SAVOIE TAKES CHECKER IN 358-MODS AT FONDA

Saturday, October 16, 1999- Bob Savoie of Broadalbin, NY took the lead at the drop of the green and held off a field of hungry 358-modified competitors to take his first win at the "Track of Champions" since 1995. The 50-lap event was a Mr. DIRT 358-Modified Championship event that capped off the Saturday activities at Fonda.

Savoie was his cool, calm self in victory lane when announcer Jim King tried to get him excited about the big win. Savoie gave King only one word answers after the win on Saturday of the October Celebration at Fonda.

The 50 lap Sportsman Mr. DIRT Championship event was won by Mike Ballestero of Saratoga Springs, NY. It was Ballestero's second win of the season at Fonda but it was his biggest.

Pro Stock laurels went to Fonda's own Kenny Gates of West Winfield, NY. Street Stock winner was Dave Horning, Jr. The IMCA win went to Steve Bidwell of Knox, NY. Bidwell is a former Pro Stock competitor at Fonda.

In the 50-lap 358-Modified event, Savoie had the company of Pat Ward on the front row when the green flag flew. The caution immediately came out when Tony Farone, who started fourth, slowed in turn four and collected and group of cars including Danny Johnson, Bob Vedder, Dave Peek, and Mike Perrotte.

When the green flew for the restart Savoie was off again and pulled away from Ward and Bobby Varin who was third. Tim Clemons started fourth and on lap four slipped by Bobby Varin for third. Varin and Clemons battled for position for the rest of the event.

Ward chased Savoie until lap 33 when his No. 21w slowed and the caution flag flew once again.

This put Clemons in the No. 1, right on Savoie's bumper. Savoie once again pulled away from the field. Clemons never got close enough for a challenge until the final two laps. Savoie held off Clemons for one more time and took the checker of the 50-lap event.

Clemons, Varin, Mike Romano, and Alan Johnson who rounded out the top five followed Savoie across the line.

Modified heats were won by Pat Ward, Bob Savoie, Bobby Varin, Billy Gray, Tony Farone, Craig Criscone and Tim Clemons. Consi winners were Hector Stratton, Danny Johnson and Timmy Fuller.

Fifty-three sportsman cars came to Fonda to vie for a spot in the DIRT Championship event. Thirty-two cars took the green headed by John McAuliffe and Chris Shultz. McAuliffe quickly jumped into the lead leaving Shultz and Ballestero to battle for the next spot.

By lap eight, Fonda's 1999 Sportsman Track Champion, Alton Palmer made his way to the third position behind Ballestero who now sat second and was ready to challenge McAuliffe for the lead. Ballestero chased McAuliffe until the restart on lap 14 when he got by the No. 23 in turn three.

McAuliffe was now on Ballestero's bumper for the next few laps until a tire started to go down on McAuliffe's No. 23 and he was forced to pit on lap 20.

This left Ballestero and Palmer in the first two spots separated only by the lap car of Jim Davis. Palmer cleared the Davis car in the next lap and was now chasing Ballestero.

Brian Gathen was now third with Sportsman series runner, Steve Hall challenging lap after lap. Hall was being challenged by young gun Ryan Odasz who was now sitting in the fifth position.

Tim Clemons made a charge on the final two circuits and by the final lap was able to take the fourth position from Steve Hall who was relegated to fifth.

The fourth and fifth place finishers moved up one position when third place finisher, Brian Gathen was disqualified for not making weight when he went to the scale after the event.

Sportsman heat winners were John McAuliffe, Chris Shultz, John Scarborough, Drew Fallis, Brian Gathen. Consi wins went to Randy Chrysler, Bob Hackel and John Alberti.

358 Modified finish (50 laps) 1) 5 BOB SAVOIE, 2) 1c Tim Clemons, 3) 00 Bobby Varin, 4) 97 Mike Romano, 5) 24 Alan Johnson, 6) Pat O'Brien, 7) 21 Kenny Tremont, 8) 27j Danny Johnson, 9) 20 Brett Hearn, 10) 26 Dave Camara, 11) 7x Steve Paine, 12) 19f Tim Fuller, 13) 82h Ron Holmes, 14) 51 Lee Nutting, 15) 197 Jerry Higbie, 16) 77x Dale Planck, 17) 124 Piere Dagenais, 18) 87s Hector Stratton, 19) 3c Craig Criscone, 20) 33 Seth Gano, 21) 87B, Jason Barney, 22) 72 Billy Gray, 23) 8 Jack Cottrell, 24) 35 Mike Perrotte, 25) 2J Jeremy Baye 26) 18 Tony Farone, 27) 28 Kevin Crave, 28) 101 Bobby Albert, 29) 27p Dave Peek, 30) 8H Tim Hindley, 31) 4 Ronnie Johnson, 32) 21w Pat Ward, 33) 13 Brian McKenzie, 34) 10% John Kollar, 35) 69 Brian Borst, 36) 21J Jeff Trombley, 37) 7 A. J. Romano, 38) Bob Vedder. DNS Frankie Caprara, Mike Ricci, Denny Young, Mike Ward, Ryan Baye, George Kostelansky, Ron Proctor, Todd Morey, Jim Rothwell, Jay Casey, Dave Sargent, Brain Gathen, Steve Roberts, Jeff Lutes, John LeClair, Gene Munger, Bobby Hackel, Danny Watson, Vince Quenneville, Harry Shaffer, Tom Proctor, Ken Aanonsen, Bob Sitterly, Tony Pepicelli, Ken Hanson, Brian Whittemore, Bob Enright, Rick Davis, Todd Ryan, Bill Huff, Steve Walsh.

