Written by Chris Moore

VERNON, NY – Business as usual.

After struggling to move forward early, Savannah, N.Y.’s Matt Sheppard eventually climbed his way to his seventh 3 Bastards Brewing Modified victory of 2024 at Utica-Rome Speedway.

Sheppard fired from the 10^th starting position at the beginning of the 30-lap affair and wrestled the lead away on a lap 14 restart and led the rest of the way for the victory on his birthday.

“It just seemed like we got really jammed up early on,” Sheppard explained. “After the track cleaned off and got slicker. I was able to calm down and everybody slowed down a little bit.”

Sheppard withstood multiple late-race restarts, which brought back bad memories of the night before, when Sheppard went to the pits leading with a flat tire with just three laps to go at Outlaw Speedway in Dundee, N.Y., for the Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series event.

“Those late race restarts were reminiscent of last night,” Sheppard laughed. “I was just praying my right rear tire didn’t go flat again.”

Bainbridge, N.Y.’s Brandon Loucks and Norwich, N.Y.’s Alan Barker occupied the front row and battled side-by-side for the opening six laps until Barker emerged with the lead.

Loucks then came under fire for the runner-up spot, losing it just two laps later to Unadilla, N.Y.’s Brandon Walters.

Walters was beginning to reel in Barker for the lead until the hard charging Tim Fuller, who started 11^th, made his presence known.

The Watertown, N.Y. native slid by Walters for the second position on lap 10 and then set his sights on Barker up front.

Fuller quickly cut into Barker’s half-second advantage before taking the lead on lap 13.

Fuller would lead the 13^th and 14^th circuit before the race’s first yellow flag fell. Unfortunately for Fuller, the car that would pull up next to him was the last car he wanted to see there.

Sheppard raced from the seventh position to second from lap 11 to the completion of lap 14, putting him alongside Fuller on the restart.

Fuller chose the bottom and slid up the track to block Sheppard in turns one and two. ‘Super Matt’ crossed over Fuller and drove by him on the bottom side down the back straightaway.

From there, Sheppard proved to be one step ahead of Fuller the rest of the way for his seventh win of the year.

Fuller settled for second place in the St. Lawrence Radiology No. 19 and Covington Township, Pa.’s Alex Yankowski completed the podium in his family-owned No. 84y.

Walden, N.Y.’s Anthony Perrego made a rare Utica-Rome Speedway appearance, charging late to finish fourth in the Bob Hentschel-owned No. 4 and East Greenbush, N.Y.’s Bobby Hackel IV rounded out the top five in the Godgart Motorsports No. 97.

Finishing sixth through 10th, respectively, were Brandon Walters; Roscoe, N.Y.’s Michael Trautschold; Canandaigua, N.Y.’s Alex Payne; Vernon, N.Y.’s Willy Decker; and Vernon, N.Y.’s Willy Decker Jr.

In Taylor’s Trailers LLC Crate 602 Sportsman action, Johnstown, N.Y.’s Brian Calabrese claimed his first career Utica-Rome Speedway victory.

Following a red flag with five laps to go, Calabrese fired off well and snuck by South New Berlin, N.Y.’s Payton Talbot on the bottom side and led the final five laps for the win.

Matt Janczuk also got by Talbot for second, with Talbot, Zack Welch, and David Hackett Jr. rounding out the top five.

Gloversville, N.Y.’s Luke Horning won the caution-filled Next Generation Graphix Pro Stock feature for his second consecutive win and third of the year.

Bret Belden came from 16^th to finish second, with Devon Camenga, Michael Achzet, and Jim Normoyle rounding out the top five.

Edmeston, N.Y.’s Eric Jensen claimed his second win of the season with the Fastline Performance Limited Sportsman. Jensen started fourth and led all 15 laps for the victory.

Andrew MacFadden, Eymarah Bowman, Rocco Constantino, and Maddy Broedel completed the top five.

