“My” Fonda Speedway Support Division Top 25: Part 2

Column By: TOBY LAGRANGE / RPW – FONDA, NY – The support divisions, in one form or another have been a part of the lore of the Fonda Speedway for more than 50 years. From the Sportsman and Pro Stock divisions to the now extinct Late Model and 320 Modified divisions, the hundreds if not thousands of drivers that made up these fields that entertained us all deserve some recognition of their own.

One week ago, I debuted my Top 25 Fonda Speedway Support Division Drivers of All-Time article here on Race Pro Weekly. With positions 11-25 and the Honorable Mentions now public it is time to release the top ten. Please remember that this is an opinion article and it does not reflect the track in any way.

Also, please keep in mind that my Top 25 is based solely on their support division careers at the Fonda Speedway. Any accomplishments in the Modified and 358 Modified divisions do not count nor do accomplishments outside of the Track of Champions.

#10 – Tim Clemons
Hailing from Gloversville, multi-division veteran Tim Clemons kicks off my top ten drivers after what some would call a utility type player career at the Track of Champions. Clemons was at home and successful in all of the “modified” type divisions at Fonda. Officially Clemons has 40 support division feature event wins at the track with 39 coming in the Sportsman division. He ranks fourth on the overall, combined Sportsman feature winners list at Fonda and third on the 358 Sportsman list. He also has a 320 Modified feature win at the track.

On the track championship front, the Stump City driver owns three of them. He was crowned Sportsman Track Champion in 1990, 1991 and 1992. Clemons makes it into the top ten due to a combination of his feature win total, track championships and successful versatility among the different divisions.

#9 – Todd Hoffman
If anyone deserved the title of Mr. 1980’s Street Stock then Western Montgomery Counties Todd Hoffman would be it. To say that he dominated the division now known as the Pro Stock division during the mid to late 1980’s would be an understatement. He was so dominant that the (few) nights that he didn’t put the orange and white, K-Auto number eight in victory lane you it would be understandable to assume that he broke or was involved in a wreck.

Hoffman owns 51 Pro Stock feature wins at the Fonda Speedway. He also would make the move to the Sportsman division following his four-year dominance of the Pro Stock division and pick up another feature win. Hoffman owns four track championships at Fonda, all in the premier full fender division. Those titles came in 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988. He ranks second only to Kenny Gates on the Fonda Speedway Pro Stock All-Time Feature winners list and in total track championships. He held the top spot until just a few years ago when Gates surpassed him.

#8 – Dave Horning, Sr.
Doorpost, Dave enters my Top 25 with the second most wins of anyone in the countdown. The Bleecker native has visited victory lane 66 times at the Fonda Speedway with a record 57 of them coming in the current Street Stock division. Horning sits on top of the Fonda Speedway All-Time Street Stock Feature Winners list some six wins ahead of his son, Dave, Jr. Horning also has nine career feature wins in the Pro Stock division. On the track championship side of his resume, Horning owns three of them (2006, 2014 and 2015). Only Rob Van Aernam has more (4).

Despite having the second highest win total of all support division drivers (again, only in the support divisions), Horning only climbed to number eight due to the length of his career compared to total feature wins. Make no mistake, even as his days behind the wheel start to near the end the veteran driver is still the favorite to win pretty much any Street Stock event that he enters at the Track of Champions.

#7 – Harry Peek
The Schenectady County Hall of Fame driver really needs no introduction. With a large portion of his career coming in the Modified division, many newer fans forget that Peek was one of the best Late Model drivers that ever turned a wheel at the funky shaped half mile known as the Fonda Speedway. Peek took the checkered flag 23 times in the Late Model division at Fonda and was crowned track champion of the division in 1969. His 23 feature wins rank him second to Dick Schoonover on the final track all-time feature winners list.

While Gentleman Harry’s 23 feature wins is the smallest feature win total in the top ten and if it wasn’t for Mike Romano’s 21 320 Modified feature wins the smallest in the top 21, he makes it up to number seven not because of stats but because of the all-important eye test. Peek’s support division career was short compared to most and that goes directly to the talent sitting behind the steering wheel. He was destined to move up and he did, with even greater success.

#6 – Dick Schoonover
If you are a younger race fan reading this article then the name Dick Schoonover likely does not carry a lot of weight and that is perfectly understandable. After all the Hall of Fame driver out of the small Otsego County town of Edmeston makes this list for his domination of a division that the younger of the Fonda Faithful never had a chance to see – the Late Models.

Short of a resurrection of the class, Schoonover will sit on top of the Fonda Speedway Late Model All-Time Feature Winners List for all time. His 32 Late Model feature wins is nine more than second place Harry Peek and his four track championships (1974, 1975, 1976, 1980) are more than anyone else. In addition, Schoonover did carry his success over to the division that replaced the Late Models on the weekly card – the 320 Modifieds. There he won one feature event and the 1983 track championship.

