Champion Speedway
Owego, New York

The Warrior back on track at NY State Speedway Championships
New York State Championship Round 1
By Jason Bonsignore
Champion Owego, New York, USA - June 19, 2010
Eastern Speedway Promotions
Photo of Warren Diem by John Zachary

A full field of speedway stars and the NIKSTOCK music festival were on hand at Champion Speedway June 19th. The race event was round one of the NY State Championship and 4 of the riders in the field had previously won the title. Adam Mittl, Tuff McBride, Warren Diem and Gene Bonsignore. The latter three have all been racing since the 70's. Mittl is the defending Champion.

Mikey Buman opened up the night with a win over Mittl. Josh Carr took a third with Shawn "Steamboat" Engel fourth. At this stage things got really exciting as McBride and Diem met up. They went elbow to elbow for four laps with McBride just taking the win. Brian Hollenbeck was third and Dave Clark fourth. Then it was Lee Bailey who rode off with 3 points over Jerry Harman. Bonsignore ended up third with Ray Barondick fourth. Casey Donholt rounded things out by beating Jesse Diem to the checkers. Andy Crawford was third and Russ Cornell fourth.

McBride was strong again in round two as Buman had nothing for him and wound up with another win. Buman took two points, Bailey one and Cornell zero. Mittl looked more like himself in his second heat and won with Bonsignore in second, J. Diem third and Clark fourth. Donholt stayed unbeaten again with Hollenbeck, Barondick and Engel behind him in that order. Warren Diem could not be caught in his event and Harman was second, Carr third and Crawford fourth.

Round Three victors were Buman, McBride, Warren Diem and Hollenbeck while valuable seconds went to Clark, Donholt, Bailey and Bonsignore.

Hollenbeck started up the final heats by defeating Buman. Jesse Diem scored a third with Harman fourth. Donholt and Mittl took a one two over Warren Diem with Cornell in last. McBride remained undefeated and Bonsignore picked up another second and Bailey got an easy three points when the others in his heat all had DNF's.

With several riders lost for the evening with equipment failures, Cornell was moved into the C-Main, making a five rider affair which was won by Harman with second going to Jesse Diem. The rest of the order was Carr, Barondick then Cornell. The B-Main saw Bonsignore make a lightning gate from the outside wall and almost get across the field but he was mid track coming out of turn two and Bailey snuck up the inside with Mittl behind him which kept Hollenbeck coming through behind and dropped Bonsignore to the back. Bailey could not be denied and Mittl took second. Bonsignore and Hollenbeck diced until Bonsignore hit a hole and laid it down.

In the feature the unbeaten McBride leapt out into the lead with W. Diem in hot pursuit. McBride stayed out front for several laps but Diem finally got a outside drive and passed to take round one of the NY State Championships. It was Diem's first scratch Main win since 1999. McBride would keep second and the overall points lead heading into round two June 26th at Action Park in Greene. Donholt made third with Buman fourth and Bailey fifth.

NYS Championships Round One
1. Warren Diem
2. Tuff McBride
3. Casey Donholt
4. Mikey Buman
5. Lee Bailey

B-Main
1. Lee Bailey
2. Adam Mittl
3. Brian Hollenbeck
4. Gene Bonsignore

C-Main
1. Jerry Harman
2. Jesse Diem
3. Josh Carr
4. Russ Cornell
5. Ray Barondick

D-Main
Dave Clark DNS
Andy Crawford DNS
Shawn Engel DNS

Support Main
1. Zach Peters
2. Katalin Davis
3. Dee Holden
4. Cole Farwell
5. Dan Horengic
6. Brian Bailey

DB Main
1. Spencer Portararo
2. Roger Roberts

Junior Main
1. Dakota Crone
2. Spencer Portararo

Photo of Warren Diem by John Zachary