Rudy King Jr. (DOHC) and Wayne Russell Jr. (SOHC) continued their dominant ways in the Fonda Fair Four Cylinder division. King used a last lap pass to get by David Denova for the win.

Track regulars Brett Putnam (All-Star) and Addisyn Roger (Junior) defended home turf on the national weekend for the Northeast Region for the slingshots.

Putnam topped an impressive 23 car All-Star field and Roger was the head of the 13-car class in the Juniors.

Racing continues next Thursday, July 18, as Scenic View Campground/Christian Fabrications and Broedel Energy present the ‘Richie Evans Remembered 61.’ The Short Track Super Series Modifieds roll into town for a 61-lap, $6,100-to-win main event. The STSS Crate 602 Sportsman are also on tap for a 25-lap, $2,061-to-win feature affair.

The event will be broadcast live on FloRacing (www.floracing.tv).

Utica-Rome Speedway is located at 5591 NY-5 (Seneca Turnpike) Vernon, NY 13476. The official website is www.uticaromespeedway.com and the speedway can be reached by phone at 315.953.4097.  Like Utica-Rome Speedway on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @UR_Speedway.

STANDARD HEATING COOLING & INSULATING ‘$5 FRIDAY’ RESULTS SUMMARY – UTICA-ROME SPEEDWAY FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2024

3 Bastards Brewing Modified Feature Finish (30 laps): 1. 9S-MATT SHEPPARD[10]; 2. 19-Tim Fuller[11]; 3. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[9]; 4. 4-Anthony Perrego[12]; 5. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[5]; 6. 22W-Brandon Walters[4]; 7. 28T-Michael Trautschold[15]; 8. 70A-Alex Payne[17]; 9. 1X-Willy Decker[6]; 10. 94X-Willy Decker Jr[16]; 11. 34-Dave Constantino[18]; 12. 12-Addison Bowman[3]; 13. 23-Brandon Loucks[1]; 14. JS98-Rocky Warner[22]; 15. 76-Jamike Sowle[14]; 16. 77-Alan Barker[2]; 17. 17-Rob Pitcher[23]; 18. 14AJ-AJ Miller[13]; 19. 42P-Pat Ward[8]; 20. 8M-Tim Mayne[21]; 21. 16-Aaron Jacobs[19]; 22. 97S-Randy Shantel[20]; 23. 16S-Jeremy Slosek[24]; 24. 44C-Ed Downing[25]; 25. 19W-Justin Wright[7]

Taylor’s Trailers Crate 602 Sportsman Feature Finish (25 laps): 1. 21C-BRIAN CALABRESE[12]; 2. 33X-Matt Janczuk[11]; 3. 14T-Payton Talbot[10]; 4. 77X-Zack Welch[4]; 5. 82H-David Hackett[1]; 6. 77L-Ed Lukas[16]; 7. 9K-Blaine Klinger[5]; 8. 7H-Allan Hodge[8]; 9. 69-Blake Sarpriacone[3]; 10. 63-Chip Constantino[7]; 11. 2K-Josh Amodio[6]; 12. 33-Richard Murtaugh[17]; 13. 31J-John Dumond[18]; 14. 12B-Tyler Bobar[9]; 15. 74-Matt Perry[23]; 16. 12P-Connor Prokop[13]; 17. 3-Colby Herzog[20]; 18. 7S-Torrey Stoughtenger[22]; 19. 23-David Dickey[25]; 20. 00X-Josh Coonradt[21]; 21. 262-Matthew Richardson[2]; 22. 621-Seth Martin[19]; 23. 10A-AJ Digsby[24]; 24. 5EJ-EJ Gallup[15]; 25. 44C-Stephen Denton[14]

Did Not Qualify: 5-Kyle Devendorf; 38JR-Jason Parkhurst Jr; 22X-Mike Richmond; 1D-Paul DeRuyter; 11Z-Nick Zielinski; 90-Brodie Davis; R1-Riley Rogala

