9/27/2025
Fonda Speedway
WARNER WINS MONTGOMERY COUNTY OPEN 358-MODIFIED FEATURE AT FONDA
By: Ron Szczerba
Fonda, NY – It has been many years since the “Track of Champions” Fonda Speedway held a race after the Fonda 200 weekend. This year was different with the running of the Montgomery County Open two day event, with night one taking place on Friday evening at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds track.
When Joe Kriss’ checkered flag flew to end the 30-lap, $3,500 to win, 358-Modified event it was Rocky Warner standing in victory lane after the win. It was Warner’s third victory of the 2025 racing season, two wins in a 358-Modified and one in a big block.
“I saw him go around and I was so heartbroken for him,” Warner told Mimi Lazzaro in FX Caprara Victory Lane regarding Matt Stangle. “But like I said happy for me and my guys, it’s huge obviously every time you win a race this Modified deal is getting harder and harder every time you get out here.”
Other winners on Montgomery County Open Night #1 at Fonda were Mason Gray in the Montgomery County Office for Aging Inc. Limited Sportsman, Jay Ingersoll (DOHC) and Stephen Burka (SOHC) in the Fonda Fair Four Cylinders, and Jason Samrov in the Online Performance/Stone Motorsports Street Stocks.
A redraw for starting positions placed Rocky Warner and Keith Flach on the front row for the 30-lap 358-Modified main event with Warner taking the lead at the drop of Joe Kriss’ green flag with Matt Stangle in tow after starting third. Warner was in lap traffic by lap nine with the first of only two yellow flags slowing the event on lap 11 for Jack Lehner who came to a stop facing the wrong direction at the entrance to pit road in turn three. He was done for the night at that point with a reported broken water pump belt.
Warner choose the inside for the restart with Stangle alongside with Stangle clearing Warner for the lead at that point. “He doesn’t run here that often and he snookered me on a restart, pretty good for him,” Warner said.
The top five at the halfway point on the Yurkewecz Auto Crushers lap counter consisted of Stangle, Warner, Robert Bublak, Flach, and David Hebert. Warner never lost touch with the leader and with Stangle struggling to get by lap cars, Warner was able to close in and challenge for the lead by lap 21.
The final caution was out with two laps to go and unfortunately it was for Stangle who caught the cushion in turn four wrong, upsetting the car and forcing him to spin. Stangle went behind the wall at that point with Warner taking over the number one spot.
“I don’t know if I could have gotten him if that didn’t happen,” Warner said afterwards. “I hit that rut a few times, just about ripped the front end off the car and stopped me dead and I feel so bad for him.”
Warner led the remaining laps in the Carols Transportation #97 for his third win of the season followed in the top five by Bublak, Flach, eighth place starter Jessica Friesen, and ninth place starter Hebert.
“We were good, we were lucky, then we were good again and I’ll take it,” Warner said. “Hats off to my guys, they bust their butts on this thing and here we are. To come here tonight with Fonda and Utica running with each other, what do you choose? I live up over the hill, so I figured I’d do one and one to keep everybody happy and that’s what we did.”
“I was following him (Stangle) every lap before that but the lap car, I couldn’t decide what they were going to do,” Warner continued to say. “I went vice versa from last time, last time I went with a hard tire and this time with a soft. I was trying to let him use his stuff up. I was looking and the laps were counting down; I couldn’t even see him we were going so fast. I couldn’t tell what lap we were on; I couldn’t even tell there were three laps to go to be honest with you.”
Steve Wagoner led the first three laps in the 20-lap, $500 to win Montgomery County Office for Aging Inc. Limited Sportsman feature until third place starter Mason Gray got by for the lead with a pass on the outside of turns three and four. Gray led the remaining laps for his third win of the season and the fourth of his career in the division in the O’Connor Towing #26. Sixth place starter Brian Nelson finished second with Camron Hotaling third after pitting for a flat tire earlier in the event and restarting in the rear, Wagoner, and Bodie Marks.
“The track was just amazing, the car was great,” Gray said after the win. “We’ll be moving up to the regular Sportsman next year.”
Jay Ingersoll took the lead from Blake Smart on a lap six restart in the Fonda Fair Four Cylinder feature event and went on to his 13th win of the season in the DOHC class in the Palmer’s Service Center #97. Stephen Burka finished second overall and was the winner in the SOHC class with the rest of the top five consisting of Smart, Wayne Russell Jr., and Nichole Decker.
“We weren’t even going to come tonight,” Ingersoll said after his win. “We let someone run this car 200 weekend and we had some engine problems but before we put it away we thought that we should just run it one more time. So, I think that we got it straightened out and I’m going golfing with the wife tomorrow and this is it for me for the year. We found a broken crank sensor, easy fix and back to normal.”
“Feels pretty good,” Burka said after his win. “I’m starting to get the hang of the track here; it is a very fun track. Next year is up in the air right now, it depends on if you do a rule change, I’ve got some other plans for this car.”
Matt Moshier led to the halfway point in the 20-lap Online Performance/ Stone Motorsports Street Stock feature with Jason Samrov taking over the lead at that point. Samrov led the remaining laps for the $500 win, his fourth of the season in the division and that 21st of his career in the division. Shane Wetherington, Moshier, Matt Wells, and Anthony King completed the top five.
