RPW Exclusive: Cyclones Strike Again In Mohawk Valley; Friesen & McAuliffe Add To DKM Wins List At Fonda

Column By: RAY ROGERS / RPW – FONDA, NY – Saturday at the Fonda Speedway, I started out my afternoon in typical fashion because I knew I was in for another great night at the track along the Mohawk.

Anyone that knows me knows I like to start my nights at the Track of Champions with a visit to the speedway museum. It was there I caught up with one of Fonda’s most popular Pro Stock drivers, Chuck Dumblewski. ‘Chuckie,’ as he is known by race fans, began his career in karts. Then, at 17, he climbed into a Pro Stock and hasn’t looked back.

After 15 years in the division, Dumblewski has racked up 12 wins at the ‘Track of Champions,’ a place he calls home. Last week, Chuck scored the feature win at Fonda. He then backed that up by scoring the DIRTcar Pro Stock tour win at Albany Saratoga this past Friday.

“We got off to a rough start this year,” he said. “It seems like we just couldn’t catch a break. say, ” With some great support from family and our amazing sponsors at Amsterdam NAPA and Frank’s Heavy-Duty Towing, we’re headed in the right direction.”

Dumblewski currently sits third in points at Fonda and it’s easy to see why ‘Chuckie’ is so popular with fans. He’s just a laid back, good guy, but when he straps into his Pro Stock, he becomes an animal.

From there, I headed over to the frontstretch to get a peek at the racing surface. It appeared the track crew turned the track over and were in the process of repacking it.

The surface has been second to none all season and, with the tilling, it should provide race fans with some exciting side-by-side racing action.

On my way to find a seat, I ran into my favorite four-legged race fan at Fonda, “Ridged” the racing dog. Ridged seems to really enjoy going to the races. He even has his own dust goggles.

Ridged is quite popular with fans and drivers alike. He even recently had his picture taken with Matt DeLorenzo in victory lane at Malta. Along with his companions, John and Christine, Ridged rarely miss a race at Fonda and it just goes to show that racing is fun for the whole family.

After some warm-ups, it was time to get down to business with heat races, first out were the Pro Stocks. Randy Cosselman and Cassidy Wilson each took the top spots in their qualifiers. Modified heats went to Bobby Varin, Troy Palmer, and Shaun Pangman while the Sportsman events went to Jason Greco, Josh Demagistris and Mike Jackson. The Limited sportsman heat was won by Corey White.

Jason Samrov simply dominated the Street Stock feature on Saturday night, leading every lap and scored his fourth win of the season. He was followed to the checkers by Rob VanAernam, Johnny Young, Cliff Haslun and Michael Arnold.

During a quick break in the action, I came across Big Block Driver Mike Mahaney who was at Fonda Saturday shaking down one of his cars in preparation for “The Jack” tribute race on Wednesday night, August 1st. Unfortunately, mechanical issues sidelined him earlier in the evening and he was unable to make it out after hot laps.

Mahaney stunned the field in 2017 when he claimed victory in the prestigious Jack Johnson tribute race at Fonda,

“We will be back for the Jack,” he said. “We’re ready to race you can count on it.”

Mahaney’s presence on Saturday just goes to show how important winning “The Jack” is to many drivers in the Northeast. It’s sure to be one of Fonda’s biggest events of the year.

Once I returned to my perch in the grandstand, the Pro Stocks had taken to the historic half-mile for a fantastic battle between some of the speedway’s top contenders.

Cassidy Wilson snagged the early race lead, but a heated battle between Luke Horning, Dumblewski, Kenny Gates and Randy Cosselman would quickly catch up to the leader.

At around the halfway mark of this feature, Horning wrestled the lead away from Wilson after a great door-to-door. In the end, “Cousin Luke” would celebrate the victory with a sweet burnout on the front stretch for the home track fans.

Wilson would have to settle for second with Dumblewski third. Kenny Gates, and Josh Coonradt rounding out the top five of this one.

The mighty Modifieds roared to life next for their 30-lap feature event.

After a rough start, Rocky Warner jumped out to the early race lead and seemed to be driving away from the field. That was, until an incident in turn three collected several cars, including the Flyin’ Squirrel, taking him out of the running.

On the restart, Stewart Friesen would wind up his DKM Cyclone machine and quickly take the lead from Jeremy Wilder. Friesen was simply gone, and never looked back, scoring his sixth Modified feature win of the season.

Josh Hohenforst, who also drives a DKM chassis, had the hammer down. He also got by Wilder but just could not catch Friesen. The driver of the 6H scored a solid second place finish.

Bobby Varin and Tim Fuller started the feature mid-pack and clawed their way to third and fourth at the finish while Wilder slid back to round out the top five.

The Sportsman rolled away next for what turned out to be one of the best races of the year for the class at the “Track of Champions.”

Jason Greco jumped out to the early race lead and he was another driver who tried to get out early in his feature and hide. Cody Clark found himself running second at the halfway point with Chad Edwards and Tony Farone beginning to mount a charge to the front.

Edwards worked his way up to the front of the field, moving by Clark for second with six to go and just after that he got passed the leader Greco on the outside of turn four.

However, 17th-place starter, Adam McAuliffe, another driver from the DKM stable, began to run them all down.

In the closing laps, McAuliffe put the moves on Clark to secure the runner-up spot, and with one lap-to-go, and the crowd on its feet, McAuliffe would power by Edwards for the Win.

McAuliffe was followed to the line by Edwards, Clark, Farone and early leader Jason Greco.

The Limited Sportsman ran the final feature of the night with Dylan Eldred scoring his first career win.

Eldred would be followed to the checkers by Jerad LeClair in second. Dylan Bokus, who was subbing for Derrick McGrew. Jr., would be scored third with Shane Larman and Michael McCallion completing the top five.

After the action wrapped up, I made a quick trip down pit road where I met up with Sportsman feature winner Adan McAuliffe.

“Starting so deep in the field, I really didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “Once we got going, I started moving to the front. As soon as I could see the leaders, I knew I could run them down. Dave, Kyle, and Eric at DKM build great race cars and I am really happy with the results I’ve had this year with the Cyclone.”

I asked Adam if he and the team would be returning to Fonda any time soon.

“We are headed to New Jersey next week then back to Malta on Friday,” he said. “I’m not sure how much gas we’ll have left in the tank but I am sure we’ll be back sometime this year.”

With another great night of racing in the books, it’s time to start looking forward to this coming weekend at “The Track of Champions.”

The Speedway will host it’s annual Hall of Fame weekend with the Induction ceremonies being held at the museum at 4 The Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modified Series will also make a return to the track next Saturday. Racing is set to start at 7pm with a full card of great action to come.

I will have a full rundown of all the weekend’s events and the Hall of Fame inductees right here at Race Pro Weekly later in the week.

As always, keep the rubber on the road and I hope to see you all at the races!