Stewart Friesen Stays The Course; Strong & Steady In Short Track Super Series Win At Outlaw
Column By: RUSTY RHOADES / RPW – DUNDEE, NY – The Short Track Super Series came back to the Finger Lakes Region in fine style Wednesday evening, as Stewart Friesen pulled away late for another victory in the action packed return of Brett Deyo’s traveling tour to Outlaw Speedway after a one year hiatus.
An absolutely beautiful late Spring evening in Central New York was the backdrop as 42 modifieds filled 5 heats worth of very tough racing. Big names like Matt Sheppard, Danny Johnson, Anthony Perrego and Tommy Meier were all relegated to consolation races.
Out of those who did make the redraw, the luckiest two were Cory Costa and Derek Posiablo, and they would lead the feature to green. 3rd starting southern invader Duane Howard would immediately inject himself into the lead battle with Costa. Friesen wasn’t far behind, already into 3rd from 6th by lap 3.
Costa and Howard would swap the lead in a good green flag battle, with Friesen then swapping 2nd back and forth with Howard after Costa garnered a minute to breathe out front.
That minute was up around the 20th lap, as the rising NASCAR Truck Series regular launched his potent Halmar #44 rocket high up on the Outer rim of the Outlaw surface and into the lead when Costa came upon low lap traffic.
A caution would rerack the field just before halfway, and Howard would really take advantage of it. The Grandview Speedway regular went from 4th to 2nd on lap 25 and then took his turn blasting around the top edge of the surface and around Friesen a lap later in very impressive fashion.
While those two settled for a few laps, additional heavy hitters Alan Johnson and Sheppard had worked their way from deep starting spots to the front. Johnson had assumed 3rd and Sheppard, looking like his usual super self at this point, had 4th place from Costa at lap 31.
Then the focus went back on Friesen, as he steadily erased Howard’s advantage and got alongside and past Howard on the bottom on lap 33.
By lap 37 it was appearing as if all in attendance were going to be treated to another chapter in the epic battle of the top two modified drivers of recent memory after Sheppard moved by Howard into the runner up spot.
The two juggernauts were soon side by side, with Friesen barely maintaining an advantage at the 10 to go marker.
All that anticipation of them dueling to the very end went away on lap 42 however, as Sheppard would be struck down with a flat right rear tire and need to head pitside for fresh rubber.
Friesen had no problems whatsoever getting away from the others on what would be the final restart, and flew under the checkers comfortably to add another win to his STSS all time leading total.
Alan Johnson represented his home track very well with a 2nd place finish, while Mat Williamson rallied for 3rd.
Modified Feature Finish (50 laps): STEWART FRIESEN, Alan Johnson, Mat Williamson, Mike Mahaney, Ryan Godown, Billy Decker, Duane Howard, Cory Costa, Mike Gular, Kyle Coffey, Brian Krummel, Derrick Podsiadlo, Brady Fultz, Anthony Perrego, Eric Fisher, Donnie Lawson, Nick Nye, Matt Sheppard, Andy Bachetti, Justin Wright, Brett Tonkin, Rick Laubach, Ryan Jordan, Jeremy Smith, Tommy Meier, Dan Creeden, J.R. Hurlburt, Danny Johnson, Jerry Higbie, Craig Hanson, Tyler Siri.
Did Not Qualify: Colton Wilson, Greg Birosh, Billy Van Pelt, Ron Cartwright, Adam Hilton, Jim LaRock II, Damon Decker, Marcus Dinkins, Eldon Payne, Brian Malcolm, Dale Welty.
