9/13/2025
Fonda Speedway
FONDA 200 QUALIFYING HEAT RACE WINS GO TO WARNER, YANKOWSKI, AND COLLINS WHILE THE PRO STOCKS WERE THE RACE OF THE NIGHT WITH JOSLIN THE RACE WINNER
By: Ron Szczerba
Fonda, NY – Day two of the 2025 Fonda 200 weekend saw qualifying heat races for the Amsterdam Truck Center STSS Modifieds and the Swagger Factory Apparel STSS Crate 602 Sportsman divisions for the Fonda 200 weekend finale’ on Saturday.
Rocky Warner, 2025 Fonda Speedway Track Champion Alex Yankowski, and Ancel Collins were the winners of the 15-lap Amsterdam Truck Center STSS Modified heat races while Mark Mortensen, Tyler Peet, Donovan Lussier, and Dylan Madsen won the 12-lap Swagger Factory Apparel STSS Crate 602 Sportsman events.
Troyer Dirt Car presented the Modified winners with $500 checks while Parillo Services LLC presented the Sportsman winning drivers with $150 checks. Thank you for your support of the Fonda Speedway and it’s drivers.
Other winners on day two of the 2025 Fonda 200 weekend were Ivan Joslin (Leatherstocking Credit Union Pro Stocks), Jason Peck (DOHC) and Stephen Burka (SOHC) in the Fonda Fair Four Cylinders. For Burka it was his first career win in the division at Fonda.
The Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series was also in action with Doug Mathewson (Antiques), Will Reed (Late Models), Joe Rando (Mystiques), Andy Graves (Modified), and Jipp Ortiz (Sportsman) the winners of their feature events.
SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE HEAT RACE WINNERS
TROYER DIRT CAR MODIFIED HEAT RACE #1 WINNER ROCKY WARNER
“Yesterday (Thursday) the track was locked down and smooth, locked down and rubbered up and I was thinking get ready for a long 200 laps,” Warner told Mimi Lazzaro in FX Caprara Victory Lane. “We went the opposite way tonight but it’s not terrible, I feel we can work this in and make something good for tomorrow for everybody and for the fans to see. We’ve got something to work with, it’s not terrible, not perfect, but I think we’re gonna get there.”
TROYER DIRT CAR MODIFIED HEAT RACE #2 WINNER ALEX YANKOWSKI
“I think we’re gonna be in real good shape tomorrow,” Yankowski said. “The track prep guys did a real good job. Getting a good base after the fair on Thursday and it kind of did a 180 for today, which is perfect, and I think that tomorrow we’ll be in real good shape. We put a little bit different car together for this deal, Kevin Bates and the boys are doing a real good job, such a good team effort.”
TROYER DIRT CAR MODIFIED HEAT RACE #3 WINNER ANCEL COLLINS
“I love this place,” Collins said as he celebrated his win on victory lane. “I have a lot of laps here, been coming here since I was 13 or 14. I have a great car, the motor is real good, hopefully we can keep up with the track for tomorrow, we’ll see what happens. I’m pumped up, I’m excited for it, we’ll see what Jamie (Friesen) can do with the track. Hopefully it widens out a little bit and smooths out a little bit, we have some good grip for the whole 200 laps, and we’ll see what happens in the end.”
PARILLO SERVICES LLC SPORTSMAN HEAT RACE #1 WINNER MARK MORTENSEN
“The car has been good, but I think our own adjustments have been putting us out,” Mortensen told Mimi Lazzaro. “The last couple of weeks the track has changed, it’s been dry, then it’s got bite to it and just when I got it setup for the dry, the bite would come back. But I think that I’ve got it more mutual now. Pretty much spent all week rebuilding it, we had a bunch of issues but tonight we had a good car, and I hope that it will continue or at least keep some good luck going.”
“There’s a lot of good cars here and starting out front like that, that helps,” Mortensen continued to say. I just ran a clean race and tried to put some distance between us. The car was good, and I’ve got nothing to complain about. I’d like to dedicate this win to Mark Lansing Sr. from Jumpin’ Jack’s Drive-In who passed away a couple of weeks ago, he has been with me forever.”
