RANSOMVILLE, N.Y. — For the first time since 2016, the top 358 Modified drivers in the Northeast will visit New York’s Niagara region.
The DIRTcar 358 Modified Series makes its lone stop at Ransomville Speedway on Tuesday, Aug. 25, for the Flyin’ Brian and Ray Stevens Memorial. Drivers will battle in a 60-lap Feature paying $5,444-to-win.
Defending the Big R
With seven races remaining in the battle to become DIRTcar 358 Modified Series champion, Mat Williamson has the chance to grab momentum in front of his home crowd.
The two-time defending series champion is 12 points behind Mike Mahaney entering Tuesday’s race, a track where he’s won eight times this season along with 13 top fives in 13 starts. “Money Mat” is also the most recent winner on the Series, outdueling Mahaney at Utica-Rome Speedway last month. Overall, Williamson has 48 career victories at Ransomville.
He’s searching for his 23rd series triumph.
Mahaney, meanwhile, has only made nine starts at Ransomville in his career, earning one top five and three top 10s. However, the Elizabethtown, N.Y., driver does bring momentum into Tuesday’s race. He earned a Big Block Feature win at Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Friday and added a 358 Modified win at Devil’s Bowl Speedway on Saturday, along with clinching the track championship.
A win by “Smooth Shoe” on Tuesday would be his fourth series victory.
Freeze Warning
It isn’t often that Stewart Friesen competes in a DIRTcar 358 Modified Series event, but that will be the case on Tuesday when he returns to the track he grew up at.
Friesen, from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, already has a win at Ransomville this season, driving from 12th to the win in the Ron Martin Summer Nationals with the Super DIRTcar Series in June. Tuesday’s race will be his first DIRTcar 358 Modified Series start at the “Big R” since 2014, when he finished second in both features that season.
The NASCAR Trucks Series star is a seven-time DIRTcar 358 Modified Series winner, but none of them are at Ransomville, where he’s reached victory lane on 14 occasions.
Ransomville Stalwarts: While Williamson and Friesen are two of the top names aiming for Tuesday’s Stevens Memorial win, two others are no stranger to victory ;ane at the three-eighths-mile track.
In DIRTcar 358 Modified Series competition, no active driver has been better at Ransomville than Erick Rudolph, who scored two wins each in 2015 and 2016.
Overall, the Ransomville, N.Y., driver and three-time series champion has 38 wins at the track and 19 career DIRTcar 358 Modified Series triumphs.
Another driver to keep an eye on is Gary Lindberg, who’s been the only driver to beat Williamson on more than one occasion at Ransomville in 2026. The Ridgeway, Ontario, driver has four victories at the track this season, along with 10 top fives and 12 top 10s in 13 starts. Overall, he has 16 wins at Ransomville.
