman), Travis Billington (rookie sportsman), Jay Casey (first career win at Fonda in the pro stock division), Josh Coonradt (street stock), and Cory Sparks (CRSA Sprints).
A gigantic Fireworks display by Alonzo ended the racing program for the big crowd that was on hand.
Korey Wilder started the 61-lap event from the pole position and took the early lead in the event followed by Pep Corradi who started behind him in the third spot. Jessey Mueller started the event in the sixth position but didn’t stay there long as he took over the third spot on lap four using his favorite extreme outside groove around the track to gain the positions.
On lap five Mueller got by Corradi for the second position and one lap later he was the new race leader after getting by Wilder for the spot on the outside of turns three and four. As Mueller stretched out his advantage to a straightaway by lap 12, 15th place starter Bobby Varin moved into the fourth position on lap 16 with 23rd place starter Stewart Friesen following behind Varin in fifth.
Mueller was a halftrack ahead in lap traffic on lap 24 with Varin now the second place car and Friesen close by in third. At the halfway point in the event Mueller was the leader followed by Varin, Friesen, Wilder, and 13th place starter and last week’s winner Danny Johnson. Mueller was lapping cars inside the top 10 in the running order on lap 37 when the first caution of the event came out for a wreck involving Brandon Walters, Jeff Rockefeller, and Josh Hohenforst with Hohenforst and Rockefeller able to continue.
On the restart, Mueller went back out to the outside groove where he was all race long while Varin used the bottom groove to stay close to the leader. On lap 39, Varin used an inside move in turn four to take over the lead and then immediately went to the outside groove to stop Mueller from getting back by him going into turns one and two.
One more caution flag slowed the field on lap 42 for Rockefeller who came to a stop near the wall on the backstretch. On this restart, Danny Johnson went from fourth to second as he got by both Friesen and Mueller with Varin stretching out his advantage to a full straightaway by lap 45. When Mueller tried to get the second position back from Danny Johnson coming out of turn four on lap 46, Johnson came up to block the move with Mueller scraping the front stretch wall with his right rear tire. Fortunately Mueller continued on without having to pit for any damage from the contact.
Friesen’s great run came to an end with 10 laps to go as the Halmar #44 broke coming out of turn two and drove right into the pit area without bringing out the caution with Ronnie Johnson now third after starting 17th. One final yellow came out on lap 52 when Wilder ended up in the backstretch wall while running sixth but nobody had anything for Varin as he drove away to the win after the restart followed by Danny Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, Jeremy Wilder, and Mueller.
There were only five cars left on the lead lap at the completion of the event after the blistering pace that was set during the race. In post-race inspection Mueller was light at the scales and was disqualified moving Hohenforst into the top five.
“Jessey (Mueller) has been fast, has good equipment, and has come a long way in his learning curve,” Varin said in victory lane. “Our right rear lasted just long enough so I guess we will have to buy a new tire for next week. This is the second week on this one so that’s okay we won enough money tonight to get a new one.”
The sportsman feature took three tries to get it going as first a yellow flag and then a red flag was out for two separate incidents. The yellow was caused by Aaron Burton who spun in turn one with the red flag caused by a spectacular flip in between turns three and four by Cody Clark who got out of his car uninjured in the eight car wreck.
Once everything settled down and the green flag flew to start the event for the third time, Brian Pessolano took the early lead with third place starter Chad Edwards second after he got by outside pole starter Harry Shaffer for the spot on lap one. Mark Mortensen started the event in the fourth position and also got by Shaffer for the third spot at that point with 11th place starter John McAuliffe in fourth by lap five.
The top three of Pessolano, Edwards, and Mortensen made it their own race as they stretched out their advantage to a comfortable margin from the third place car of McAuliffe by lap 10 when the leader was in lap traffic. At the halfway point the top five consisted of Pessolano, Edwards, Mortensen, McAuliffe, and JaMike Sowle.
Mortensen was reeling in the top two as Pessolano and Edwards were again in lap traffic on lap 15 and that is where Edwards made his move for the lead. On the inside of turn four on lap 17, Edwards moved past Pessolano for the point but Pessolano wasn’t about to give up easily as he ran side by side with Edwards for an entire lap on lap 20 with Edwards able to hang on to the lead.
Edwards pulled away from there to a comfortable margin and went on to the win, his first of the season and the second of his career in the division at Fonda in the Dodson Construction #14. Pessolano ended up second with McAuliffe getting by Mortensen two laps from the finish for third with Sowle completing the top five.
“Brian (Pessolano) had a good car,” Edwards said in victory lane. “We’ve had a good car the last few weeks but have been fighting through problems and don’t have anything to show for it.”
Josh Neal took the early lead in the 12-lap rookie sportsman feature and held that until lap five when third place starter Travis Billington took over the lead. Billington led the rest of the way with his third win in the division and will now move up to the regular sportsman class starting next week. Brian Calabrese, Neal, David Manchester, and Dan Boni competed the top five.
In post-race inspection, Neal was disqualified for being light at the scales moving Michael Peek into the top five.
The 20-lap pro stock feature started with a guest starter throwing the green flag as friend of Joe Kriss, Cole Nelson who shares the same birthday later this week with Joe, was up on the flag stand with him. Cole assisted Joe the remainder of the event on the flag stand as well.
