Area Stock Car Racing: Varin captures 41st victory at Fonda

Believe it or not, it has been seven weeks since defending Modified Track Champion Bobby Varin visited victory lane at Fonda Speedway.

Five of those weeks were because of rainouts and the other two were because Matt DeLorenzo and Tony Pepicelli put two great races together and were able to take feature victories. Saturday, Varin was back in his familiar position for the sixth time in 2009 and the 41st time in his career at the historic fairgrounds track.

“R.J. was quick, he has a great team, and he is a great driver,” Varin said after his battle for the win with Ronnie Johnson. “It was a great battle between us, and he really made me work for the win tonight.”

Dave Lape started the 30-lap feature event from the pole position and took the lead at the drop of the green flag with Elmo Reckner second after starting third. Danny Varin started the event in the sixth position but after lap two was completed he was already up to the third spot. Danny Varin took over the second position from Reckner on lap three with Jim Davis fourth after falling back early from his fifth place starting position.

The yellow flag was out on lap four and on the restart Danny Varin took over the lead with Davis second as he also got by Lape for the spot. Another yellow flag flew one lap later and under yellow Davis drove his car to the pit area and was done for the evening. Danny held the top spot on this restart with Jeff Trombley the new second place car after starting 11th.

On lap six, Danny Varin and Trombley were side by side for the lead with Trombley getting the spot one lap later. On lap seven Matt DeLorenzo suffered a flat tire as he brought out the caution for the third time in the event. He would pit and restart at the tail end of the field and once the race was restarted he was the fastest car on the speedway.

Ronnie Johnson jumped from sixth to third on the restart with Bobby Varin the next car in line in the fourth spot after restarting eighth. By lap 10 Trombley held a straightaway lead as both Johnson and Bobby Varin got by Danny Varin for the second and third positions with Trombley in lap traffic by lap 13.

At the halfway point in the 30-lap event, Trombley slowed in turn two and drove to the pit area with Johnson the new race leader. Lap after lap Bobby Varin tried different lines around the speedway to keep pace with Johnson with one final caution coming out on lap 16 for Ryan Odasz who came to a stop in turn four.

David Towns took the lead in the Sportsman feature on lap six and went on to his first win of the season and the 32nd of his career at Fonda over Luke Munroe, Jason Memrick, Drew Fallis, Vinny Sanganetti, Mark Kislowski, John McAuliffe ands Neil Erickson.