BATAVIA, N.Y. – After all day and night rain on Friday washed out the Gary Montgomery Memorial at Outlaw Speedway for the Pace Performance RUSH Late Model Series, the rain finally ended 24 hours after it started allowing Genesee Speedway to be one of the few tracks in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to be able to race on Saturday night.
The event marked the first of three appearances by the Flynn’s Tire/Born2Run Lubricants Touring Series to the third-mile Genesee County Fairgrounds oval in 2021.
Despite the weather in the surrounding areas, 28 teams were on hand, which has now been the count for the past three Tour events at Genesee, matching the highest Tour count all-time for the track.
Kyle Hardy had laid down the gauntlet down by sweeping all three “Battle of the Bay” Speedweek events in his home area, the Mid-Atlantic, to open the season; however, since returning home, Jeremy Wonderling has begun to tighten things up.
On Saturday night, Wonderling passed Joe Martin on lap 10 and then fended off 2016 champion John Waters during the second half of the race to capture his second straight Genesee Tour victory, worth $2,000. The defending and three-time Tour champion has now won two of the last three events to go along with a runner-up finish.
“Restarts are brutal when you start by guys like Joe (Martin) and John (Waters),” stated the 41-year-old Wellsville, N.Y., winner. “I got comfortable when I was leading by myself, but the car was slipping a little bit down in (turns) three and four. I saw John down there and was like ‘it must be better down there down’ and I wasn’t going to let him have it. I didn’t cut him off, but I got a run down there and hoped his car wasn’t any better on the top. He showed me a little too early. The top got pretty black later and it was actually driving the car straighter as I was able to do some things inside the car with my breaks.
“I was trying to be as smooth as possible, hit my marks, and keep those guys behind me.”
Following his Sunoco Dash victory, Wonderling raced to the early lead in the 30-lap feature over Martin, while Waters passed Kyle Lukon for third. Martin was all over Wonderling before taking the lead with an inside pass in turn four on lap three.
Waters appeared to be the fastest car as he closed on the lead duo on lap seven. Wonderling didn’t go away as he hounded Martin and pulled alongside of the leader on lap eight while lapped traffic was in play. Martin held onto the lead for one more lap until a spin by Jared Keeney with nine laps completed.
Back under green, Wonderling would make what would turn out to be the winning pass getting by Martin to lead the 10th circuit. Waters then went into attack mode as he battled hard with Martin as the two raced side-by-side for the second on lap 12 to 16, which allowed Wonderling to pull away.
Waters finally made the pass stick with a slider in turns one and two on lap 16 to grab the second spot; however, Wonderling had opened up a two-second advantage at this juncture.
Wonderling caught lapped traffic on lap 19 and things were about to get interesting when the fourth place running Kyle Lukon lost the driveshaft to bring out the caution with 20 laps scored. Lukon was chosen as the TBM Brakes “Tough Brake of the Night” recipient.
Lukon’s misfortune moved Jason Knowles into fourth and Kyle Hardy into the top five for the first time of the event. Knowles and Hardy then battled for third and fourth with Hardy getting by for good on lap 22. Heartbreak then happened for Knowles, who was one of seven cars collected in a turns one and two melee with 25 laps scored.
The final five laps saw Wonderling fend off rival Waters as he collected his ninth career Tour win by 1.080 seconds.
The win moved Wonderling into a four-way tie for second on the all-time Tour win list with Waters, Bryce Davis, and Mike Pegher Jr.
Waters’ runner-up was worth $1,000 for car owner Dale LeBarron as he matched his best Tour finish since July 2, 2019 at Weedsport (N.Y.) Speedway.
The finish:
1. Jeremy Wonderling (3J) 2. John Waters (LeBarron 11) 3. Kyle Hardy (99) 4. Michael Duritsky, Jr. (90J) 5. Jimmy Johnson (39J) 6. Steve Dixon (65) 7. J.J. Mazur (13) 8. Dusty Waters (14) 9. Dave DuBois (012) 10. Ryan Frazee (11F) 11. Bud Watson (225) 12. Austin Hauser (51) 13. Joe Martin (Snyder 10s) 14. Jared Keeney (33K) 15. Austin Allen (51) 16. Jason Knowles (4) 17. Doug Ricotta (01) 18. Bill Holmes III (8) 19. Austyn Fugle (85) 20. Brian Kotarski (129) 21. Alan Chapman (64c) 22. Kyle Lukon (184) 23. T.J. Downs (1) 24. Billy DuBois (21B). DNS: Jon Rivers (85).