FONDA, N.Y. — Matt Sheppard became the seventh Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series Fueled By Sunoco Modified winner in as many races this season Thursday night at Fonda Speedway, topping the rescheduled Firecracker 50 from July 1.
The $7,776 victory marked Sheppard’s series-leading 60th career triumph in Round No. 3 of the HYTORC of New York STSS Modified North Region.
“It’s always fun to win here at Fonda,” Sheppard said. “Everything went our way tonight. We had a good race car, drew a good number, got out front there.
“The track was going through a weird transition there where it started to latch in places on the bottom, the top had a little bit of speed left in it. It was tough to tell where to run.”
The Savannah, N.Y., driver led 49 of the event’s 50 laps, but the victory did not come easily.
Sheppard fended off Fonda kingpin Stewart Friesen for the triumph.
Starting third on the grid, Sheppard rolled into the lead after one lap past Ronnie Johnson.
Behind the race-leading No. 9s, Sheppard’s rival Friesen – who started ninth – reached the top five by the fourth lap around the Track of Champions.
Friesen reached third on lap six and ultimately took over second on the 24th circuit.
As laps clicked off and slower traffic became a factor, Friesen’s Halmar International No. 44 and defending speedway champion Alex Yankowski closed the gap on Sheppard.
Friesen appeared in position to take over the lead, pulling to the inside of Sheppard on the backstretch. The move was negated, however, when Brian Calabrese slowed in turn three to draw the caution with 11 laps remaining.
“We got some fortunate cautions at the right time,” Sheppard added. “Kept the tires on it and got it to the end.”
Friesen couldn’t mount a challenge over the remainder of the distance and Sheppard drove on to victory.
Yankowski slipped past his mentor to earn the runner-up finish worth $3,000. Friesen placed third, followed by Marc Johnson and seventh-starter Robert Bublak.
Brian Calabrese won the crate sportsman feature and Jay Ingersoll topped the four-cyllinder division.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[3]; 2. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[4]; 3. 44-Stewart Friesen[9]; 4. 9-Marc Johnson[6]; 5. 6B-Robert Bublak[7]; 6. 3-Mat Williamson[11]; 7. 4-Cody Clark[5]; 8. 1D-Tyler Dippel[14]; 9. 63-Chip Constantino[19]; 10. 89-Dylan Madsen[18]; 11. 43-Keith Flach[23]; 12. 4*-Anthony Perrego[10]; 13. 15M-Daniel Morgiewicz Jr[13]; 14. 06-Jackson Gill[8]; 15. 35B-Francois Bellemare[15]; 16. 21C-Brian Calabrese[20]; 17. 82S-Will Shields[12]; 18. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[1]; 19. 1-Rocky Warner[21]; 20. 85-Jack Lehner[2]; 21. 76-Jamike Sowle[28]; 22. 4A-Bobby Hackel IV[24]; 23. 27-Jason Reome[27]; 24. 71-Eric Mack[16]; 25. 93-Dave Constantino[26]; 26. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[22]; 27. 70A-Alex Payne[17]; 28. (DNS) 88-Michael Wagner Fitzgerald; 29. (DNS) ONE-Felix Roy
