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LEHNER TAKES BLOOMFIELD’S FLORIST #85 TO VICTORY LANE AT FONDA

By: Ron Szczerba

Fonda, NY – Bill and Erik Nelson are a big part of the history at the Fonda Speedway. Both drove and won races at the “Track of Champions” and now they have possibly the hardest job of all, as car owners. Saturday evening at Fonda their driver Jack Lehner took the iconic Bloomfield’s Florist #85 to victory lane for the first time this season and the fourth time of his career at Fonda.

“I’m a big race fan myself, just of the sport in general,” Lehner said to Mimi Lazzaro in victory lane. “I love people like Erik and Bill Nelson that put everything they have into racing and figure out a way to make it work one way or another. They are just all about the sport, being able to drive for them is great and to be able to put their car in victory lane makes it that much more special.”

Other winners on Townline Equipment Night were Chip Constantino and Josh Coonradt (Swagger Factory Apparel Sportsman regular feature and rain delayed feature from 6/28), Luke Horning (Leatherstocking Credit Union Pro Stock), Jim Malia (Montgomery County Office for Aging Inc. Limited Sportsman), Jay Ingersoll (DOHC) and Ken Hollenback (SOHC) in the Fonda Fair Four Cylinder division, and Danny Varin (ESS Sprints).

For Malia it was his first career win in the division while for Varin it was his ninth career ESS win at Fonda. Dating back to 2017, it was Varin’s ninth win in the last ten ESS events at Fonda with the only other driver to defeat Varin during that period being Shawn Donath in 2023.

Craig Hanson took the early lead at the drop of Joe Kriss’ green flag in the Amsterdam Truck Center Modified division from his pole position start with third place starter Jessica Friesen in tow. Hanson pulled away early and led at the halfway point with Jessica Friesen second, fifth place starter Jack Lehner third, seventh place starter Bobby Hackel IV fourth, and fourth place starter Brian Calabrese fifth.

Lehner was able to get by Friesen for the second position on lap 19 and quickly caught the leader, pressuring Hanson for the lead for the next three laps. On lap 22 of the 30-lap event, Lehner was side by side with Hanson for the race lead and as the two cars crossed the finish line to complete the lap, Lehner was the new race leader.

“Everyone was fighting for the bottom on the initial start and that told me that there wasn’t mush of a top,” Lehner said. “We were third and I could see that Jess (Friesen) was tight and struggling. As the track took more rubber she was struggling even more so I just waited it out and let it come to us. When I got to second I could see that Craig (Hanson) was struggling too so I was just trying to take care of my tires and take care of the car.”

Lehner led the remaining laps in the green to checkered event with no caution flags for his first win of 2025 in the Bloomfield’s Florist/Riley Mortuary #85 and the fourth of his career at Fonda followed in the top five by Jessica Friesen, Hackel IV, Calabrese, and 12th place starter Rocky Warner.

“We’ve had such a stellar race car this year,” Lehner said in victory lane. “The 85 has been awesome thanks to Bill & Erik Nelson, Mike McCallion, and all my guys that work on this thing. They put everything into it; we’ve had a hot rod all year. Unfortunately, we broke two weeks ago (transmission) but Erik busted his tail and got this thing back together. It is great to put it in victory lane, I’m very happy, it means a lot.”

The regular scheduled Swagger Factory Apparel Sportsman feature began with Ricky Quick and Chip Constantino on the front row with Constantino taking the lead at the start. While Constantino pulled away early, ninth place starter Tanner Warner was making his way to the front, sitting in the fourth position by lap seven.

Just before the halfway point, Quick was closing in on the leader with the top five consisting of Constantino, Quick, Brock Miller, Warner, and Mark Mortensen. The one and only caution flag in the event fell with six laps to go and on the restart Warner moved up to the second position with Quick falling back to the fourth spot.

Although Warner pressured Constantino over the final laps, Constantino led the rest of the way in the Palmer’s Service Center #63 DKM car for his first win of the season and the second of his career in the division. Warner, Miller, Quick, and Mortensen completed the top five.

“It’s been a really rough year,” Constantino said in victory lane. “We’ve struggled, struggled, and struggled but we finally got it together tonight. I couldn’t have gotten here without my family and Alton & Carole Palmer. Also have to thank DKM and everyone that helps out. These don’t come easy, it means everything. A couple of weeks ago I was ready to stop, nothing was coming together. Tonight, it did.”

