Williamson, Phelps & Van Doren Claim Eastern States Wins at OCFG Season Finale

Day 2 of the Eastern States closed out Orange County Fair Speedway’s season with an epic day of racing in 602 Crates, small blocks and big blocks with over 200 cars participating in the final day of the Eastern States Championships.

Larry Wight and Max McLaughlin lead the 38 car field to green for the 200 lap feature event.  Wight held the lead for 55 laps until Friesen took the lead over as Wight’s tires started to fade.  Friesen held the lead until lap 144 when his tires began to fade and both Matt Williamson and Mike Mahaney passed Friesen who then decided to pit for a new right rear during a lap 164 caution. After going to the rear of the field and back to 24^th place Friesen was already back to 4^th place by lap 178 and moving back in on Williamson and Mahaney.  Despite a lap 194 caution and double file restart Williamson was able to hold Friesen off by over a 3 second margin to take the “Big Money” race for the second week in a row with Friesen 2^nd place in both races which is a place Friesen is not accustom to be when it comes to the “Big Money” races.  Mike Mahaney got another podium finish which continues to add to his strongest and most consistent month of the season.

In victory lane Williamson noted “When we took the tires on the pit stop around lap 95 that won us the race.  We were able to hold Stewart off for the second week in a row which is really something.  We have been able to win a trifecta of the big races this month.”

The top 10 was rounded out with Friesen in 2^nd and followed by Mike Mahaney, Tim Sears Jr, Tyler Dipple, Jimmy Phelps, Pat Ward, Max Mclaughlin, Billy VanInwegen and Jeff Heotzler.

The 75 lap small block modified feature was another dominate performance by Jimmy Phelps from the pole who again led the race from green to checked flag his 3^rd win in the month of October.  Tim Sears Jr and Rocky Warner were out of towners who had impressive podium finishes at one of the biggest races of the year. 

Postrace Phelps noted “We hadn’t been on the track all day and together with a narrow track and constant lapped traffic that was the only thing that scared me and fortunately we were able to negotiate the lapped traffic without incident.”

The top ten was rounded out by Tim Sears Jr in 2^nd followed by Rocky Warner, Billy Decker, Larry Wight, Tyler Boniface, Anthony Perrego, David Schilling, Marc Johnson and Ben Bushaw.

The 602 Crates 50 lap feature was led to green by Allen Fink and Tommy Collins with Joey Brunning spinning in front of the field before lap 1 collecting 3 cars in the first melee of the day which Tanner Van Doren and the leaders were able to avoid.  Allen Fink maintained the lead until lap 35 when Tanner Van Doren was able to secure the pass for the lead he had been trying to make all day.  Fink stayed right on Van Doren’s bumper but just couldn’t find a way around the savvy 2nd year twelve year old crate driver Von Doren.  The 50 lap event had 12 cautions and one 15 car melee and took an hour and twenty minutes to complete the 50 laps but in the end it was 12 year old Tanner Van Doren with his second win of the season to add to his first OCFG point championship this year.

In victory lane Van Doren noted “This is awesome and I had a lot of fun battling with the #8 guy and this track was one lane and really hard to pass on and got real tricky in the end.  Had to finally get a good restart on top to make my one pass of the day.  I got in Pat Giuliano’s # 51 car for the first time at a practice earlier this week.  Thanks to Pat this car runs pretty good.”

The Slatington, PA youngster was the first Eastern States rookie to win at Eastern States and the youngest winner in the 101 years of OCFG racing.

The top 10 was rounded out by Alan Fink, Zack Sobotka, Matt Janczuk, Tommy Collins, Joe Toth, Kevin Root, Travis Green, Robert Bublack and LJ Lombardo.

Orange County Fair Speedway closed their season out with this event and is looking forward to a full season of events in 2021.