MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. — Stewart Friesen edged rival Matt Sheppard in Thursday night’s Hard Clay Finale for the Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series Fueled By Sunoco, earning a $10,000 payday after 50 laps around the historic Orange County Fair Speedway.
The event served as the final round of the STSS Modified River Valley Builders North Region and kicked off the 63rd running of Eastern States Weekend.
Sheppard, meanwhile, clinched the 2024 STSS Modified North Region title worth $15,000 by a margin of 66 points over Friesen.
The win for Friesen was No. 47 of his career with the series.
A season-high field of 72 STSS big-block/small-block Modifieds flooded the pit area for the sole ’24 STSS visit to the Legendary House of Power, which hosted the very first race for the series in 2014.
Friesen set the pace for the opening four laps after starting from the pole via the Beyea Custom Headers Redraw.
Sheppard, however, surpassed Friesen to take command on lap five. The Hurlock Auto & Speed No. 9s had rolled off from third position.
“That was pretty wild,” Friesen said. “I drew 1 and said, ‘This is gonna be tough, a lot of speed behind us there.’ I picked the bottom on the restart (lap four) and Matt (Sheppard) got a good launch in the brown there and I was kicking myself the rest of the time there.”
Sheppard, meanwhile, sealed up his North Region championship with a runner-up finish after posting five straight victories with the series in the North.
“Stew was the class of the field all night tonight,” Sheppard said. “When we rolled by him, I felt pretty good there. I thought we had a shot. Halfway through the race, I kind of lost the balance on the car there a little bit. That really hurt me in traffic especially.
“I’ve run enough races to know these races are won and lost in traffic.”
The finish:
Feature (50 laps): 1. 44-Stewart Friesen[1]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[3]; 3. 4P-Anthony Perrego[4]; 4. 1P-Billy Pauch Jr[6]; 5. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[7]; 6. 02-Jack Lehner[17]; 7. 6B-Danny Bouc[15]; 8. 6D-Dillon Steuer[9]; 9. 21C-Brian Calabrese[8]; 10. 9J-Marc Johnson[2]; 11. 16X-Danny Creeden[19]; 12. 3W-Mat Williamson[12]; 13. 97-Cody Higbie[21]; 14. 21A-Peter Britten[20]; 15. 43-Keith Flach[22]; 16. 27J-Danny Johnson[11]; 17. 93X-Craig Mitchell[13]; 18. 280-Justin Holland[18]; 19. 35B-Francois Bellemare[26]; 20. 35M-Mike Mahaney[10]; 21. 27-Tanner Van Doren[5]; 22. 28T-Michael Trautschold[25]; 23. 4V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[14]; 24. 98W-Rocky Warner[16]; 25. 21M-Bob McGannon[27]; 26. 97H-Bobby Hackel IV[23]; 27. (DNS) 97T-Danny Tyler