“It was a great race,” Samrov told Mimi Lazzaro in victory lane. “He (Moshier) kept hitting the bump and I said I’ve got to take advantage of this, so I finally got him. We worked on the car last night, I called my wife on the phone and my brother and said what do you think if we change the right rear and put the right rear on the left rear? They told me yes and we did it, Had to get a little more thread over there on the left rear.”
Day two of the Montgomery County Open Weekend takes place on Saturday with the Amsterdam Truck Center/STSS Modifieds in competition along with the Swagger Factory Apparel/STSS Crate 602 Sportsman and the Leatherstocking Credit Union Pro Stocks. Racing will begin at 6:00 p.m.
The Fonda Speedway Hall of Fame & Museum will be on Saturday from 12-6 p.m. with a church service taking place with Pastor Greg Nitz on Saturday at 12 noon. As their post on Facebook says regarding the Hall of Fame & Museum, “come for the history and leave with the memories.”
The Montgomery County Open Weekend will be 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.
To learn more about the Short Track Super Series Fueled By Sunoco, visit
www.shorttracksuperseries.com, e-mail bdmotorsportsmedia@gmail.com, check out “Short Track Super Series” on Facebook or @ShortTrackSS on (X) or Instagram.
The Short Track Super Series is presented by Bob Hilbert Sportswear, FloRacing, American Racer, Lias Tire, Sunoco Race Fuels, BDR Speed, NJ Quality Drywall, HYTORC of New York, Ollie’s, Penske Racing Shocks, Saint Lawrence Radiology, Capitol Custom Trailers & Coaches, Bicknell Racing Products, Behrent’s Performance Warehouse, Madsen Overhead Doors, Belmont’s Garage, Wegner Automotive, DIG Race Products, ATL, Dirt Draft, Swagger Factory Apparel, F.X. Caprara Car Companies, Algonkin Motel LLC, Beyea Custom Headers, Design for Vision, Sunglass Central, Dirt Track Digest TV, DKM Fabrication, EIBACH, Flach Performance Products, Henry’s Headers & Exhaust Systems, JK Signworks, JLR Technologies, Dave Prime Jr. MAC Tools, MD3, PEM Engineering, Schultz Racing Fuel Cells, SRI Performance, Superior Remodeling, Swift Springs, The Exotic Brand, Troyer Dirt Cars, TV 12 Racing Products, VAHLCO Wheels & Wilwood Disc Brakes.
9/26/2025 MONTGOMERY COUNTY OPEN WEEKEND NIGHT #1
29 entries
358 Modified
A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 97W-Rocky Warner[1]; 2. 27B-Robert Bublak[5]; 3. 43-Keith Flach[2]; 4. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[8]; 5. ONE-David Hebert[9]; 6. 60-Jackson Gill[10]; 7. 42-Tucker O'Connor[4]; 8. 97H-Bobby Hackel IV[14]; 9. 21C-Brian Calabrese[15]; 10. 17G-Garrett Poland[7]; 11. 71-Eric Mack[21]; 12. 76C-Chip Constantino[6]; 13. 5-Tanner Siemons[20]; 14. 25-Stephen Gray[13]; 15. 22-Noah Walker[19]; 16. 44P-Brian Pessolano[16]; 17. 61-Dale Gray[23]; 18. 6-Matt Stangle[3]; 19. 250-Alan Houghtaling[27]; 20. 357-Marty Kelly III[17]; 21. 49-Chris Jakubiak[18]; 22. M2-Todd Morey[25]; 23. B24-Brendan Gibbons[12]; 24. 02-Jack Lehner[11]; 25. 20B-Joe Bonetti[22]; 26. (DNS) 11-Alissa Cody; 27. (DNS) J82-Will Shields; 28. (DNS) 519-Joe Pravia; 29. (DNS) 14-Nick Perez
10 entries
Montgomery County Office for Aging Limited Sportsman
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 26-Mason Gray[3]; 2. 647-Brian Nelson[6]; 3. 98-Camron Hotaling[2]; 4. 7A-Steve Wagoner[1]; 5. 33M-Bodie Marks[4]; 6. 32-Owen Mormile[5]; 7. 11-Jimmy Beach[10]; 8. 23-Nick Ryder[8]; 9. 7J-Daniel Joubert[9]; 10. 29-Dale Van Allen[7]
GRECO’S NAPA HARD CHARGER AWARD – $50 Gift Certificate to Greco’s NAPA – Brian Nelson +4
15 entries
Fonda Fair Four Cylinders
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 97JD-Jay Ingersoll[11]; 2. 8S-Stephen Burka[7]; 3. 78D-Blake Smart[5]; 4. 54S-Wayne Russell Jr[4]; 5. 126D-Nichole Decker[13]; 6. 26D-Len St Andrews[2]; 7. 70JD-Anthony Johnson[12]; 8. 16JD-Jason Samrov Jr[9]; 9. 191D-Chris Danylieko[3]; 10. 6D-Joshua Leonard[1]; 11. I75D-William Cook[8]; 12. 7D-Adam Montville[14]; 13. 0D-Jason Peck[15]; 14. K1S-William Liberatore[6]; 15. 38S-Ben Ladd[10]
7 entries
Online Performance/Stone Motorsports Street Stocks
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 24V-Jason Samrov[2]; 2. 54-Shane Wetherington[6]; 3. 91-Matt Mosher[1]; 4. 39-Matt Wells[3]; 5. 7-Anthony King[4]; 6. 711-Jason Barrett[5]; 7. 08-Lou Gancarz[7]
Submitted By: Brett Deyo