Josh Coonradt used his pole position start to his advantage in the rain delayed Swagger Factory Sportsman feature from 6/28, taking the lead at the start of that event which was the first racing event on the racing program. At the halfway point Coonradt was the race leader followed in the top five by AJ Greco, Matt Perry, Kadon Hohensheldt, and Stephen Gray.

Greco pressured Coonradt over the final three laps of the event but Coonradt was able to take the win in the Coonradt Construction/Ted’s Body Shop #00X, his second of the 2025 season and the second of his career in the division. Greco, Perry, Hohensheldt, and Gray completed the top five.

“You never want to lose if you start on the pole,” Coonradt said after his victory. “Car felt good, started loosening up there but once I started moving around I ended up hitting the tire over there (turn two), so I think there is something going on in the front end, but we’ll get it figured out. Happy and thankful to get here again.”

Luke Horning started the Leatherstocking Credit Union Pro Stock feature on the pole and took the early lead with Andy Graves next in line. Kenny Gates started the event in the fourth position but fell back to seventh at the start, with cautions on laps four and five slowing the field.

Fifth place starter Nick Stone moved into the second position after the last caution with only ten cars left in the event at that point. At the halfway point it was Horning leading the event followed by Stone, Jason Morrison, Gates who started his march back to the front, and Jim Normoyle.

The final caution of the event fell on lap 13 when the third place car of Morrison spun in turn one and on the restart Gates moved into the second position and began pressuring Horning for the top spot. Gates got alongside Horning coming out of turn four on the final lap and the two raced side by side to the finish line with Horning winning the event by 0.014 seconds in the Classic Muscle Parts #2H. It was Horning's 30th career win in the division.

Gates finished second but was DQ’d for being light at the scales in post-race tech with the top five now consisting of Stone, Normoyle, Beau Ballard in a borrowed car after starting 14th, and Ivan Joslin also in a borrowed car starting 15th. Both Ballard and Joslin were involved in a heat race crash and were unable to continue with their own cars.

“I knew that Kenny (Gates) or Nick (Stone) were there,” Horning said after his win. “I thought the bottom was good, and obviously when the bottom is good you’ve got to worry about Kenny. Coming through the corners I couldn’t keep it down with all of the momentum, I tried coming off the bottom once, but it was slowing it down so much I was gonna allow him to go by. So, I had to stay on the gas, but in a couple more laps it would have been an issue.”

“We’ve been changing stuff, and you can hear by how people applaud, normally I get booed. We’ve been struggling so thanks to everybody for that, it made me feel much better. It was a good night to get rolling with Hondo (Carpenter) Night coming up next week,” Horning concluded.

Jim Malia realized a dream on Saturday evening after scoring his first career win in the Montgomery County Office for Aging Inc. Limited Sportsman feature. Malia started on the pole in the event in the John’s Firewood & Tree Service #13J and led every lap of the event. Camron Hotaling finished second followed by Steve Wagoner, Walter Cook, and eighth place starter Mason Gray.

“This is a long time coming,” Malia said in victory lane after his first career win. “Last year we did okay, but after that incident early this year on the frontstretch, to get back out here, I have so many people to thank. Hours of work for ten minutes of fun. Since I was a kid in the stands in turn four, this is what I came for.”

Fonda favorite Danny Varin started the 25-lap Empire Super Sprint (ESS) feature in the only ESS appearance of the 2025 season at Fonda from the third position but made his way to the lead before lap one was completed in the event. Lap traffic came into play on lap 17 and one lap later the red flag was out for Shawn Donath who flipped his sprint car in turn two.

Donath started the feature in the sixth position and was running the extreme outside of the track, putting on a great show for the fans until he got a little too high in turn two and hit the wall before flipping. Donath was okay after the wreck. Varin maintained the lead on the restart with Dylan Swiernik now putting on a show, running the same extreme outside groove around the track as Donath was before his wreck.

Swiernik started the event in the eighth position and took the second position away from Paulie Colagiovanni with four laps to go with Varin 1.6 seconds ahead at that point. Swiernik closed the gap to 0.7 seconds with the white waving but fell short at the checkered flag with Varin taking the win by only 0.343 seconds in the St. Lawrence Radiology/BDR Speed/Charles Tibbitts Masonry Construction #01 over Swiernik, Jordan Poirier, Colagiovanni, and Davie Franek.

“This is a house that Varin built,” Danny said after his ESS victory. “And not the other Varin. Can’t thank this team enough, they work so hard and never give up on me. I didn’t see this was gonna happen tonight, we weren’t very good in the heat race. Didn’t really feel like we could roll around people, Had to hit your marks perfect and not make mistakes.”