Sportsman finish (50 laps) 1) 27 MIKE BALLESTERO, 2) 07 Alton Palmer, 3) 1 Tim Clemons, 4) 61 Steve Hall, 5) 19 Jay Mallory, 6) 88 Ryan Odasz, 7) 9s Matt Sherppard, 8) 21k Randy Chrysler, 9) 1JRM Kevin Crave, 10) 10 Karl Comfort, 11) 1x Willy Decker, 12) 73 Jim Davis, 13) 17L John LeClair, 14) 61 Don Scarborough, 15) 3 Chad Brachmann, 16) 24 Chris Shultz, 17) 25R Frank Harper, Jr., 18) T31 Drew Fallis, 19) 25 Jimmy Johnson, 20) 1JVS Jim Spano, 21) 8 Rich Wozniak, 22) 473 John Alberti, 23) 1Z Ray Zemken, 24) 33 Mike Fusco, 25) 3D Matt DeLorenzo, 26) 5s Rich Swarthout, 27) 5s Ed SanSoucie, 28) 18 Tony Farone, 29) 23 John McAuliffe, 30) 97H Bob Hackel, 31) 117 Rich Hall. DQ Brian Gathen. DNS Adam Moore, Frank Cristiano, Gary Gates, Jr., Bill Haley, Clayton Brewer, Dan Trombley, Tracy Harris, Jim Becker, Kim Duell, Mike Dillenbeck, John Delapp, John Russo, Joe Rando, David Peek, Bob Sawyer, John Constantino, Ernie Palmer, Jr., Harry Baldwin, Mark Pullen, Jason Otty, Jim Lavalla.

I.M.C.A. Finish ( 20 laps) 1) STEVE BIDWELL, 2) George Catanzano, 3) Cory Fachini, 4) Paul LaRochelle, 5) Steve Hough, 6) Anthony Markou, 7) Kevin Battelle, 8) Don Alvord, 9) Rob Keller, 10) Bob Chapman, 11) John Bell, 12) Sean Lias, 13) Lore Ganczar, 14) Phil Balmer, 15) Bob Bradt, 16) Ed Bishop, 17) John Murray, 18) Doug McKane, 19) George Proctor, Jr., 20) Dave Keller, 21) Joe Locorini, 22) Kevin Priest, 23) Bill Lander.

Pro Stock Finish (25 laps)1) KEN GATES, 2) Steve Welch 3) Tom Kuck, 4) Mark Lighthall, 5) Dave Viall, 6) Jim Normoyle, 7) Phil Sherman, 8) Scott Govertsen, 9) Brian Jordan, 10) Tom Denton, 11) Jay Resch, 12) Nick Stone, 13) Joey Duncan, 14) Mike Fritz, 15) Mark Sullivan, 16) Kerry Jordan, 17) Steve Burega, 18) Ron Lawson, 19) Cory Dutcher, 20) Frank Twing, 21) Dave Horning 22) Tom LaPlante, 23) Jay Ingersoll, 24) Rob Noviczski, 25) Jamie Proctor, 26) Tom Bortle, 27) Geoff Manning, 28) Brian Keough, 29) Mark Shultz, 30) Adam Tramka, 31) Chuck McSpirit, 32) Hondo Carpenter, 33) Jack Swinton, 34) Jim Burton.

Street Stock (20 laps) 1) DAVE HORNING, JR., 2) Steve Vroman, 3) Ken Hollenbeck 4) Dave Hewitt, 5) Joe Proctor, 6) D. J. Mabb, 7) Phil Wood, 8) Chuck Knowlton, 9) Dave Colwell, 10) Jim Della, 11) Paul Chichester,12) Scott Kilmer, 13) George Miles, Jr., 14) Chris White, 15) Ken Towne, 16) Keith Ackerknecht, 17) Jeff Daubert, 18) Scott Wells, 19) Fran Marchand, Jr., 20) Bob VanAernam, 21) Jerry Pepper, 22) Rob VanAernam, 23) Joe Smith, 24) Chance Smigiel