FONDA, N.Y. – Former Sportsman division superstar Rocky Warner notched his second modified win Saturday night at Fonda Speedway by clawing his way from sixth to second early on, then hounding polesitter Darwin Greene until he finally slipped and let Warner by.
From there, Warner drove to a big lead, prevailing over 12th starting Stewart Friesen and Greene at the end of the 30-lapper. Willy Decker was fourth, trailed by Mike Maresca, Bobby Varin, rookie David Schilling, last week’s winner Dave Constantino, Brian Gleason and Josh Hohenforst.
Friesen, still wound up from a bitter disappointment in Friday’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race, blasted from 12th to eighth on the first lap of the big half-mile, but from there the going got tougher.
With Greene out to a full turn lead by lap five, it appeared he might run off with the win, but Tim Fuller’s spin on lap seven brought him back to the field.
Warner then vaulted from sixth on the restart to second the next time around, only to find Greene extremely difficult to pass. Warner could get his nose down inside the leader on the frontstretch but Greene always slammed the door as they hit turn one.
Greene held strong through a pair of mid-race restarts but finally, on lap 22, he slipped a little and Warner slopped by and drove away.
“I kept watching him,” declared Warner. “He was drifting up a little more all the time and I finally got so I could get off turn four better than him. After a bunch of tries, I finally made it work.”
Friesen, who stood fifth on the final restart, used the final three laps to shoot down Maresca, Decker and Greene with a fence hugging run around the outside but when he got to second, Warner was long gone.
In supporting class action, Tim Hartman led JaMike Sowle and Brian Borst home in the Sportsman finale while Ivan Joslyn bested Chuckie Dumblewski and Luke Horning in the hard fought Pro Stock feature.