The 11th annual ESS-CNY Speedweek wound up at the Weedsport Speedway Sunday night and the four 360 winged sprint car programs produced record car turnouts, plenty of tight, competitive racing and Quebec’s Jordan Poirier was crowned 2024 ESS Speedweek champion.
After a rainout on Wednesday’s series opener at Can-Am, a strong field of 37 ESS machines were at Thursday’s program at Utica-Rome. Ohsweken Speedway owner, Glenn Styres, put Stewart Friesen in one of his 360 sprint cars, and Stewart responded by outrunning ESS champion Jordan Poirier in the main event for his first sprint feature win in several years.
For the frosting on the cake, Friesen then jumped into his Halmar modified and went out and made it a clean sweep of the two feature races. It resulted in a $6,500 payday for the Sprakers racer. Tim Fuller, Marc Johnson and early leader Rocky Warner followed Friesen.
The ESS Tour then moved to Brewerton Friday and the 25-lap/$2,500-to-win main event was a flag-to-flag victory for Jason Barney. The companion feature for DIRT big-block modifieds saw Dylan Zacharias rack up his first-ever Brewerton victory, with Darren Smith and Ronnie Davis 111 following.
At Fulton on Saturday, Dave Franek of Wantage, New Jersey picked up the win with Matt Tanner second. Jason Barney flipped in his heat race, but made some quick repairs and started the feature race last. Barney passed 22 cars to wind up third for the night.
The DIRT 358 feature at Fulton saw Alan Fink pick up his first win of 2024 with Ronnie Davis 111 and Tim Sears Jr. second and third.
The Speedweek finale at Weedsport Sunday saw Jordan Thomas leading Matt Tanner on the final lap. But on the final turn, Thomas went high and crashed into the outer wall and a one-lap restart was required to complete the race.
Tanner and Danny Varin ran that one lap side by side and Varin edged out Tanner in a photo finish. Varin had motor problems the night before at Fulton and two crewmen went back to Fonda for a spare engine for Weedsport. Jordan Poirier picked up a $500 bonus as 2024 ESS Speedweek champion.
36 DIRT 358 modifieds were on hand for their 50-lap main event at Weedsport. Baldwinsville’s Jimmy Phelps came away with the $5,000 victory, with Alex Paine, Larry Wight, Tim Sears Jr. and Tim Fuller following.
The Land of Legends Speedway ran a 76-lap/$7,600 to win special for DIRT car big blocks Thursday night and Mat Williamson took the lead on the 12th lap and went on for the win.
Matt Sheppard, Jimmy Phelps, Peter Britten and Anthony Perrego filled out the top five finishers.
Matt Williamson came right back Friday night to rack up his 13th win of the year in the DIRT 358 feature at Ransomville. Erick Rudolph and Gary Lindberg were second and third.
Jessey Mueller won his second feature of the year at Albany-Saratoga Friday, with Ronnie Johnson taking the 358 main event.
At Outlaw Speedway Friday night, Ajay Potrzabowski won his sixth modified feature of the year, with Steve and Alex Paine following. Afton and Accord were both rained out Friday.
Mike King was the popular DIRT big-block winner at Lebanon Valley Saturday, with Brett Haas taking the 358 victory.
Fonda Speedway had double features for the mods Saturday and Stewart Friesen won the makeup main event for his 12th win of 2024. Jack Lehner won the regular mod feature with Alex Yankowski second.
The emotional highlight of Saturday’s program at Oswego Speedway was the Karl Schartner Memorial event for small-block supers. Back in 2017, Karl Schartner built a complete small block super to compete weekly with his son Andrew.
Andrew commuted each week from Charlotte, North Carolina to compete with his Dad. This Spring, Karl Schartner passed away and Andrew decided he was going to run one more race Saturday with the car before stepping away from his Dad’s race machine.
Starting 12th in the eighteen-car field, Andrew slowly worked his way up through the field and took over the top spot on the 23rd circuit. He then sped to the emotional feature triumph in his last race with his father’s car.
Oswego had twin 40-lap features for the big-block supers and Camden Proud led the first 28 laps in the first feature. But Dave Shullick Jr. took over on the restart and went on to the win.
The second forty saw Jeff Abold and Mike Bruce put on a spirited battle for the win, with Abold holding off Bruce for a flag-to-flag victory.
The 350 super main event saw homeowner Talon Hawksby win his second straight feature race.
The Short Track Super Series Modified Tour was at the Bridgeport (New Jersey) Speedway Sunday night and Alex Yankowski won the $5,000 top money. Dan Bouc and Anthony Perrego were second and third, with Matt Sheppard 4th, Mat Williamson 7th and Stewart Friesen 11th.
The Super DIRTcar Series for big-block modifieds makes their first trip to the Thunder Mountain Speedway in Richford Tuesday night for the Dale Planck Memorial program. The Natural 77 main event is worth $7,700 to win. Race time is 7 p.m.