PARILLO SERVICES LLC SPORTSMAN HEAT RACE #2 WINNER TYLER PEET
“It’s great to be talking with you on victory lane again,” Peet said to Mimi Lazzaro. “Thanks to everyone for helping me get here, I go from car to car (his own #12T to the #9G) and pretty much both of them feel the same, which is very helpful. Hopefully, we’ll tune on some things from here and we’ll be a little bit better for tomorrow.”
PARILLO SERVICES LLC SPORTSMAN HEAT RACE #3 WINNER DONOVAN LUSSIER
“I watched a lot of videos and went through my notes to see what we had for a setup the last time here,” Lussier said in victory lane. “From what I’ve heard from people and what I’ve seen, we just made something up. Car is good but we need to fine tune it a little more for tomorrow and it should be good. People see me in the #61L car in the states but this car #72L is my family owned car that we run at Granby weekly. This car we run on American Racers, so we decided to bring this car here and run the other car on Sunday at Airborne.”
PARILLO SERVICES LLC SPORTSMAN HEAT RACE #4 WINNER DYLAN MADSEN
“It definitely shows that we had a good, consistent, car here all year,” Madsen said after his win. “We had some bad luck this year but tonight we’ve got a really good car. I’d like to thank everyone for helping me. Thanks to Wes Moody for allowing me to get into his Modified for this weekend, the car was awesome, and I don’t really want anything to do with these anymore. My dad’s not going to be too fond of that but it’s just so much fun.”
With the qualifying over for the Modified and Sportsman cars, it was time for some racing action, and the 20-lap Leatherstocking Credit Union Pro Stock feature certainly didn’t disappoint.
Ivan Joslin led from his pole position start at the drop of Joe Kriss’ green flag with Kenny Gates in tow. The one and only yellow flag flew on lap six of the event for Michael Achzet who slowed on the track to bring out the caution. Joslin held his lead on the restart with 2025 Track Champion Beau Ballard getting around Nick Stone for the third position on lap eight.
Ballard was using the outside groove to perfection as he usually does and took the second position away from Gates at the halfway point with the top five consisting of Joslin, Ballard, Gates, Stone, and eighth place starter Caden Dumblewski. Ballard used the outside groove to get past both Gates and Joslin for the lead on lap 11 on the outside of turns three and four.
Over the remaining laps you could have thrown a blanket over the top three cars of Ballard, Gates, and Joslin who were swapping the lead position almost every lap, racing three and sometimes four wide to do so. Gates was next to make a three wide pass for the lead on lap 13 when he got by both Joslin and Ballard in turn four. Ballard fought back however and retook the lead in turn two on lap 14 but the best was still yet to come.
Joslin, who was back in the third position at this point, got to the inside of Gates for the second position on lap 17 and made a slide job pass for the lead on Ballard with two laps to go in turn four. Joslin led the rest of the way for his third win of the season and the 19th of his career in the division over Gates, Ballard, Stone, and Dumblewski.
“I saw an opportunity and had to take it,” Joslin said regarding the pass for the lead with two laps to go. “The car was good early and then fell off a little bit. I didn’t want to go up top because it was so rough, there was tons of bite up there, you just had to man handle it through there. It was a hell of a race between us three, going at it and lap traffic helped a little bit at the end too.”
“I’m out of breath. It was such a great race, and I can’t believe that I came out on top of it. This is a new chassis for us this year on coils, and we came right out of the gate strong with it. We were good at Port Royal and moving forward we really clicked on some things. This thing has really come alive. My Uncle Dennis is the brains behind it; I get to drive it and have fun.”
Josh Reome led the first eight laps of the 15-lap Fonda Fair Four Cylinder feature until falling out of the event on lap nine when Rudy King Jr. took over the lead. King held it up until lap 12 when Jason Peck got by for the top spot and led the remaining laps for his second DOHC win of the season and the second of his career in the division. King, William Cook, Blake Smart, and Josh Samrov completed the top five and all five of them were DOHC Cars.
Finishing seventh overall, Stephen Burka was the first SOHC across the finish line and was awarded his first career win at Fonda in that class. Behind him in the SOHC class were William Liberatore and Jeremiah Paro in the eighth and ninth finishing positions, respectively.
“It was nice to have battled with Rudy (King Jr.) the last two weeks,” Peck said after his victory. “He is always a good racer and always hard to beat, but I got him here and I got him at Utica Rome too.”