Next Saturday July 26 the Hondo Classic and Bobco Dash take center stage at Fonda along with the 358-Modifieds and all other regular divisions. Gates will open at 4:00 p.m. with hot laps at 6:00 p.m. and racing at 7:00 p.m.

If you are a race fan that gets to the track early, be sure to check out the history of the Fonda Speedway at the Fonda Speedway Museum & Hall of Fame which is located on the Fonda Fairgrounds at the rear of the parking area going down towards turn four. The museum is open from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on race days and admission is free!

Fonda Speedway weekly feature winners, their race teams, and sponsors are invited the following week to display their cars at the museum and watch their feature win on Flo before the races. The victorious car display can begin as early as 3:00, and you are welcome to arrive and stay as late as your schedule allows.

Please message the Fonda Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum Facebook page to RSVP or with any questions!
All Fonda Speedway events are broadcast LIVE on FloRacing (www.floracing.tv).

Since 1953, the Track of Champions Fonda Speedway has hosted the best in stock car racing. The speedway operates weekly on Saturday nights from April through August plus several special events. Fonda Speedway is located on the Montgomery County Fairgrounds off New York State Thruway Exit No. 28 at 21 S. Bridge Street Fonda, NY 12068.

Fonda Speedway is on the web at www.thefondaspeedway.com. To learn more, call the office at 518.915.4395, like Fonda Speedway on Facebook or follow the speedway on Twitter: @thefondaspdwy or Instagram: @fondaspeedway.

DATE – 7/19/2025 TOWNLINE EQUIPMENT NIGHT

21 Entrees
Amsterdam Truck Center Modifieds
A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 85-Jack Lehner[5]; 2. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[3]; 3. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[7]; 4. 21C-Brian Calabrese[4]; 5. 79-Rocky Warner[12]; 6. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[8]; 7. 44-Stewart Friesen[13]; 8. 76-Jamike Sowle[2]; 9. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[6]; 10. B24-Brendan Gibbons[9]; 11. 4-Cody Clark[10]; 12. 93-Danny Varin[11]; 13. 27B-Robert Bublak[17]; 14. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[14]; 15. 32C-James Meehan[19]; 16. 88-Ryan Odasz[15]; 17. 82-Ron Holmes[20]; 18. 27-Jason Reome[21]; 19. 20C-Craig Hanson[1]; 20. 71-Demetrios Drellos[18]; 21. (DNS) 24-Adam McAuliffe

PALMER’S SERVICE CENTER/JAMIE & DENISE PAGE POWER POSITION – $100 Gift Certificate to Online Performance/Stone Motorsports – Brendan Gibbons

33 entries
Swagger Factory Apparel Crate 602 Sportsman
Make-up from 6/28 (25 Laps): 1. 00X-Josh Coonradt; 2. 12AJ-AJ Greco; 3. 74-Matt Perry; 4. 42H-Kadon Hohensheldt; 5. 25-Stephen Gray; 6. 15-Greg Havlicek; 7. 10%-Chad Edwards; 8. 78-Tanner Warner; 9. 12B-Tyler Bobar; 10. 84-Ricky Quick; 11. 89-Dylan Madsen; 12. 1D-Kyle Dingman; 13. 1M-Mark Mortensen; 14. 314-Clayton Dumond; 15. 164-Brock Miller; 16. 2K-Mike Kalkbrenner; 17. 12T-Tyler Peet; 18. 7J-Dan Santabarbara; 19. 63-Chip Constantino; 20. 31J-John Dumond; 21. 1B-Brett Mortensen; 22. 1H-Harry Shaffer; 23. 5C-Randy Cosselman; 24. 66-Don Bellen; 25. 99-Clyde Peek; 26. 55-Jonny Feagles

PALMER’S SERVICE CENTER/JAMIE & DENISE PAGE POWER POSITION – $100 Gift Certificate to Online Performance/Stone Motorsports – Greg Havlichek

GRECO’S NAPA HARD CHARGER AWARD – $100 Gift Certificate to Greco’s NAPA – Tyler Peet +11

