Stewart Friesen Wins Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A.

On a comfortable Tuesday night, Stewart Friesen was able to take the lead away from Marc Johnson on lap 49 in turn 2.  From there, he was able to pull away to win the Super DIRTcar Series Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A.  It is his second Mr. DIRT victory.

“We had a great race car tonight,” Friesen said after the race.  “The Halmar team…did a great job preparing for this race.  It’s a tough race.  First, you have to finish, so the car has to be stable and under you.  Then, you have to be able to beat on it for 75 laps and it was under me tonight.”

Friesen won by 3.76 seconds over Alex Yankowski.  Mike Mahaney was third, then Matt Sheppard and Alex Payne.

By virtue of a redraw, Yankowski claimed the pole for the 75-lap feature.  Early on, he was able to maintain a steady lead over Johnson.

Multi-time track champion Andy Bachetti started eighth, but was never a factor on this evening.  A driveline issue forced him to drop out on lap 6 and settle for a 30^th-place finish.

The first third of the race was a four-man duel at the frontstretch between Yankowski, Johnson, Friesen and Matt Sheppard.  After Yankowski and Johnson were able to open a small gap in lapped traffic, Johnson was able to take the lead away on lap 30 in turn 2.  Friesen followed past a lap later.

The race’s first caution flew when Neil Stratton ran into trouble in turn 3 on lap 39.  That bunched the pack up.

As the race continued on, Friesen’s No. 44 came to life.  After the restart, Friesen began to put the pressure on Johnson.  The Guilderland, N.Y. native succumbed to that pressure with 27 laps to go when Friesen made the same move that Johnson made on Yankowski for the lead.

Johnson’s night came to an end a few laps later.  While under yellow for a blown tire on Brett Haas’ car, Johnson came to a halt on the frontstretch with a mechanical failure.  That ended any hope for a Lebanon Valley regular to take the win.

The remainder of the race saw Friesen pour on the speed and open up three-second leads on the rest of the pack at will.  Two more cautions kept the pack relatively close together, but they could do nothing to prevent Friesen from taking the victory.

The best Lebanon Valley regular Tuesday night was Keith Flach, who finished sixth.  Defending winner Kolby Schroder was eighth, while Haas recovered from his tire issue to finish 10^th.

The Capital District Racing Association held the Mr. Crate Track U.S.A. event, a special 25-lap feature, immediately after Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A. finished.  Here, Owen Lewis earned the pole via redraw and held off Saturday night’s winner Craig Wholey in the process.

Tim Hartman Jr. drew eighth after the heats, but quickly moved up to fourth.  However, getting to the front would be more difficult than normal since there were no cautions to bunch the field up.  As a result, lapped traffic came into play, which is a rarity for a Sportsman race at Lebanon Valley.

Lewis ran what was likely his best-ever race at Lebanon Valley before getting caught up in traffic in the closing laps.  That likely resulted in a slow leak in one of his tires.

Wholey was able to take advantage of this to take the lead from Lewis exiting turn 2 on the penultimate lap.  Hartman followed past into second.

On the final lap, Wholey took the inside line in turns 3 and 4 and got hung up behind the slower car of Savannah Laflair.  That was all Hartman needed to sweep around the outside of Wholey to take his fifth win of the year.

Hartman won by .252 seconds over Wholey.  Lewis was third, then Joey Scarborough and Michael Wagner Fitzgerald.

In Pro Stock, Shawn Perez claimed the pole via the redraw.  He was able to open up a comfortable gap quickly.  Meanwhile, Devon Camenga went three-wide on the backstretch on the first lap to aid his move up to second.

Eventually, Camenga was able to break away from the pack, but he was more than two seconds back by that point.  He was slowly able to move back in on the No. 09, but trouble struck on lap 13 when a rear end issue led to a spin exiting turn 2.  Camenga did not continue after a trip to the pits.

Another incident a couple of laps later involving Shaine Dowd-Smith and Richard Spencer kept the pack bunched up, but no one could do anything with Perez, who held on for his first win of the night.  The second win came 10 minutes later when he won the track’s 50/50 raffle and took home $2,650.

Perez won the race by .801 seconds over Tom Dean.  Jason Casey was third, then Chris Stalker and Jay Casey.

Super DIRTcar Series Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A. Results (75 laps): 1) Stewart Friesen, 2) Alex Yankowski, 3) Mike Mahaney, 4) Matt Sheppard, 5) Alex Payne, 6) Keith Flach, 7) Matt Stangle, 8) Kolby Schroder, 9) Jimmy Phelps, 10) Brett Haas, 11) Mat Williamson, 12) Tyler Dippel, 13) Jack Lehner, 14) Kyle Sheldon, 15) J.R. Heffner, 16) Ronnie Johnson, 17) Ryan Krachun, 18) Justin Stone, 19) Felix Roy, 20) Chris Curtis, 21) Erick Rudolph, 22) Michael Trautschold, 23) Anthony Perrego, 24) Dylan Grogan, 25) Kyle Armstrong, 26) Matt Pupello, 27) Marc Johnson, 28) John Virgilio, 29) Neil Stratton, 30) Andy Bachetti.  DNQ: Donny Travaglin, Paul Mancini, Matt Caprara, Jeff Taylor, Marcus Dinkins, Mike Engwer, Alex Bell, Brandon Lane, Garrett Poland, Mike King, Ray Hall Jr., Josh Marcus, Eddie Marshall, Montgomery Tremont, Alan Houghtaling, Russell Morseman

Capital District Racing Association Mr. Crate Track U.S.A. Results (25 laps): 1) Tim Hartman Jr., 2) Craig Wholey, 3) Owen Lewis, 4) Joey Scarborough, 5) Michael Wagner Fitzgerald, 6) Chris Crane Jr., 7) Nick Brundige, 8) Connor Crane, 9) Michael Sabia, 10) AJ Albreada, 11) Connor Prokop, 12) Ed Dachenhausen, 13) Braxton Martin, 14) Tavien Blowers, 15) Taylor Wason, 16) Jordan Hill, 17) Dan Odell, 18) Michael Ballestero, 19) Derrick McGrew Jr., 20) Cam Van Zandt, 21) Cody Cordova, 22) Brent Warren, 23) Chad Gregory, 24) Kyle Burl, 25) Savannah Laflair, 26) Bill August, 27) Raelin Dunham, 28) Karl Barnes

Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Shawn Perez, 2) Tom Dean, 3) Jason Casey, 4) Chris Stalker, 5) Jay Casey, 6) Zach Sorrentino, 7) Shawn Perez Jr., 8) Brian Keough, 9) Shaine Dowd-Smith, 10) Hugh Page, 11) Richard Spencer, 12) Tom O’Connor, 13) Devon Camenga, 14) Jeff Meltz Jr.