“This is a really fun track,” Burka said after his first career win at Fonda. “Probably my favorite track in the area. I usually run at Lebanon Valley and this year I also ran at Utica Rome.”
Day three concludes the 2025 edition of the Fonda 200 weekend on Championship Saturday with the 33rd running of the Amsterdam Truck Center STSS Modified Fonda 200 along with a 40-lap main event for the Swagger Factory Apparel STSS Crate 602 Sportsman division. Racing will start on Saturday at 6;00 p.m. with hot laps at 5:00 p.m.
If you are a race fan that gets to the track early, be sure to check out the history of the Fonda Speedway at the Fonda Speedway Museum & Hall of Fame which is located on the Fonda Fairgrounds at the rear of the parking area going down towards turn four. The museum is open from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on race days and admission is free!
Fonda Speedway weekly feature winners, their race teams, and sponsors are invited the following week to display their cars at the museum and watch their feature win on Flo before the races. The victorious car display can begin as early as 3:00, and you are welcome to arrive and stay as late as your schedule allows.
Please message the Fonda Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum Facebook page to RSVP or with any questions!
All Fonda Speedway events are broadcast LIVE on FloRacing (www.floracing.tv).
Since 1953, the Track of Champions Fonda Speedway has hosted the best in stock car racing. The speedway operates weekly on Saturday nights from April through August plus several special events. Fonda Speedway is located on the Montgomery County Fairgrounds off New York State Thruway Exit No. 28 at 21 S. Bridge Street Fonda, NY 12068.
Fonda Speedway is on the web at www.thefondaspeedway.com. To learn more, call the office at 518.915.4395, like Fonda Speedway on Facebook or follow the speedway on Twitter: @thefondaspdwy or Instagram: @fondaspeedway.
14 entries
Leatherstocking Credit Union Pro Stocks
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 49-Ivan Joslin[1]; 2. 35-Ken Gates[3]; 3. 15-Beau Ballard[7]; 4. 8N-Nick Stone[4]; 5. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[8]; 6. 13-George Cushman[9]; 7. 57-Chuck McSpirit[5]; 8. 413-Tom Dean[14]; 9. 28G-Gus Gould[10]; 10. 35H-Hayleigh Gates[11]; 11. 44-Ray Richer[13]; 12. 62-Nick Danna[12]; 13. 07-Chucky Dumblewski[2]; 14. 81A-Michael Achzet[6]
31 entries
Amsterdam Truck Center Modifieds
QUALIFIER #1 (15 Laps): 1. 79-Rocky Warner[1]; 2. 93-Danny Varin[4]; 3. 1D-Tyler Dippel[3]; 4. 21C-Brian Calabrese[2]; 5. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[6]; 6. 28T-Michael Trautschold[8]; 7. 9S-Matt Sheppard[5]; 8. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[7]; 9. 76C-Chip Constantino[9]; 10. (DNS) 9-Marc Johnson
QUALIFIER #2 (15 Laps): 1. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[1]; 2. 02-Jack Lehner[3]; 3. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[7]; 4. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[2]; 5. 4P-Anthony Perrego[4]; 6. 20C-Craig Hanson[5]; 7. 71-Eric Mack[8]; 8. 24-Chad Edwards[6]; 9. 25-Stephen Gray[9]; 10. (DNS) 85-Billy Pauch Jr
QUALIFIER #3 (15 Laps): 1. 55J-Ancel Collins[2]; 2. ONE-David Hebert[4]; 3. 24T-Dylan Madsen[1]; 4. 27B-Robert Bublak[5]; 5. 43-Keith Flach[3]; 6. 15M-Daniel Morgiewicz Jr[7]; 7. 76-Jamike Sowle[6]; 8. 797-Corky Warner[10]; 9. 97W-Tanner Warner[8]; 10. 16-Aaron Jacobs[9]; 11. B24-Brendan Gibbons[11]
