By Curtis Berleue (Fulton, NY) | The last time Jason Barney sat in Empire Super Sprints victory lane was back during the season opener in late April at the Fulton Speedway. That changed Saturday night, as Barney continued with the weekends theme of repeat winners at tracks visited previously in 2023 and scored his second tour victory of the year, again at Fulton Speedway.
Starting alongside Pinnacle Pole Award winner Jacob Dykstra, Barney was able to jump out to an early lead, one which he would never relinquish throughout the 25-lap main event.
“Coming to Fulton is always good for us,” said Barney. “Luckily, we laid down a good enough time, and then got a good invert and had a good heat race.”
“The racetrack wasn’t really what I would typically like. They had the tires in an odd spot, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to run the bottom in 3&4, so I needed to just give up on that idea and get it out of my mind.”
“We flipped through the notebook and found something that was written down about not being able to run the bottom in 3&4 and kind of went with it, and it was good.”
Second place finisher Danny Varin came all the way from the 10th position, and by lap 13 had actually got by Barney for a brief period of time. As a customer of Barney’s 87 Speed business, he had helped Varin with his setup before the feature to see if he could make his way from the 10th starting spot.
“I knew Dan was starting 10th and had talked with him a little about what to do with his car. When I see in 10or 12 laps that Dan was 12th to second, I thought this could be interesting.”
“I saw a little brown patch coming out of 4 and thought if I could maybe stick the middle and get a launch, maybe I could figure it out from there. I was a little nervous going into a different lane, but it was good.”
For Varin, the nights second place was a continuation of a recent streak of podium finishes for the Sharon Springs driver.
“I think Jason was just really aware of where the lines were and where the grip was,” said Varin. “We were almost pretty much identical there; I was right on his tail tank. When we got to lap traffic, I thought we were going to have something for him.”
“I misjudged a couple lap cars and allowed him to gain that gap there right at the end. We aren’t going to hang our head about tonight.”
Rounding out the Ashley Lynn Winery podium was another driver who has been consistent all season, Shawn Donath, and rounding out the top five were Dylan Swiernik and Chuck Hebing.
30 360 sprint cars lined the pits of Fulton Speedway on Saturday night, meaning that the field was split into 3 groups of timed hot laps. Rifenburg Contracting fast time awards went to Danny Varin, Jacob Dykstra and Matt Farnham. E&V Energy heat races were won by Jason Barney, Jeff Cook and Chuck Hebing, while the Northern Welding and Fabrication Dash went to Paulie Colagiovanni. Dalton Rombough won the Lacaillade Masonry B-Main.
The next scheduled event for the Empire Super Sprints is this coming Friday September 8th at the Utica-Rome Speedway in Vernon, NY. The event will be the completion of the rain shortened evening from August 4th, with just the B-Main and A-Main left to be run. For the latest news, information, and schedule updates regarding the Empire Super Sprints be sure to check the series website (www.EmpireSuperSprints.com) and follow along on Facebook (Empire Super Sprints), Twitter (@ESSprints) and Instagram (@empiresupersprints).
The Empire Super Sprints would like to thank the following series sponsors for their continued support: Rifenburg Contracting Corp, PJC Spray Foam, Hoosier Racing Tire, Cobra Coaches, E&V Energy, Fondations 4 Saisons, Pinnacle Investments, LLC, Lacaillade Masonry, Inc., FX Caprara, ASI Racewear, Lanes Yamaha, Ashley Lynn Winery, Bicknell Racing Products, DirtTrackDigest.com and LC Design.