Regular Feature (25 Laps): 1. 63-Chip Constantino[2]; 2. 78-Tanner Warner[9]; 3. 164-Brock Miller[4]; 4. 84-Ricky Quick[1]; 5. 1M-Mark Mortensen[5]; 6. 1B-Brett Mortensen[7]; 7. 89-Dylan Madsen[10]; 8. 7-Dave Constantino[14]; 9. 42H-Kadon Hohensheldt[8]; 10. 25-Stephen Gray[11]; 11. 31J-John Dumond[20]; 12. 10%-Chad Edwards[12]; 13. 74-Matt Perry[13]; 14. 1H-Harry Shaffer[3]; 15. 1D-Kyle Dingman[15]; 16. 12T-Tyler Peet[19]; 17. 15-Greg Havlicek[21]; 18. 2K-Mike Kalkbrenner[16]; 19. 00X-Josh Coonradt[22]; 20. 5C-Randy Cosselman[18]; 21. 1-Steve Akers[17]; 22. 44-Rocco Constantino[24]; 23. 314-Clayton Dumond[6]; 24. 12AJ-AJ Greco[25]; 25. 7J-Dan Santabarbara[23]

PALMER’S SERVICE CENTER/JAMIE & DENISE PAGE POWER POSITION – $100 Gift Certificate to Online Performance/Stone Motorsports – Mark Mortensen

GRECO’S NAPA HARD CHARGER AWARD – $100 Gift Certificate to Greco’s NAPA – John Dumond +9

17 entries
Leatherstocking Credit Union Pro Stocks
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 2H-Luke Horning[2]; 2. 8N-Nick Stone[5]; 3. 74N-Jim Normoyle[6]; 4. 57-Beau Ballard[14]; 5. 93X-Ivan Joslin[15]; 6. 715-Jason Morrison[3]; 7. 1D-Nick Santuccione[13]; 8. 39-Hayleigh Gates[16]; 9. 07-Chucky Dumblewski[8]; 10. 96-Andy Graves[1]; 11. 81A-Michael Achzet[10]; 12. 13-George Cushman[12]; 13. 15M-Mike Hill[9]; 14. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[11]; 15. (DNS) 4M-Jordan Modiano; 16. (DNS) 93-Justin Knight; 17. (DQ) 35-Ken Gates[4]

19 entries
Montgomery County Office for Aging Limited Sportsman
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 13J-Jim Mallia[1]; 2. 98-Camron Hotaling[2]; 3. 7A-Steve Wagoner[3]; 4. 47-Walter Cook[4]; 5. 26-Mason Gray[8]; 6. 797-Corky Warner[10]; 7. 618-Bobby Rhinehardt[5]; 8. 92C-Lance Hill[11]; 9. 11-Josh Persse[6]; 10. 18-John West[13]; 11. 27R-Rusty Baumes[7]; 12. 32-Owen Mormile[15]; 13. 24-Kirsten Swartz[9]; 14. 2-Michael Block Sr[18]; 15. (DNS) 96B-Jimmy Beach; 16. (DNS) 4-Zach McSpirit; 17. (DNS) 87J-Joel Knudsen Jr; 18. (DNS) 16H-Dylan Hutson; 19. (DNS) 57-Joe Wilson

PALMER’S SERVICE CENTER/JAMIE & DENISE PAGE POWER POSITION – $50 Gift Certificate to Online Performance/Stone Motorsports – Camron Hotaling

GRECO’S NAPA HARD CHARGER AWARD – $50 Gift Certificate to Greco’s NAPA – Corky Warner +4
11 entries

Fonda Fair Four Cylinders
A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 97JD-Jay Ingersoll[4]; 2. 12S-Ken Hollenbeck[7]; 3. 0D-Jason Peck[9]; 4. 33D-Kerrie Hollenbeck[5]; 5. 26D-Len St Andrews[8]; 6. 54S-Wayne Russell Jr[3]; 7. 8S-Stephen Burka[6]; 8. 29JD-John Ray[2]; 9. 78D-Blake Smart[10]; 10. 420XS-Tim Warner[1]; 11. (DNS) 33XD-Joe Crane

16 entries
Empire Super Sprints
A Feature 1: 1. 01-Danny Varin[3]; 2. 7C-Dylan Swiernik[8]; 3. 28-Jordan Poirier[4]; 4. 3C-Paulie Colagiovanni[1]; 5. 28F-Davie Franek[5]; 6. 87-Jason Barney[7]; 7. 98-Joe Trenca[9]; 8. 79-Jordan Thomas[2]; 9. 3A-Jeff Trombley[13]; 10. 41-Dalton Rombough[10]; 11. 17S-Kyle Smith[15]; 12. #99K-Mike Kiser[16]; 13. 36-Logan Crisafulli[12]; 14. 33-Lacey Hanson[14]; 15. 53-Shawn Donath[6]; 16. 4P-Chase Moran[11]

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