Matt Sheppard wins the Fonda Firecracker 50 at Fonda . (19th July 2026 BLOG)
The last BLOG ended on Sunday the 12th of July, when my usual Sunday night base, the Cornwall Motor Speedway were taking a night off.
This doesn’t happen very often so I had my second ‘race free’ day of the weekend .
Actually I had very little planned for the rest of the week , apart from Wednesday afternoon , when I’d be watching the England Versus Argentina World Cup Semi Final game on TV.
So , I came up with the idea of heading off on a road trip to a couple of Ontario tracks that I’d never visited before. Thunder City Speedway (Thunder Bay) and the Laird Speedway (Sault Ste Marie) . Thunder City run on Wednesdays and Laird run on Thursdays.
It’s a long drive so figured I could watch the football game from a hotel room some where near to Thunder Bay.
Well , to cut a long story short, the trip never materialized , when my Impala had an exhaust system breakage, and I couldn’t get a booking at the muffler shop, until Wednesday.
I guess I could of still got to the Laird Speedway for Thursday night if I’d left home after the game, but decided against it.
The game was a disappointment, when after leading at half time, England went down to Argentina 2-1.
So, I can put my flags away for another four years.
After the game I took the Thunderbird out of the garage and drove to the Cornwall Olde Car Club, meet at the R.C.A.F.A club beside the St Lawrence.
Once I returned home, I happened to be surfin the net, and discovered something I’d forgotten about.
On the 1st of July while I was at my local Can Am Speedway, the clashing Firecracker 50 Short Track Super Series race was scheduled at the Fonda Speedway and got rained out.
Thursday the 16th of July was the ‘make up’ date.
It’s been a few years since my last visit to this track , so at 10-00 am in the morning , I was on my way.
I’ve been going to the Fonda Speedway for over twenty years , and have tried various routes .
Either via, Plattsburgh and down 1 87 , or through the small mountain roads from Massena across the Adirondacks, or the 1 81 down to Syracuse and the I90 Thruway.
There’s not much in it , time wise, so I chose the most leisurely.
For the drive down , I took the 1 87, exited at Pottersville, then down to Wells and on to Johnstown , which is the nearest big town close to Fonda.
By taking this route and passing Lake Algonquin, it brought back some memories from 20 years ago .
In March 2006, I got my first taste of USA ice racing, on the frozen Lake Algonquin at Wells.
After this blast from the past memory , I arrived at the Fonda Speedway at about 3-15pm.
Plenty of time to find a shady spot and watch the race haulers arrive.
One of the first friends I met was Greg Nitz and his buddy Ralph.
They are familiar faces around the race tracks and are part of the Finish Line Ministries that conduct the prayers at the pre-race drivers meetings. They were also on Pace Truck duties that night .
The program consisted of the STSS Big Blocks, Sportsman , 4 cylinders (Mini Stocks) and Street Stocks .
Like I said , it’s been a few years since my last Fonda visit so I tried a few different photo shooting spots.
The STSS shows have a good reputation for ‘getting on with it’ so it wasn’t long before the heat races were in the books.
The 4 cylinder feature took place before the intermission/track prep and their presentations took place during the break .
It was then time for the Firecracker 50 which was led off by the tow truck of the Amsterdam Truck Center, the sponsor of the race . It’s cool , to think there is an Amsterdam in New York. I’m more familiar with the one in the Netherlands .
Ronnie Johnson was on pole and at the drop of the green , he took the early lead .
Stewart Friesen was chasing him and soon got passed .
I thought that was it , and figured ‘Stewy’ would stay out in front until the end .
It wasn’t too be , Matt Sheppard had moved ahead of Johnson and was gaining on Friesen .
There was a short battle between the two until Sheppard made the pass.
As Johnson slipped towards the back, he came to grief when he hit the spinning Jamike Soule .
As we got closer to the checkers Alex Yankowski moved into second , and it looked like he might get to the front .
It never happened , Matt stayed ahead , and thats how it was when the flag came out.
It was good to see Matt get the win, as he’s been having a drought in major victorys of late.
First was Matt Sheppard , 2nd Alex Yankowski , 3rd Stewart Friesen
Victory Lane ceremonies were done by 9-30, which was just perfect for me.
I ‘d hoped the headline race would be over nice and early to fit in with my logistics .
By making my exit at this time, a hotel room wouldn’t be needed and I’d be able to get home at a sensible time. I used the I90 to Syracuse then went up the I81 to 1000 Islands and into Canada . After a few quick stops along the way I was back home 2-00 am .
In my absence Brian Calabrese won the Sportsman Feature .
I must add , that I later found out , that both the Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie tracks that I’d originally planned to attend, were cancelled due to the bad air quality from forest fires.
I guess everything happens for a reason (with regard to my Impala Muffler issues)
So , by returning to Cornwall that night, I not only saved money , on a room, I had a day at home relaxing before crossing the bridge in that evening for the regular Friday show at the Mohawk International Raceway .
The M.I.R program consisted of 358 Modifieds, Sportsman , Limited Sportsman, Pro Stocks, and Mini Stocks .
First of the main events, and before intermission , we had the Mini Stock Feature.
This gave Francis White a victory .
After the break the Modifieds were up.
At the drop of the green Jordon McCreadie took the early lead until Louie Jackson JR took over .
It looked like Jackson , riding the high groove may be the likely winner, but Chris Raabe who was keeping low , got the pass.
That’s where he stayed until the checkers.
The Sportsman feature then followed.
Once again Tristan Ladouceur dominated this division .
Shane Pecore moved up to challenge as the laps wound down, but just hadn’t got the edge to get by.
This was Tristan’s fifth consecutive win at the track .
The Pro Stock feature was up next and it was Dakota Sharp and Jocelyn Roy providing the action up front as they dueled for much of the race.
Sharp was the one to take the checkers.
The Limited Sportsman ended the night , with Lisle Robinson getting his second win of the year.
The show was all over by 10-30 , just what I was hoping for, after the previous late night.
My plan for Saturday the 18th of July was for the Brockville Ontario Speedway .
The weather forecast had been for a lot of rain, so it was no surprise to wake in the morning to see an early cancelation. My other local option was the Le RPM Speedway in Quebec, but that too got rained out.
So it was another Saturday night at home watching the World Cup football.
It just happened to be the bronze medal game where the two teams knocked out at the Semi’s were playing for third place .
England were playing France .
What a great game that was. It couldn’t have been better , if scripted .
France had a bad first half , going 4-0 down. In the second half it was the other way round, as they picked themselves up and scored three early unanswered goals, to a complacent England .
It got very exciting as the minutes ticked away .
Both teams scored again , and then as the game went into ‘time added on’ England got goal number 6.
I’ve been watching football all my life , and this has to be the best game I’ve ever seen. Great job England getting the Bronze.