The ESS Road Ahead:
Friday, September 8 – Utica Rome Speedway – Vernon, NY ($2,000 to Win Make-Up Feature from 8/4)
Saturday, September 9 – Weedsport Speedway – Weedsport, NY ($2,000 to Win)
Saturday, September 16 – Ohsweken Speedway – Ohsweken, ONT ($10,000 to Win Canadian Sprint Car Nationals, no points)
Full Results:
A-Main (25 Laps): 1. #87-Jason Barney[2]; 2. #01-Danny Varin[10]; 3. #53-Shawn Donath[4]; 4. #7C-Dylan Swiernik[5]; 5. #45-Chuck Hebing[12]; 6. #10C-Paulie Colagiovanni[13]; 7. #5D-Jacob Dykstra[1]; 8. #10-Jeff Cook[7]; 9. 28-Jordan Poirier[15]; 10. #7NY-Matt Farnham[8]; 11. #52-Scott Kreutter[9]; 12. #90-Matt Tanner[21]; 13. #79-Jordan Thomas[6]; 14. #56-Billy VanInwegen Jr[14]; 15. #98-Joe Trenca[11]; 16. #10K-Joe Kata[3]; 17. #23-Tyler Cartier[20]; 18. #41-Dalton Rombough[19]; 19. #13T-Trevor Years[23]; 20. #36-Logan Crisafulli[16]; 21. #4P-Chase Moran[24]; 22. #13-Keith Granholm[25]; 23. (DNF) #17-Sammy Reakes IV[18]; 24. (DNF) #24-Bobby Hackel IV[22]; 25. (DNF) #22-Jonathan Preston[17]
Lacaillade Masonry B-Main (10 Laps): 1. #41-Dalton Rombough[2]; 2. #23-Tyler Cartier[1]; 3. #90-Matt Tanner[3]; 4. #24-Bobby Hackel IV[4]; 5. #13T-Trevor Years[6]; 6. #4P-Chase Moran[5]; 7. #13-Keith Granholm[8]; 8. 11T-Mike Thompson[9]; 9. #33-Lacey Hanson[7]; 10. #19EM-Emily VanInwegen[10]; 11. 96X-Chad Phelps[11]; 12. #X-Dan Bennett[12]
Northern Welding & Fabrication Dash (4 Laps): 1. #10C-Paulie Colagiovanni[1]; 2. #56-Billy VanInwegen Jr[2]; 3. 28-Jordan Poirier[5]; 4. #36-Logan Crisafulli[4]; 5. #22-Jonathan Preston[3]; 6. #17-Sammy Reakes IV[6]
E & V Energy Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. #87-Jason Barney[2]; 2. #98-Joe Trenca[1]; 3. #01-Danny Varin[4]; 4. #52-Scott Kreutter[3]; 5. #10C-Paulie Colagiovanni[5]; 6. #36-Logan Crisafulli[6]; 7. #23-Tyler Cartier[7]; 8. #24-Bobby Hackel IV[10]; 9. #33-Lacey Hanson[8]; 10. #19EM-Emily VanInwegen[9]
E & V Energy Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. #10-Jeff Cook[2]; 2. #53-Shawn Donath[1]; 3. #7C-Dylan Swiernik[3]; 4. #5D-Jacob Dykstra[4]; 5. #56-Billy VanInwegen Jr[8]; 6. 28-Jordan Poirier[6]; 7. #41-Dalton Rombough[5]; 8. #4P-Chase Moran[7]; 9. #13-Keith Granholm[9]; 10. 96X-Chad Phelps[10]
E & V Energy Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. #45-Chuck Hebing[3]; 2. #79-Jordan Thomas[2]; 3. #10K-Joe Kata[1]; 4. #7NY-Matt Farnham[4]; 5. #22-Jonathan Preston[5]; 6. #17-Sammy Reakes IV[7]; 7. #90-Matt Tanner[8]; 8. #13T-Trevor Years[6]; 9. 11T-Mike Thompson[9]; 10. #X-Dan Bennett[10]
Awards & Contingencies:
Rifenburg Contracting Fast Time ($25 each): #01-Danny Varin; #5D-Jacob Dykstra; #7NY-Matt Farnham
E&V Energy Heat Winners ($25 each): #87-Jason Barney; #10-Jeff Cook; #45-Chuck Hebing
Cobra Coaches / Northern Welding & Fabrication Dash Winner ($100): #10C-Paulie Colagiovanni
Lacaillade Masonry B Main Winner ($50): #41-Dalton Rombough
PJC Spray Foam First Non-Qualifier ($50): #11T-Mike Thompson
Pinnacle Pole Draw Award ($25): #5D-Jacob Dykstra
PJC Spray Foam Hard Charger Award ($50): #90-Matt Tanner (+9)
PJC Spray Foam Reverse Hard Charger Award ($50): #10K-Joe Kata (-13)
Pinnacle Investments Last Car Running ($35): #13-Keith Granholm
Pinnacle Investments 11th Place (5 gallons fuel): #52-Scott Kreutter
Ashley Lynn Winery Podium Finish (bottle of wine): #87-Jason Barney; #01-Danny Varin; #53-Shawn Donath