Next Generation Graphix Pro Stock Feature Finish (20 laps): 1. 2H-LUKE HORNING[11]; 2. 81-Bret Belden[16]; 3. 110-Devon Camenga[10]; 4. 81A-Michael Achzet[13]; 5. 74N-Jim Normoyle[3]; 6. 28H-Johnny Holmes[4]; 7. 32-Zack Daniels[12]; 8. 13-George Cushman[21]; 9. 14H-Hunter Keith[8]; 10. 25Y-Ken Griffin[14]; 11. 15K-Mike Kazluaskas[7]; 12. 7-Eric Stumpf[22]; 13. 28G-Gus Gould[2]; 14. 44-Ray Richer[19]; 15. 63-Matt Rose[18]; 16. 94-Ryan Denton[15]; 17. 11-George Wright Sr[20]; 18. 14K-Mike Keith[17]; 19. 22-Tim Wood[9]; 20. 22W-AJ Walters[6]; 21. 715-Jason Morrison[5]; 22. 101-Ed Kotary[1]

Fastline Performance Limited Sportsman (15 laps): 1. 57-ERIC JENSEN[4]; 2. 10-Andrew MacFadden[6]; 3. 5-Eymarah Bowman[2]; 4. 44R-Rocco Constantino[8]; 5. 26B-Maddy Broedel[3]; 6. 24-Kirsten Swartz[5]; 7. 43J-Jayden Wust[7]; 8. 77N-Bobby Newman[10]; 9. 216-Phil Arnold[9]; 10. 44D-Kadyn Depasquale[13]; 11. 12-Hayden Coons[12]; 12. 17S-Ernie Staelens[1]; 13. 116-Alexis Jacobs[14]; 14. 60-Brad Poppleton[11]; 15. 5S-Keith Simpson[15]; 16. 0-Kyle Coley[16]

Fonda Fair Four Cylinder Feature Finish (12 laps): 1. 666D-RUDY KING JR[3]; 2. 0D-Jason Peck[6]; 3. 54S-WAYNE RUSSELL JR[4]; 4. 212S-TJ Marlitt[1]; 5. 35S-Hank Wedgren[2]; 6. H35S-Hank Wedgren Jr[9]

Disqualified: 9D-David Denova

Did Not Start: 509S-Steve Walters; 29JD-John Ray; 31D-Jeff Connolly; 09D-Kamrin Krause

All-Star Slingshot Feature Finish (20 laps): 1. 6B-BRETT PUTNAM[8]; 2. 349-Garrett Chillot[3]; 3. 22A-AJ Albreada[12]; 4. 54-Sullivan Dickey[7]; 5. 15-Brayden Ketchum[2]; 6. 95-Lucas Pittenger[14]; 7. 33Z-Justin House[5]; 8. 74J-Jaden Pierce[11]; 9. 115-Paul Holic[19]; 10. 68-James Benz[4]; 11. 21-James Hatch[15]; 12. 57-Tighe Smolenyak[18]; 13. 8-Tadd Granger[17]; 14. 20-Julia Renwick[13]; 15. 29-Billy Richardson[20]; 16. 67-Charlene Benz[9]; 17. 42P-Mason Pittenger[6]; 18. 7J-Nicholas Jenkins[23]; 19. 85X-Jason Dufel[1]; 20. 42-Kevin Loveless[21]; 21. 6S-Matthew Smolenyak[10]; 22. 12S-Brianna Snyder[16]; 23. 83-Corbyn White[22]

Junior Slingshot Feature Finish (15 laps): 1. 28RS-ADDISYN ROGER[2]; 2. 50-EJ Hatch[4]; 3. 27-Blake Banek[1]; 4. 20-Preston Trautschold[6]; 5. 22-Parker Fowler[3]; 6. 33X-Brody Janczuk[11]; 7. 27H-Erika Hayes[9]; 8. 25-Alex Cosselman[7]; 9. 67X-Jaxx Welch[5]; 10. R2C-Kendall Crossley[13]; 11. 29-Blaine Card II[10]; 12. 55-Molly Hatch[8]

Did Not Start: 51-Braylin Smith