FONDA, N.Y. – Mike Mahaney turned in a stellar drive Saturday night at Fonda Speedway, clawing his way from 11th on the grid to fourth before the lap counter hit 10, then using the mid-portion of the 30-lap Sunoco Modified feature to run down front row starter and early leader JaMike Sowle to claim his fourth win at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds oval.
Mahaney first had to dispose of Brian Pellisano and George Foley, a feat accomplished with a big run into turn one on a lap 11 restart. Sowle got an even better start and had a solid lead that Mahaney whittled away gradually by running right on the edge of the infield while the leader worked the cushion all the way around the egg-shaped half mile.
By lap 17 Mahaney could get even briefly as they hit the turns and, two laps later, he put Sowle away with an infield hugging run through turns three and four.
Once out front, Mahaney drove away from the field in George and Julie Huttig’s Adirondack Auto No. 35 to win handily over Sowle and defending track champion Mike Maresca, up from 14th. Ronnie Johnson was fourth ahead of George Foley, Adam McAuliffe, Jessica Friesen, Josh Hohenforst, Rocky Warner and Craig Hansen.
Sowle had caught the tail of the field on lap eight and had Dave Constantino not blasted the turn two wall on lap 12 to draw the night’s only field closing yellow, he may well have prevailed. But while the yellow cost Sowle his lead, it also let Johnson and Maresca gobble up a handful of cars on the restart.
That gave them a shot at the top five, in the process giving fans a great race to watch as Sowle fought off Mahaney and Maresca continued his run through the top five.
“It’s cool to be back here,” Mahaney said in victory lane, a stop he hadn’t made in a number of years as he had been racing elsewhere. “We’ve been working hard to adapt the car to this surface and now we’ve got it. With Stewart Friesen not here this week due to the NASCAR truck race in Texas, it was a good night to be fast.”
In supporting class action, Ken Hollenbeck won the four-cylinder feature while Jeremy Tyrrell edged Carter Gibbons and Steve Gray in the Limited Sportsman finale.
Chad Edwards took an early lead in the Sportsman feature and rode out a seemingly endless series of cautions to prevail over Brian Calabrese, Nick Scavia and Tim Hartman Jr. with Luke Horning leading Nick Stone, Kenny Gates and Josh Coonradt home in the Pro Stock nightcap.