Storybook finish for Johnson, Warner
On Saturday, Fonda Speedway was packed. It was championship night at the track and four modified drivers (separated by 13 points) were in the chase for the championship.
“The last night, championship night, was just electric,” said promoter Brett Deyo, who despite a rainy summer season got in 17 events this season. “There was so much going on with the championship battle, it was $5 to get in, and we just had one of those great nights. Those kind of nights you want to happen often.”
The battle for the championship was a good one too — Rocky Warner was leading the standings by four points going into the race over Ronnie Johnson. Josh Hohenforst was 10 points behind Warner and Stewart Friesen was 13 points back.
It went right down to the final laps of the 30-lap modified feature event. And when it was all said and done, Rocky Warner and Ronnie Johnson were cochampions, the first time that had happened in the modified ranks in the track’s 70-year history.
Other champions crowned included Chad Edwards (crate 602 sportsman), Nick Stone (pro stock), Carter Gibbons (limited sportsman), Ken Hollenback (single 4-cylinder) and Slappy White (dual 4-cylinder).
“The championships built up a lot of excitement, and those guys had such a great time celebrating the championships after the races were over,” said Deyo, who took over Fonda in 2019. “From start to finish it was, by far, the best season we’ve had so far. The car counts were up in every class and the fan count was phenomenal this year; even on the nights that were threatening and we didn’t have the best weather forecasted, the place was rocking.”
It seemed very story-bookish. Two friends sharing a points championship title. Ronnie Johnson and Rocky Warner — it was funto watch.
Johnson wasn’t even expecting to run at Fonda this season. He had spent the past few seasons racing at Lebanon Valley Speedway, but he made an earlyseason trip to Fonda for an event to honor his dad and he never left.
“He (Ronnie) kind of stuck his toes in the water at that first race where we honored Jack; he had a good time, his crew was happy, his fans were happy and that kind of got him back in the swing of things,” Deyo said. “And as it turned out he was really competitive andhad a great year so that was cool.”
To the delight of many, Johnson was back and going back into the history books. It was Johnson’s third modified title (2011 and 2016).
And what better person to share that title with than his buddy Rocky. Warner, who reported he was nervous all day, was huge during the modified finale. He knew he couldn’t let Johnson out of sight and he didn’t, adding some edge-ofyour-seat moves to his run.
“We both raced for Jake (renowned car owner Jake Spraker), we were teammates,” Johnson said to track announcer Mimi Lazzaro during postrace ceremonies. “Rocky’s a heck of a racer, he’s won in every division he’s ever raced in.”
The duo was captured on social media earlier in the week enjoying some sunshine by Johnson’s swimming pool.
“It’s pretty cool, if you’ve got to be co-champions with anyone. I told him Monday he a people’s champ — he really is,” Warner said.
In addition to Fonda Speedway, Deyo runs events at Georgetown Speedway (Delaware) and the Short Track Super Series (STSS). He will be bringing the Cajun Swing to Louisiana in November, and he also added Utica-rome Speedway to his long list of promotions, running weekly shows there on Fridays.
“Having Utica-rome definitely helped Fonda this year because we got some more cars,” Deyo said. “Since the two tracks run under our rule package we had more pop-in cars. The crosspromotion between the two tracks was very positive.”
Deyo and his team are responsible for a lot of positive in the racing community — hard work pays off and it’s showing.
“We are doing well,” Deyo said. “When we got Fonda everybody said it won’t work — they said 'You can’t run those tires, you can’t run those rules because it’s not going to work in New York' and then Fonda worked. Now we are at Utica-rome also and the car counts are up and we are having good crowds. We did a lot in a short time frame to make things at Utica-rome work so we are really excited for next year now because we are established. It’s been great — there is a lot of pride in that we are doing it with our own money, we aren’t working for somebody and that’s very satisfying.”