54 entries
Swagger Factory Apparel Crate 602 Sportsman
QUALIFIER #1 (12 Laps): 1. 1M-Mark Mortensen[1]; 2. 12B-Tyler Bobar[2]; 3. 21C-Brian Calabrese[3]; 4. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[6]; 5. 7-Dave Constantino[5]; 6. 15-Greg Havlicek[7]; 7. 1H-Harry Shaffer[4]; 8. 13J-Jim Mallia[11]; 9. 31J-John Dumond[10]; 10. 10-Andrew MacFadden[9]; 11. 23-Nick Ryder[12]; 12. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer[14]; 13. 11-Josh Persse[13]; 14. 28D-Dylan Eldred[8]
QUALIFIER #2 (12 Laps): 1. 9G-Tyler Peet[2]; 2. 74-Matt Perry[1]; 3. 25-Stephen Gray[3]; 4. 797-Corky Warner[4]; 5. 349-Garrett Chillot[5]; 6. 1D-Kyle Dingman[7]; 7. 27-Michael Ballestero[8]; 8. 7S-Michael Sabia[9]; 9. 14W-Timmy Wilmot[6]; 10. 4B-Danny Burl[10]; 11. 03-Joshua Jock[14]; 12. 6S-John Santolin[12]; 13. (DNS) 19Z-Dylan Scribner; 14. (DNS) 27R-Rusty Baumes
QUALIFIER #3 (12 Laps): 1. 72L-Donovan Lussier[1]; 2. 78-Tanner Warner[2]; 3. 55-Jonny Feagles[3]; 4. 7J-Dan Santabarbara[4]; 5. 98-Camron Hotaling[6]; 6. 164-Brock Miller[11]; 7. 82H-David Hackett[9]; 8. 10%-Chad Edwards[5]; 9. 42H-Kadon Hohensheldt[12]; 10. 26-Mason Gray[7]; 11. 47-Walter Cook[8]; 12. 99-Clyde Peek[10]; 13. 4-Zach McSpirit[13]
QUALIFIER #4 (12 Laps): 1. 89-Dylan Madsen[1]; 2. 00X-Josh Coonradt[2]; 3. 14Z-Troy Zilles[3]; 4. 12AJ-AJ Greco[4]; 5. 618-Bobby Rhinehardt[6]; 6. 2K-Mike Kalkbrenner[5]; 7. 9K-Blaine Klinger[7]; 8. 117-Butchie Irwin[8]; 9. 123-Dale Welty[11]; 10. 647-Brian Nelson[9]; 11. 5C-Randy Cosselman[10]; 12. 307-Karl Barnes[12]; 13. (DNS) 9-Joe Toth
21 entries
Fonda Fair Four Cylinders
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 0D-Jason Peck[7]; 2. 666D-Rudy King Jr[10]; 3. I75D-William Cook[1]; 4. 78D-Blake Smart[6]; 5. 126D-Josh Samrov[20]; 6. 97JD-Jay Ingersoll[9]; 7. 8S-Stephen Burka[15]; 8. K1S-William Liberatore[18]; 9. 57S-Jeremiah Paro[21]; 10. 16JD-Jason Samrov Jr[14]; 11. 420S-Tim Warner[11]; 12. 29JD-John Ray[13]; 13. 67D-Randy Tubbs[12]; 14. 6D-Joshua Leonard[2]; 15. 54S-Wayne Russell Jr[5]; 16. 97JKD-Jacob Kimball[16]; 17. 129D-Josh Reome[4]; 18. 14D-Jordan Ryder[8]; 19. 43D-Slappy White[19]; 20. 1S-Damian Ward[17]; 21. (DNS) 26D-Len St Andrews
Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series (MVVDMS) Antique feature – Doug Mathewson, Mike Wheeler, Chris Pedro, Stephen King, Jimmy Hyde, John Orsini, John Wood, Mike Reynolds, Tim Blake, Ed Docskalik, Speedy Niedeheimer
Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series (MVVDMS) Late Model feature – Will Reed, Bill Knapp, John Roese, Malcum Warner, Curtis Condon
Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series (MVVDMS) Mystique feature – Joe Rando, Harry Baldwin, Jimmy Fugel, Tom LaBarr, Mark Anatriello, Cory Briggs, Scot Straight
Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series (MVVDMS) Modified feature – Andy Graves, Jack Miller, Darral Hulbert, Anthony Cardamone, Tom Fletcher, Eric Gifford, Dan Colvin, Pete Nowicki, Pete Campione
Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series (MVVDMS) – Sportsman feature – Jipp Ortiz, Merv Blackwell, Don Briggs, Brian Gray, Jon Trudeau, Gary Reynolds, Mike Gray, Dave Perretta, John Constantino, Mike Roose
Submitted By: Brett Deyo