FONDA, N.Y. – Saturday evening at Fonda Speedway featured Twin 20-lap events for the Sunoco Modifieds.
When the final checkered flag flew to complete the two feature events there were two first time winners celebrating in victory lane, Nick Heywood in the Moody Mile Motorsports No. 24H owned by the legendary Wes Moody, and David Schilling in the BDR Speed No. 20.
“It’s been a rookie year for us that’s for sure,” Heywood said in victory lane. “But we’ve been persevering and pushing every week busting our butts. Wes (car owner Wes Moody) keeps saying we just gotta keep rubbing it and we’re gonna get it and tonight was our night.”
“This is amazing,” Schilling said after the second twin 20 event. “A lot of people stuck behind me when they probably shouldn’t have and I really appreciate all those people, Brett Deyo, my dad, all of the people on this car. I didn’t know if this day was ever gonna come, I ran so many races here, but we were never good enough to win. I don’t know if I would have won if it was 30-laps, but we’ll certainly take that.”
With the wins, Heywood and Schilling became the 139th and 140th different drivers to win a Modified feature event at Fonda in a total of 1,413 events.
The starting lineup for the first twin 20 event was determined by normal handicapping procedures with Darwin Greene and Heywood making up the front row, running the entire first lap side-by-side before Heywood cleared Greene coming out of turn four to complete the lap. Heywood was in lap traffic by lap eight with Greene, Pep Corradi, Schilling, and Brian Gleason completing the top five at the halfway point in the event.
Greene was held up by the lap cars of Rich Christman and Brian Pessolano just after the halfway point in the event allowing Heywood to pull away while 9th place starter Rocky Warner made his way by Schilling and Corradi for the third position on lap 17.
Heywood was out to a half track lead with only two laps to go and went on for the win over Warner who took the second position on the final lap, Greene, Schilling, and Gleason.
“We travel two and a half hours from Plattsburg, N.Y. so it’s a haul,” Heywood added. “We are on the road from Friday night to Sunday mornings and we’ve been pushing for it. Wes has been trying to win here at Fonda for 60 years, so he finally got it. What a great feeling.”
“It’s been a long time,” Wes Moody said in victory lane. “I’ve been here over 60 years, and this is my first feature win, I won a lot of heat races myself but to have somebody like Nick behind wheel of my car I am really proud of him and his whole family.”
The starting lineup for twin 20 number two was inverted by six placing Corradi and Gleason on the front row at the start. When Joe Kriss threw the green flag to start the event, Gleason was the race leader with an early caution out on lap two. On the restart, Schilling went by both Warner and Corradi for the second position with Danny Varin now fourth behind Warner.
Corradi brought out the caution on lap three for what was thought to be a flat tire, but the issues must have been even more serious as he fell out of the event after bringing out the caution again three laps later. On the restart, Schilling took the lead from Gleason with Warner also getting by Gleason for the second position.
Another yellow was out on lap eight for Gleason who suffered a flat right rear tire with Schilling choosing the inside for the restart. At the halfway point the top five consisted of Schilling, Warner, Varin, Ryan Odasz, and Ronnie Johnson. One final yellow flag was out on lap ten with Schilling pulling away on the restart to a comfortable lead. Schilling went on to his first career win at Fonda followed in the top five by Warner, Varin, Johnson, and Odasz.
“Casey Wegner put the spec motor in this thing, and it ran great right around the top,” Schilling said. “There was some bite leaving on the bottom right there (pointing towards turn four) so that is why I restarted each time on the inside. If you restarted on the top, you couldn’t grab anything and that’s how I got by Brian (Gleason). I was trying to stay conservative; I wasn’t very consistent, so I guess that was just nerves.”
Other winners at Fonda were Payton Talbot (Swagger Factory Apparel Crate 602 Sportsman), Connor Prokop (Montgomery County Office for Aging Inc. Limited Sportsman), Josh Coonradt (Algonkin Motel Pro Stocks), Ken Hollenback (SOHC) and Kerrie Hollenback (DOHC) in the Fonda Fair Four Cylinders.