Friesen Wins the Gobbler Georgetown Finale & Pit Notes

The northeast modified season final event of the year ended up at Georgetown Speedway which is ironically the same place the season started only one week before the pandemic arrived in March.  It took a lot of effort moving the Gobbler from Accord in New York State to Georgetown, DE and then moving the date forward one week due to Delaware’s state closure order for next week so hats off to Brett Deyo for getting this race done like he has all season long .  The “Gobbler” was greeted by beautiful unseasonably mild weather conditions for the final northeast modified race of the 2020 season.

Mike Maresca and Danny Bouc led the field to green for the 35 lap modified feature.  By lap 2 that other driver from New York with the blue 44 took the lead and Stewart Friesen never looked back at the rest of the field.  He drove into victory lane with a 13 second lead over second place Anthony Perrego in the Gary Simpson 12K. 

In victory lane Stewart Friesen commented “Awesome to close out the season here with a win.  We have been close last couple of months here with a lot of 2^nd’s and 3^rd’s and would like to thank everyone at Halmar International for their hard work to get us this win today.  I wasn’t sure how close they were but the car was really good.  Tire choice played a factor and we guessed right.  We were fortunate to come down here and get this last race in.  I’m going home for a COVID test tomorrow and that’s it. Hopefully we will be back to normal in 2021.”

2^nd place Anthony Perrego stated “Stu was really good and I’m just happy Gary (Simpson owner of 12k) gave me the opportunity to come down here tonight.  Being on the podium here tonight is pretty cool.”

3^rd place Rick Laubach noted “We actually came down here on kind of a whim because work is really busy.  I should work but you couldn’t beat this weather and we got a job done yesterday and decided we could get the car ready.  We tried some stuff and people helped us.  Actually Stewart (Friesen) helped us for the feature and I appreciate that and we were running pretty decent.  Lapped traffic is really touchy here and there not doing anything wrong it’s just the way it is here.  I got jostled up and Anthony got by quick.  The track actually started taking rubber and I didn’t realize until I saw how fast Anthony was off the bottom.”

The top 10 was rounded out by Anthony Perrego, Rick Laubach, Mike Maresca, Kevin Sockritter, Danny Creeden, Billy Pauch Jr., Dominick Buffalino, Richie Pratt Jr., and Danny Bouc.

Gobbler Modified Feature Finish (35 laps) – Georgetown Speedway, November 21, 2020:

1. STEWART FRIESEN ($6,000), 2. Anthony Perrego, 3. Rick Laubach, 4. Michael Maresca, 5. Kevin Sockriter, 6. Danny Creeden, 7. Billy Pauch Jr., 8. Dom Buffalino, 9. Richie Pratt Jr., 10. Danny Bouc, 11. Derrick McGrew, 12. Tyler Siri, 13. H.J. Bunting, 14. Brad Roberts, 15. Jimmy Zacharias, 16. Trent Van Vorst, 17. Jordan Watson, 18. Eric Williams, 19. Joseph Watson, 20. John Willman.

Did Not Start: Jim Britt

Gobbler Modified Pit Notes

Stewart Friesen closed the season out with another win to add to his STSS South region and North region championships.  Both Friesen and Sheppard have returned to their form of a few years ago and seem almost unbeatable except by one another.  Friesen showed his dominance with a 13 second margin of victory in a 35 lap feature with 3 cautions.

Anthony Perrego jumped in Gary Simpson’s 12K which use to be his old ride.  Perrego had a strong 2^nd place finish with his former team owner’s entry.

Rich Laubach has been strong in recent Delaware outings with a two seconds, a third and a 7^th place finish.  Laubach came from 10^th and last position in his heat race and qualified in the final redraw position.  Laubach finished 3^rd in the feature from a 6^th starting position.

Kevin Sockriter took the opportunity to shake down his 2021 entry.  It was a plenty good shake down with a 2^nd place finish in the heat race from a 6^th starting position.  In the feature Sockritter started in 3^rd and finished with a strong 5^th place finish.  Sockritter got an excellent start on the 2021 season.

Dominick Buffalo had his first outing as the official new driver of the Glenn & Bonita Hyneman 126 entry.  In the heat race Buffalino had a redraw qualifying position only to have a track judgement call send him to the back of the field in the heat race and out of the redraw position.  In the feature the 126 started in 14^th starting position and Buffalino worked his way forward to an 8^th place finish.

A large contingent of New York drivers came South for that final 2020 race.  A total of 8 modified drivers made the long trip from New York State – Stewart Friesen, Mike Maresca, Anthony Perrego, Danny Creeden, Eric Williams, Derrick McGrew, Tyler Siri and Jimmy Zacharias.

Richie Pratt brought out his old faithful family owned red #28 entry and was not disappointed.  Pratt qualified for the redraw and was able to finish 9^th with his old favorite #28 entry.  Additionally Matt Peck drove the #28 a few weeks ago and finished 13^th at the Mid-Atlantic championships.  Without a doubt the old Pratt family entry #28 still has it.

Mike Maresca saw his out of state win streak end at two while Stewart Friesen ended his Georgetown losing streak with a win.  Maresca still had a solid outing with a strong 4^th place finish.

Danny Creeden made his last out of state trip of 2020 worthwhile with a strong 6^th place finish.  Creeden finished 4^th in his heat from a 9^th starting position and earned a spot in the redraw. Creeden got a start on his 2021 season with a solid outing and his hoping to be able to do a whole lot more racing in his home state of New York during the 2021.  During the 2020 pandemic season the 16X team hit the road to DE, NJ and PA with successful visits to Grandview, Bridgeport, New Egypt and Georgetown.