Heywood comes up big for holiday paycheck, Horning edges Lalonde in pro-stocks.

7/8/2024

Airborne Park Speedway

Heywood comes up big for holiday paycheck, Horning edges Lalonde in pro-stocks.

PLATTSBURGH, Ny. -- Plattsburgh’s own Nick Heywood won Wednesday’ “Firecracker 44” for the J&S Steel Sportsman, holding off Gabe Cyr and Codie Aubin in the final laps to claim his second win of 2024, good for $2,000, and extending his point lead. Gloversville, NY’s Luke Horning picked up a $1,000 pro-stock win over Marc Lalonde in a race for the ages. Cousins Speedy and Steven Bresette won both mini-stock A mains and Tylor Terry picked up his third renegade win of the year. It all went down in front of a jam-packed house, that was treated to beautiful weather and an insane, 20-minute fireworks display.

Vince Quenneville and Bucko Branham led the 30-car field to the green flag with Quenneville pulling away from Branham. Heywood started 6th and was making his way forward along with Joey Scarborough and Chelsea, Q.C. invader Cedric Gauvreau. The race changed dramatically around lap 10, when Scarborough and Gauvreau tangled, sending Gauvreau around. Heywood made contact with the spinning Gauvreau, but continued. Mike Phinney also was collected, ending his night.

Quenneville was still looking strong, but Heywood restarted 3rd and was joined by Gabe Cyr and Donovan Lussier, who started 8th and 10th, respectively. Branham slipped back on the restart, and Heywood launched into 2nd, trying to track down Quenneville, passing him on lap 14 for the lead.

With Heywood pulling away, Quenneville sat solidly in 2nd, until lap 32 contact with the frontstretch wall broke something on the right rear corner of car no. 78, sending it to the pits. That promoted Cyr to 2nd position and Aubin to 3rd.

Heywood was tasked with holding them off for a green-white-checkered restart, and did so handily, cruising off into the night with the $2,000 win. Cyr and Aubin joined him on the podium. Dave Camara was 4th with Donovan Lussier 5th. Beau Reeves, Travis Bruno, Max Dolliver, Michael Wright and George Foley completed the top-10. Foley started 29th, passing 19 cars in all.

Luke Horning won the 25-lap pro-stock feature over Marc Lalonde and Denis Gauvreau. Horning and Burton Ward shared the front row, each winning a heat race with Horning jumping out front. An early caution involving Kyle Hoard, Zack Daniels and Anthony Mossow halted the action in the early going, followed by yellows for Eric Jean-Louis and Billy Thwaits in the next few laps.

From there, it was smooth sailing for all, with Horning gradually pulling away from Lalonde, until the slower car of Keegan Stowell hung up Horning, allowing Lalonde to scoot by. Horning worked hard on the outside while Lalonde held firm the bottom line. Horning pulled alongside him in the final circuits, and the pair leaned on each other slightly in the final corner, with Horning winning by a fraction of a second– just a few inches– at the line. Gauvreau was 3rd with Jay Fitzgerald running 4th and Burton Ward completing the top-five.

Morrisonville, Ny.’s Tylor Terry won his third 9th Stat Cannabis Renegade feature of 2024, outlasting points leader Shawn Duquette. Robert Foley and Travis Stokes had the front row for the 25-lap feature with Stokes leading the first two laps. Things went bad on lap 3, as Josh Terry appeared to break something, slamming the frontstretch wall, collecting Nate Guay, neither returned.

Upon the restart, Hunter Sawyer put his bright yellow Chevy truck out front for a lap, but Tylor Terry surged around him and Travis Stokes in short order. Shawn Duquette moved into 2nd on lap five, going by Sawyer. He paced Terry closely through append traffic, nearly squeaking by on a few occasions, but Terry was strong to the challenge, good for his third win of 2024. Duquette was 2nd with Billy Thwaits 3rd. Zack Daniels and Richie Turner completed the top-five.

The Moore Recycling Mini Stocks ran a pair of A-mains, splitting the 35+ car field into two groups, lined up by handicapping. Each race paid full A-main purse and points and was 20 laps in distance.

Speedy Bresette started 11th, passing Glenn Engstrom on just lap four after a series of early cautions. Bresette was unchallenged for the remainder of the race. Kenny Tourville came up through to finish 2nd with Engstrom 3rd. Tyler Warren and Brett Manor rounded out the top-five.

In the second feature, Steven Bresette started 9th and took the lead from Cale Manor, also on lap four. Steven Bresette had to work in the closing laps, fending off a hard-charging Rick
Doner and Caleb Tourville, who finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Ryan Senecal and Josh Blake were 4th and 5th.

The first scheduled enduro of 2024 was rained out at the end of the night. Drivers who paid to enter will have their entry honored for the Saturday, August 10 enduro. Drivers who cannot make it on August 10 will have their entry fee refunded.

Airborne Park Speedway is off Thursday, Jul 11. Racing will return to the North Country on Thursday, July 18 with bicycle races for the kids and the drivers! General admission is $15, kids 12 and under are always free. Pit admission is $28 for members and $38 for non-members. Racing starts at 7PM!

Official Results

J&S Steel Sportsman “Firecracker 44” (44 laps)

Pos. (start) Driver, hometown