FONDA - It's official - Fonda Speedway is under a "deep freeze"
Stewart Friesen won his fourth-straight modified feature at the Track of Champions, weaving his way from a 14th place start to take control on lap 22 when he went to the outside of turns two, three and four to pass Ronnie Johnson on frontstretch and never looked back.
"Getting a win or two is one thing, trying to stay on top is another thing," said Friesen. "We have a really competitive team. We don't like losing much and when you have a racecar like this it's a lot of fun."
Article Photos
Stewart Friesen celebrates his fourth straight modified feature win Saturday at Fonda Speedway. (The Leader-Herald/Erich Neuhaus)
Johnson took the lead from Dave Lape in turn four of lap nine and looked to be on his way to his first victory of the year as a school of racecars trailed a few seconds behind.
The 2011 track champion finished with the fastest lap on the night at 19.88 seconds, but at lap 19, when Friesen took second place, it was only a matter of time before he passed Johnson.
"The way this race track has been lately there's a good extreme outside, there's a good bottom," Friesen said. "It's just a lot of fun. You can hold it to the board all the way around out there - it makes it a lot of fun chasing guys down."
Friesen, whose victory makes it his sixth career win at Fonda, wound up beating Johnson by more than four seconds, while A.J. Romano, Jim Davis and Lape finished out the top-5. .
Lape led the first nine laps and finished with the third fasted lap of the 30-lap feature with a time of 20.17.
Other winners on the night included Mark Mortensen with a 602 Sportsman win, "Krazy" Kenny Martin's 43rd career Pro Stock feature win, Chuck McSpirit with a Street Stock win and Kerrie Hollenbeck won an exciting four-cylinder feature.
Martin's win was his first Pro Stock win at Fonda since Sept. 16 2007. He took the lead from pole sitter Chuck Dumblewski in lap one and from there it was a battle for second, which was taken by Kenny Gates.
"Once I got out front, all I could do is run as smooth as I could," Martin said.
Gates, who took over second place in lap five, was followed by Ivan Joslin and Pete Broderson. Those cars didn't change position after lap 13, though Gates and Joslin finished side-by-side with only .2 seconds separating them. Luke Horning finished in fifth, more than 10 seconds behind Broderson in fourth, and Sheldon Martin, Kenny's son, took sixth and gave his dad a big hug at victory lane.
In the 602 Sportsman, Ray Zemken took the lead between a string of cautions during lap nine, but by lap 14, Mortensen had passed Zemken and never looked back.
The victory makes it Mortensen's fifth 602 Sportsman win at Fonda since 2007. Rocky Warner finished second, 1.75 seconds behind the Mortensen, while Zemken took third, Doug Flynn fourth and Adam McAuliffe fifth.
In the four-cylinder race, Hollenbeck held off a strong surge from Ben Riggi and P.J. Bleau for the win.
Hollenbeck only led the final few laps and wasn't even in the picture in the beginning as Ken Hollenbeck held a huge lead. But with a couple of cautions, one that included Ken Hollenbeck getting clipped from the lead on to the back stretch infield, Kerrie found himself fending off Riggi down the front stretch for the win.
"On the restart that's when I knew I could get out and go," he said. "Once I saw Riggi, all I had to do was out handle him and cross my fingers."
A full slate of features is set to roll next Saturday at Fonda.