#5 – Danny Ballard
With the top five drivers on my Top 25 list now here, we start with a driver that has taken laps at the Fonda Speedway in three support divisions – Danny Ballard. A member of the popular Grand Gorge Gang, Ballard holds the distinction as the only driver to ever have won a Fonda Speedway I.M.C.A. Modified Track Championship and one in another division. In all Ballard has four track titles, three in the I.M.C.A. Modified division (2002, 2004, 2006) and one in the Pro Stock (then called Street Stock) division (1994). While no wins came his way at Fonda, Ballard was also a Sportsman division competitor.

Ballard was a very successful and versatile driver at the Track of Champions and that is the reason why he made my top five. That, along with the four track championships and 44 total career feature wins should make Ballard a shoe in for the Fonda Speedway Hall of Fame. I emphasize on should. Those 44 career wins came in both of his championship divisions and break down to 27 in the I.M.C.A. Modifieds and 17 in the Pro Stocks.

#4 – David Towns
David Towns enters my Top 25 at the number four position after a Hall of Fame worthy career in the Sportsman and Pro Stock divisions. Towns dominated the not extinct 358 Sportsman division at the Fonda Speedway during the final four years of its existence. He didn’t just dominate, he obliviated the field in ways that even Todd Hoffman couldn’t do two decades earlier.

In all Towns has 58 feature event wins at Fonda with 45 coming in the Sportsman division. The remaining 13 came in the early years of the Pro Stock (then called Street Stock) division. In addition, he has five track championships at Fonda, four in the Sportsman (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) and one in the Pro Stocks (1982). His four 358 Sportsman titles are second only to Alton Palmer. He ranks second to Palmer on the all-time overall Sportsman feature winners list at Fonda and on the all-time 358 Sportsman list.

#3 – Kenny Gates
Hailing from West Winfield, Kenny Gates anchors the podium of my Top 25. Gates is the only driver in my top five to have spent his entire career (to date) at the Fonda Speedway in one division. Gates has been a popular driver for more than two decades at the Track of Champions and has backed up that popularity with 72 trips to victory lane. He sits on top of the Fonda Speedway Pro Stock All-Time Feature winners list where he holds a 21-win advantage to 1980’s dominator and long time top division winner Todd Hoffman. He also has the most support division feature wins of any driver in the history of the Fonda Speedway.

To add to his resume, Gates has a record six track championships in the division at Fonda and is a part of the only track championship tie in the divisions history (2007 with Rob Yetman) which was only the second in the tracks 60 plus year modern history (Rocky Warner/John Bradt 2005 – Street Stock division). Gates would rank higher in my Top 25 except for the fact that the two drivers ahead of him built their resumes over a shorter time period.

#2 – Alton Palmer
The original modern-day Sportsman hot shoe, Fonda Speedway Hall of Famer Alton Palmer enters the countdown one spot shy of the winner’s circle, which is a place that his competitors in the 358 Sportsman division will tell you he is not used to being. When the 358 Sportsman division debuted in 1987 at Fonda, Palmers name was on the original roster. To be fair, it wasn’t just on the roster, it was at the top of the point standings. That is one place that Palmer would get used to being.

Palmer finished his Sportsman career with five track championships within the division (1987, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999) and 56 feature wins. He sits on top of the 358 Sportsman All-Time Feature Winners List at Fonda and the overall Sportsman feature winners list. His five track titles are the most in the division as well as in the combined records. Newer race fans may only think of the 358 Sportsman division as that of the late 2000’s when it was about to become extinct however a decade before that it was a very healthy, sometimes overflowing division with more competition than you ever saw in the final handful of years that the division was offered.

#1 – Rocky Warner
Unlike Alton Palmer and Kenny Gates, Rocky Warner does not sit on top of any overall all-time feature winners list (he sits on top of the Crate Sportsman feature winners list, not the overall Sportsman list). However, he has done something that only one other person has done at the Fonda Speedway and no one else has done entirely in the realm of the tracks support divisions – win track championships in three different divisions. The only other driver to do so in the history of the track is Mike Romano (Modified, 358 Modified and 320 Modified).

Nicknamed the Flying Squirrel, Warner has flown his way to seven track championships at the Track of Champions. He currently owns four Sportsman titles (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), one Pro Stock title (2011) and two Street Stock titles (2005, 2007). This mean that in the past 13 seasons Warner has won a track championship 54 percent of the time.

In addition to the track championships Warner has 62 support division feature wins. In the support divisions only Dave Horning, Sr. and Gates have more but neither has seven track championships. In fact, no driver has more support division track championships as Warner. His win total breaks down to 25 in the Sportsman division, 12 in the Pro Stock division and 25 in the Street Stock division. Warner will be making the move up to the Modified division in 2018.

There we are, my Top 25 Fonda Speedway Support Division Drivers of All-Time. I am sure some of you will not agree with who I have in my Top 25 or where they are placed but that is the beauty of our sport, we all have our own opinions.

One statistic that weighed heavy into my Top 25 was track championships and the number of years active in any one division. If you noticed only two drivers on my list have not won a Fonda Speedway Track Championship and they (Jay Bleser and John Babcock) were Honorable Mentions. I also factored in the division in which they ran and their number of feature wins, as well as the good old eye test before selecting and ranking.

Please check back next week as I give my Fonda Speedway Modified version. I guarantee that some of your eyes will be raised.