Jay Casey started the event on the outside pole and led at the drop of Cole Nelson’s green flag with Tom Denton bringing out the caution before any laps were completed. Denton was able to continue on but on lap four he spun in turn four to bring out another caution. It took three tries to get the race started again with Casey maintaining the lead each time.
Sixth row starters Kenny Gates and Todd Hoffman were coming through the field and were running in the top five at the halfway point with the top five consisting of Casey, Ivan Joslin, Hoffman, Gates, and Jim Normoyle. The yellow flag was out on lap 15 for Jamie Warner and on the restart Luke Horning who was involved in one of the earlier cautions was forced to the infield on the restart but kept going and came back out on the track in turn one in the seventh position.
Hoffman’s night ended with a crash into the turn one wall while running third with Hoffman put in the ambulance to be checked out in the pit area after the wreck for precautionary reasons. No further information on Hoffman’s condition was released afterwards.
Gates pressured Casey for the last three laps to no avail as Jay Casey took his first career win at Fonda over Gates, Shane Henderson, Normoyle, and Jason Casey.
“Finally, it took us a year and a half to do this,” Casey said of the emotional win. “We are quite a long way from home running here at Fonda every week so this one is special.”
Bill Yager led at the start of the 12-lap street stock feature event but after getting four wide Jerry Cohn was the race leader as lap one was completed. Seventh place starter Josh Coonradt took the lead on the inside of turn three on lap nine and went on to his eighth win of the season and the 11th of his career at Fonda over Jason Samrov, Johnny Young, Cohn, and Yager.
Dustin Purdy led lap one of the CRSA Sprint feature until sixth place starter Cory Sparks ran around the outside of the top five cars to take the lead in turn three on the second lap. Sparks held the lead through three restarts during the remainder of the event and went on to the win in the Adirondack Harley Davidson #1HD over Brian Krummel, Josh Pieniazek, Kyle Smith, and Mike Kiser.
Adirondack Harley Davidson general manager Jeff Fraser was on hand in victory lane to celebrate the win with Sparks who said in his victory lane interview “I need to thank my crew, my wife, and my mom and dad as this is our home track and this win is a dream come true for me. Without Jeff Fraser at Adirondack Harley Davidson we wouldn’t be able to do this so a big thank you to him as well.”
Next Saturday, July 9 at the Fonda Speedway, School House Pools will sponsor the night of racing which will include a tribute to jerry Cook. The Hondo Classic for pro stocks is also on the racing card and it will also be “Banner Night”. As always the Fonda Speedway Museum will be open from 3:00 p.m. up until race time so please go and visit the museum to see some of the history of the track known as the “Track of Champions.”
For more information about the Fonda Speedway please go to their website www.fondaspeedway.com
MODIFIED FEATURE – 35-LAPS – BOBBY VARIN, Danny Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, Jeremy Wilder, Josh Hohenforst, Matt DeLorenzo, Jimmy Davis, Bodie Bellinger, Justin Boehler, Pep Corradi, Ed Harris, Troy Palmer, Korey Wilder, Scott Huber, Stewart Friesen, Jeff Rockefeller, Brandon Walters, Jeremy Pitts (sub for Mark Kislowski), Kenny Sparks, Darwin Greene, Jeff Trombley, Craig Hanson, Chuck Allen, Jessey Mueller (DQ weight)
SPORTSMAN FEATURE – 25-LAPS – CHAD EDWARDS, Brian Pessolano, John McAuliffe, Mark Mortensen, JaMike Sowle, Adam McAuliffe, Harry Shaffer, Nick Scavia, Rocky Warner, Chris Schaffer, Connor Cleveland, Kurtis Hohensheldt, Tim Hartman Jr., Doug Flynn, Billy Gray, Ray Zemken, Dan Santabarbara, Aaron Burton, Tony Farone, Ricky Quick, Doug Hancock, Josh DeMagistris, Chris Curtis, Brian Calabrese, Chris Ronca, Anthony Cardamone, Dave Constantino, Cody Clark, Jack Lehner
ROOKIE SPORTSMAN FEATURE – 12-LAPS – TRAVIS BILLINGTON, Brian Calabrese, David Manchester, Dan Boni, Mike Peek, Bobby Gage, Chris Kugler (DNS), Josh Neal (DQ weight)
PRO STOCK FEATURE – 20-LAPS – JAY CASEY, Kenny Gates, Shane Henderson, Jim Normoyle, Jason Casey, Tom Denton, Luke Horning, Justin Knight, A.J. Walters, Cassidy Wilson, Adam Warner, Jamie Warner, Randy Cosselman, Todd Hoffman, Ivan Joslin, Jim Morrison, James Normoyle Jr.
STREET STOCK FEATURE – 12-LAPS – JOSH COONRADT, Jason Samrov, Johnny Young, Jerry Cohn, Bill Yager, Cliff Haslun, Jim Groncki, Harold Chadderon
CRSA SPRINT CAR FEATURE – 20-LAPS – CORY SPARKS, Brian Krummel, Josh Pieniazek, Kyle Smith, Mike Kiser, Eddie Strada, Billy VanInwegen, Jeff Trombley, Dustin Purdy, Emily VanInwegen, J.R. Hurlburt, Brett Jaycox, Dana Wagner, Bobby Hackel IV, Billy Jaycox, Johnny Smith IV, Dalton Herrick, Bob Gray, Peter Dance, Sydney Prince, Art Kiser, Josh Flint (DNS)
