Who Was The Busiest Dirt Modified Driver in 2015?

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Who Was The Busiest Dirt Modified Driver in 2015?

By: Pete MacDonald

In this day and age, it’s very hard to make a living racing dirt Modifieds across the Northeast. Very few have the privilege to race these cars as a full time job.

I was able to pull some stats from this past season — strictly in Dirt Modifieds, not counting Sprint Cars, Speedstrs, or any other racing division — on which drivers have ran the most races.

Danny Johnson – The 55-year-old driver from Rochester, New York, led the way competing in 103 events, winning 19 of those — including the first event of the season in February at Golden Isles Speedway and the final Modified race of the season last weekend at the Accord Speedway. “The Doctor’s” weekly 2015 stops included the Ransomville Speedway on Friday nights and Fulton Speedway on Saturday nights, plus all 24 events in the Super DIRTCar Big-Block Series and select events on the Short Track Super Series. Car owner, Chris Generalli had his hands full towing the No. 27J to almost 25 different race tracks in 2015.

Stewart Friesen – The Sprakers, NY resident ran the second most modified races in 2015 competing 92 times, winning 27 of them including the final Syracuse 200 at the NYS Fairgrounds in Syracuse, NY, he also did it driveing for more car owners than anybody else. Stewart drove for Jeff Daley, Tadd Parks, Mike Payne, Mike Petruska, and Tom Cullen throughout the 2015 campaign. Friesen also went on to win another 7 Sprint Car races during the season including an upset win against the World of Outlaws at Ohsweken.

Larry Wight – The 23-year-old competed 91 times in 2015 driving for his father John Wight in the Gypsum Express No.99. Larry who hails from Phoenix, NY won 12 times racing weekly at the Brewerton, Fulton and Utica Rome Speedways, as well as the complete Super DIRTcar Series.

Matt Sheppard – “Super Matt” ran a total of 90 races this season for Al Heinke. Sheppard, like Friesen won 27 modified races over the course of the season where he saw track titles at Brewerton, Canandaigua Motorsports Park and Utica Rome Speedway, in addition to the Super DIRTcar Series Championship.

Pat Ward – Driving John Wight’s Gypsum Express No. 42 Pat had 86 starts throughout his 2015 campaign. Ward ran weekly at the Brewerton Speedway, Fulton Speedway and Utica Rome Speedway in addition to the Super DIRTcar Series. The 53-year-old won just a single dirt modified event in 2015.

Mike Mahaney – The King Ferry, NY wheelman is sixth overall with 83 dirt modified starts in 2015. Mahaney won 14 races on his way to track championships at the I-88 Speedway and Thunder Mountain Speedways. Mahaney also competed weekly at the Utica Rome Speedway. The 26-year-old Mahaney will compete in almost all of the Super DIRTcar races in 2016 driving for Buzz Chew Racing.

Erick Rudolph – Second generation driving talent Erick Rudolph ran 82 dirt modified races in 2015. Erick won 9 races throughout the season while competing at the Ransomville Speedway as his weekly stop in his family owned No.25. Erick was also a big winner racing TQ Midgets indoors in Trenton, NJ and Atlantic City, NJ.

Brett Hearn – “The Corporate Jet” made 80 starts in 2015. Brett went on to win 22 races over the course of the year where he was a regular at the Albany Saratoga Speedway and Lebanon Valley Speedway in 2015 along with his usual Super DIRTcar Schedule. Brett made headlines when he stayed at Orange County Fair Speedway instead of heading to Weedsport Speedway for a Super DIRTcar event in October. At 57 years of age it doesn’t look like Brett is slowing down anytime soon.

Tim Fuller – After making his return to a full time dirt modified schedule in 2015,”The Empire Executioner” is ninth on our list making 75 starts. Tim ran weekly at the Mohawk International Speedway and at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in Dave Rauscher’s No.19 in 2015 where he amassed 6 wins. This was Tim’s first “full” dirt modified season since 2005.

There is a three way tie for tenth with 73 starts between Jimmy Phelps, Billy Decker, and Vic Coffey. Decker won 13 times during the year where he competed weekly at the Brewerton and Fulton Speedways along with the Super DIRTcar Series. Phelps won seven times while competing at both Brewerton and Fulton weekly as well. Coffey won a single feature during the year while racing weekly at Brewerton on Fridays, Canandaigua on Saturdays and Utica Rome on Sundays.

Other notables include Rick Laubach with 69 starts, Mat Williamson with 66 starts, Keith Flach with 62 starts, Duane Howard with 61 and Kenny Tremont Jr. with 58 races.

Who do you think will be on the top of this list in 2016? Let us know over on the RacersGuide.com discussion forums. I can be emailed at info@racersguide.com or found on Twitter @PMacDonald51. Thanks for Reading!

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