NEW BICKNELL CHASSIS PAYS OFF
FONDA - Forget about the points championship. The real battle at Fonda Speedway is to see which of the Romano brothers can finish the season with the most wins.
Mike Romano had his new Bicknell chassis running to perfection Saturday night and recorded his second win of the year in the 30-lap modified feature at the Track of Champions.
Romano pulled to within one win of his younger brother, A.J., who has three victories in his Troyer chassis.
Each time Mike Romano has wrecked one car and switched to a new chassis this season, he’s picked up a win. His first win came on June 9, in his second chassis of the season. He then wrecked that car on July 14, and brought out his third Bicknell chassis of the season on July 28, finishing third.
But on Saturday night, he was untouchable, and came away with his 43rd career big block victory at the speedway.
Alton Palmer, still trying to break out of a season-long slump, and Brian Borst kept the fans on their feet in the early laps of the race with a good battle for the lead, but Romano, who had started 10th, was on the move quickly. Two restarts allowed Romano to move past Randy Hotaling and Matt DeLorenzo and grab the No. 3 spot, and on another restart, on the 10th lap, he pulled out wide going through the third and fourth turns and rocketed into the lead.
And rocketed was the right word. Once he got into clean air, Romano was turning laps that were a full second faster than the second-place car of Borst. Point leader Jeff Trombley, who had started 15th, jumped into the top five on lap 15 and steadily began to pick off the front-runners. First, he got by Tony Pepicelli, then Craig Criscone. On lap 25, he pulled around Borst for second, just before the finally caution flag of the race flew. But he had no shot at overtaking Romano, as there were four lapped cars
between the two leaders on the restart.
But the second place finish allowed Trombley to increase his point lead over Ronnie Holmes, who finished seventh. With two nights of racing left in the point season, Trombley now has a 47-point lead.
A.J. Romano came across the finish line third, followed by Pepicelli and Jack Johnson. Completing the top 10 were Borst, Holmes, Bobby Varin, Criscone and Palmer.
Tim Clemons, who has been having most of his success on Sundays, finally found the right combination on Saturday and drove to his second win of the season in the 20-lap sportsman feature.
Clemons went to a backup car in the Jake Spraker Racing stable. The car that Clemons drove to victory Saturday night had Alan Johnson’s name over the door, as Johnson had driven the car earlier in the season in a Sunoco 358 Super DIRT series race.
Although the win was only Clemons’ second at Fonda Speedway, it was his ninth overall victory of the season, with the other seven coming on Sundays, at either Utica-Rome or Rolling Wheels.
Saturday night’s win was one of the easiest ever for Clemons, who has 31 career sportsman victories at the Track of Champions. He got to the front quickly, thanks to a couple of restarts, and with the final half of the feature being run under green, he left Jimmy Davis far behind. Mike Frasier was third while Drew Fallis, who had purchased a car from Dave Lape earlier in the week, was fourth. Fifth across the finish line was Ryan Odasz.
Steve Bidwell picked up his second straight victory in the IMCA modified feature, which was extended to 20 laps from its usual 15, and took over the point lead in the process.
Bidwell, who has picked up the two consecutive victories driving the backup car that he had parked at the end of the 2000 season, took the lead away from Willie Reed Jr. on the 14th lap, and got a big break when two of the top contenders crashed on the 16th lap.
Kevin Buff, who had followed Bidwell past Reed two laps earlier, spun out in the second turn on lap 16, and George Catanzano had nowhere to go, plowing into Buff’s car.
Another yellow on lap 19 put Reed back of Bidwell’s rear bumper, but Bidwell came away with the win, and Reed had to be content with second, his best finish of the season.
Completing the top five were Dan Ballard, Jim Rajczi and Joey Williams. Cory Fachini went into the night with the point lead, but crashed late in the race and finished 18th.
Rajczi had been the center of some controversy during his heat race, when he was involved in an incident in the third turn that sent George Proctor Jr. sailing into the Jersey barriers outside the third turn. Proctor’s car was destroyed, but he wasn’t hurt.
Rob Noviczski took another step toward locking up his second straight pro-stock championship by picking off his third win of the season in that 20-lap feature.
The race got off to a bad start, when Chuck McSpirit lost a wheel going down the backstretch, sending the field behind him scrambling. A number cars, including those driven by Kenny Gates and Dave Teidman, ended up spinning around to avoid McSpirit’s car. Gates suffered enough damage to warrant a long stay in the pits. Jim Normyle, who had a miserable month of July, got the lead on lap two and the top four ran bumper-to-bumper, with Noviczski behind Normyle and Dave Bayes.
Bob Gile got a bad break on lap eight when he got a shove from Mark Sullivan and spun around in the fourth turn while running fourth. Officials sent Sullivan to the rear for his part in the incident. Noviczski finally got under Normyle for the lead coming out of the second turn on lap 15, and Chris Morris took the No. 2 spot away from Normyle one lap later and took off after Noviczski.
