RPW Column: Busy Night At Accord Friday: Jesse Marks, Danny Tyler Split Modified Mains

Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – ACCORD, NY – It was a busy Friday night as the Accord Speedway had double Modified features on the surface of the southern Catskill Mountains bullring.

In the holdover feature from July 16th, it was Jesse Marks taking his 2nd feature win in his last 3 races as he outraced Shane Jablonka and Randy Green.

It was Joe Judge and Marks on the front row at the drop of the green with Jesse gaining the advantage with Jablonka moving to 2nd and Scott Ferrier 3rd. The laps quickly clicked off with Marks leading and Jablonka not far behind. The first caution of the race occurred on lap 13 as Dom Roselli Sr slowed and retired to the infield. Jablonka put some pressure on Marks on the restart, but Jesse held his line and maintained the lead.

Caution was out for the final time of the event 0pn lap 16 as Judge hit the 3rd turn wall and nearly rolling over. Despite the serious look of the incident, Judge drove to the pits and quickly returned to the track.

Marks again was strong on the restart with Danny Tyler moving past Scott Ferrier into 4th. The final laps saw no changes in the running order. At the checkered flag, it was Marks by a little over a half second over Jablonka, who had kept it close the whole race. Green finished 3rd with Tyler 4th and Scott Ferrier 5th. Jimmy Wells was 6th followed by Mike Ricci 7th, Danny Creeden 8th, Mark Pullen 9th and Ken Ferrier 10th.

“The beginning of the year, we were finishing 5th, 6th, 7th. We won a couple of weeks ago and the car is going good right now,” Marks said. “I just tried not to use my tires up too much. The race was over pretty quick. I just kept the right rear under me the whole race. I was concerned with making the tires last the 30 laps.”

In the regularly scheduled Modified feature, Danny Tyler got the win in a hard fought race over Randy Green and Ken Ferrier.

Ken Ferrier and Kevin Ward led the field to green with Ward grabbing the lead. Ward led the first 5 laps before Ken Ferrier took the lead on lap 6. Jimmy Wells was moving up, taking 2nd on lap 8. After a lap 9 caution, Ken Ferrier again led over Wells with 10th starting Tyler moving into 5th. After a lap 14 caution, it was Green moving into 3rd.

Caution after 15 were down saw Ken Ferrier still leading, but Tyler was on the charge. He got by Green for 2nd on lap 16 and he got inside Ken Ferrier and took the lead a lap later. Green got by Ken Ferrier on the next lap and that pretty well settled the finishing order as Tyler cruised well out front the final laps to take a 1.8 second win over Green with Ken Ferrier finishing 3rd. Wells finished 4th with Mike Ricci 5th and Joe Judge 6th. Finishing positions 7-10 went to John Ferrier, Scott Ferrier, Shane Jablonka and Mike Corbin.

“We switched to Bicknell this year and we really have a good combination,” Tyler said. “Top 4’s and top 3’s every week, we’ve just been missing something to get the wins. Whatever we found tonight I think will give us some momentum moving forward.”

And Danny talked about the winning pass.

“When the track gets slick like this, it’s so much motor, it’s the way you drive it. That’s why Stewart Friesen and Matt Sheppard win so many races, they drive it like the way it needs to be driven.”

In the Sportsman division, Nick Plumstead took the lead on lap 7 and dominated the race from that point, racing to a 3+ second win over Harry Baldwin and Kyle Rohner with Charles Loiodice finishing 4th and Brian Durbin 5th. Cole Hentschel was 6th followed by Travis Green 7th, Tyler Johnston 8th, Jamie Yannone 9th and Corey Cormier 10th.

Rookie Sportsman action saw Ashton DeWitt grabbing the win over Kevin Murphy, Dan Specht, Cody Cordova and Brady Cordova.

In the pure Stocks, Jayden Sleight was victorious over John Hechinger, Walt Henry, Steven Kanuk and Hank Morin.

Dave Donovan was the Fireball 4 Cylinder winner over Brandon Conklin, George Barringer, Ryan Heady and Dave Bendell.

The Slingshot division saw Matt Sydoryk driving into Victory lane as he was first to the checkers over Trevor Rutty, Zach Cordova, Chase See and Sophia Spear.