VERNON, N.Y. – In 2008, Jason Barney was the man to beat when the winged warriors of the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints visited the half-mile Utica-Rome Speedway. He won two out of the three events at the speedway.
This season Barney and his Jeff Walton owned team struggled to in the first two events.
On Sunday night, Barney got back to his winning ways at the Gene Cole owned facility to score the win in the SUNY Canton Racing 25-lap feature event.
The win was his sixth career with the club and it was worth $2,000. It came as part of the SUNY Canton mini-series.
“I didn’t think we would struggle this much here the first two races,”
stated Barney. “I’m happy we got one (win). It was our goal to win a race here and I’m glad we did it. I’ve driven a lot of great race cars in my life but this one is near the top.”
The winner of the last event at the speedway, Dan Kaszubinski, brought the field under the green flag with George Suprick on his outside after the driver scheduled to start on the pole elected to start scratch.
As the field entered the first corner, Barney jumped from his third starting position and grabbed the race lead heading into turn one.
“It is very important here where you start especially being in fresh air,”
commented Barney. “Guys can come from the back here. Chuck (Hebing) and Jessica (Zemken) is always tough and at the start Dan (Kaszubinski) was my main focus.
“My car took off good and I got good air on the wing when I drove it into one. I didn’t lift and I knew it was either going to go around in a circle or I was going to get the lead.”
Barney never looked back after taking command of the race as he was able to open up over a two second advantage before he entered slower traffic.
By the sixth circuit, Barney was slicing his way through slower traffic while Kaszubinski began closing in along with eighth place starter, Chuck Hebing.
Barney was mired in two and three wide traffic with Kaszubinski and Hebing knocking on the door on lap 16 when the caution was displayed for Jami Russell as he came to a stop off the high side of the speedway in turn four.
“I didn’t really want the caution at the end because we had just gotten to heavy lapped traffic,” said Barney. “I was struggling a little bit but I wanted to put as many guys between myself and the guys behind me as I could.
“I guess the caution was a good thing because my guys told me afterwards that they were closing in on us a little bit.”
This cleared the track in front of Barney giving him clean air to run in while Kaszubinski and Hebing had a couple of lapped cars between themselves and the race leader.
Barney drove away in the final nine laps to secure the victory.
Hebing, of Ontario, N.Y., coming off a Friday night win at Autodrome Granby passed Kaszubinski on the final lap in turns three and four to get the runner-up finish.
“Kaz (Kaszubinski) and I both struggled getting by George (Suprick) on that restart,” stated Hebing. “Jason (Barney) had a great race car but I wish that last caution had never come out cause we were all right there battling.”
Kaszubinski, of Syracuse, N.Y., came home with a solid third place finish at a track where he as amassed four series victories in the past.
“I got a pretty good history here at Utica-Rome,” said Kaszubinski. “We’ve haven’t run the full tour in a while but there was a couple years ago where we went 13 races in a row here where we finished in the top five. I really love this place.”
Jeff Cook, of Antwerp, N.Y., concluded the weekend with his third consecutive top five after he crossed the finish line in fourth. Cory Sparks, of Edinburg, N.Y., made a rare ESS start and finished in fifth.
Rounding out the top ten were Jessica Zemken, Lance Yonge, who earned the WestFront Construction Hard Charger bonus by advancing eight positions, current overall point leader Justin Barger, Michael Parent and Brian McDonald, who was being crewed by Mike LaSalle himself, ESS’ Canadian Sprint Series title sponsor.
ESS/Utica-Rome Notes: Making his first ever sprint start was Northcountry sportsman star Matt Billings, he ran as a teammate to Chuck Hebing. Matt and his father Dean could be looking to do some more sprint shows in 2010…Making his ESS return after several years was Floyd Billington, unfortunately a blown engine sidelined him after the heats…Coming off back surgery, Jami Russell made his first start of 2009…Coming up from Virginia was Scott Davis and he too made his first ESS start of the year…Next Saturday, the stars and cars of ESS will give it a third try at the Merrittville Speedway.
SUNY Canton A-Main (25 laps): Jason Barney ($2,000), Chuck Hebing, Dan Kaszubinski, Jeff Cook, Cory Sparks, Jessica Zemken, Lance Yonge, Justin Barger, Michael Parent, Brian McDonald, Tommy Wickham, George Suprick, Doug Emery, Jim Porter, Matt Demitraszek, Scott Davis, Mike Stelter, Kory Gurney, Matt Billings, Jami Russell, Kevin Loveys. DNS Floyd Billington
Car Mate Custom Built Trailer Heat winners: Jessica Zemken, Jeff Cook and Chuck Hebing
Cobra Motorhomes Dash: Jeff Cook