On the last lap, Morris swung around the outside coming out of the fourth turn and tried to beat Noviczski in a drag race to the finish line, but Noviczski held on by half a car length. Normyle was third, followed by Bayes and Scott Govertsen. Govertsen. driving a car he borrowed from Lebanon Valley driver Tom Faxon, had to start dead last after arriving at the track just before the feature.
Threes were wild in the street stock features, as both Jeff Davis and John Johnson picked up their third victories of the season. Davis made a late charge to get his win. For the majority of the street stock A feature, Bob Van Aernam had the lead and Kenny Barth was second. But Davis pulled into the No. 2 spot on lap seven, and then got the break he needed when Dave Horning Jr. and Dick Nichols came together in the second turn, bringing out the caution. That put Davis right on Van Aernam’s rear bumper. Davis got a little loose coming out of the second turn with two laps to go, allowing Van Aernam to think he had the race in hand, but on the final lap, Davis pulled off a classic slingshot move in the second turn, shooting to the inside to snatch the lead away from Van Aernam, who hung on for second, in front of Barth, Randy Moore and Horning Jr. Johnson dominated the street stock B, getting the lead on lap three and pulling away from an easy win over Dave Horning Sr. and Dave Hewitt.
The newly named Ladies Racing League gave the track’s female hobby drivers their third chance to get on the half-mile oval, and for the second time in a row, Laurie Fallis came away with the win. Laurie, the wife of Drew Fallis, didn’t have to wait for a video review, as she did in the second race of the year, to get her victory Saturday, as she charged past Tanya Nichols on the white-flap lap to get the victory. Fallis, driving Van Aernam’s street stock, showed some incredible talent in the closing stages of the race, when she was running against Nichols and Lynn Dunleavy for the top spot.
MODIFIEDS: MIKE ROMANO, Jeff Trombley, A.J. Romano, Tony Pepicelli, Jack Johnson, Brian Borst, Ronnie Holmes, Bobby Varin, Craig Criscone, Alton Palmer, Bob Vedder, Dave Lape, Mike Fusco, Jerry Pennock Jr., Brian Purdy, Harry Shaffer, Randy Hotaling, Paul Cirincione, John Marsh Jr. Floyd Billington, Rich Pennock, Ron Proctor, Craig Hanson, Rob Enright, Matt DeLorenzo, Elmo Reckner, John Kollar.
SPORTSMAN: TIM CLEMONS, Jimmy Davis, Mike Frasier, Drew Fallis, Ryan Odasz, Jason Otty, Jeff Holt, John LeClair, John McAuliffe, Billy Osta, Mike Ketchum, Frank Greco, Jeff Jones, Craig Boehler, John Constantino, Jeremiah Munson, Paul Dunham Jr., Steve Jaszeboski, Jimmy Burton, Mike Ballestero, Doug Hutchinson, Steve Akers, Josh Pieniazek, Bobby Hackel.
PRO-STOCKS: ROB NOVICZSKI, Chris Morris, Jim Normyle, Dave Bayes, Scott Govertsen, Luke Klob, Dave Teidman, Kerry Jordan, Mark Sullivan, Nick Stone, Dave Viall, Jerry Pepper, Mark Lighthall, Frank Guffrie, Wayne Patrick, Hondo Carpenter, Brent Hollenback, Kenny Gates, Bob Gile, Adam Holtby, Chuck McSpirit.
IMCA: STEVE BIDWELL, Willie Reed Jr., Dan Ballard, Jim Rajczi, Joey Williams, Steve Hough, Travis Stevens, Skip Pabis, Dennis Vrooman, Steve Healey, Aaron Jacobs, Bill Ward, Lou Gancarz, Darcy Volans, Jason Miller, Jimmy Duncan, Kevin Priest, Cory Fachini, Kevin Buff, George Catanzano, Pete Knapp.
STREET STOCK A: JEFF DAVIS, Bob Van Aernam, Kenny Barth, Randy Moore, Dave Horning Jr., Mike Hornbeck, Jeff Crosier, Luke Horning, John Ketchum, Lee Carroll, Dick Nichols, Steve Cosselman, Steve Skinner, Cory Laport, T.J. Marley.
STREET STOCK B: JOHN JOHNSON, Dave Horning Sr., Dave Hewitt, Buck Gasner, Rod Slater, Rob Van Aernam, Shawn Simmons, Scott Wells, Eric Harper, No. 17T, Don Warner, Tim Smith, Bill Karp, Jeff Carpenter, Mike Walter.
LADIES RACING LEAGUE: LAURIE FALLIS, Tanya Nichols, Lynn Dunleavy, Kelly Ketchum, Sandy Ferrera, Gabriella Brenenstuhl, Tina Manchester, Cindy McClaskey, Juanita Van Dusen, Sue Mullarkey, Nancy Walters, Heather Frolke, Bobby Jo Skinner, Kelly Keefe, Sally Van Nostrand.