The 4th Turn: July 18, 2024
~ By Tom Boggie
I think it was the old philosopher C.D. Coville who once told me, “I can’t walk into Price Chopper and buy a loaf of bread with points,” meaning that he was focused on winning and the first-place money.
But you have to remember, that was in the “old days,” when tracks didn’t have point funds and track champions got a trophy to display on a shelf in their garage, and if they were lucky, a leftover drum of CAM2 racing fuel.
There are still a lot of drivers who adhere to Coville’s philosophy, so I was a little surprised to hear Marc Johnson talking about points after he recorded his third modified win of the season last Friday night at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
In victory lane after the win, Johnson said, “I hurt the motor last week and took a big hit in the points. I was pissed off all week.”
Just to be sure, I checked with him again after the races.
“I really want to win the championship,” he said. “I need Peter to have a bad night. I’ve had two already. He needs one.”
Peter, of course, is Peter Britten, the current point leader. Going into this weekend’s action, Britten has a 36-point lead over Johnson. Britten is chasing his second modified championship at Malta; the first came in 2017, when he was driving for Andy Romano. Johnson is a two-time champion (2016, when he beat Brett Hearn by one point, and 2019).
But hoping for Britten to have a bad night is like hoping to win the lottery. The odds are against you. In 12 starts at Malta this season, Britten had finished outside the top 10 just once, and that was in the Super DIRTcar Series Don Davies Memorial NY Modifieds 76. During regular Friday night racing, Johnson has finished outside the top 10 three times, including that disastrous 26th place finish two weeks ago.
Britten nearly had his bad night last Friday. On lap 25 of the feature, Britten, David Schilling and Mike Mahaney were all battling for the same piece of real estate in turn one, with Britten and Schilling making contact and Schilling spinning around. Bur Britten got away cleanly and went on to finish seventh.
For a while last Friday, it looked like Neil Stratton was finally going to get his first modified victory. Stratton executed a perfect slide job on a restart on lap 17 to take the lead away from James Meehan and remained out front until Johnson used a restart on lap 25 to get around Stratton for the lead.
“This one got away from me, but at least we’re running better,” said Stratton after the race. “We struggled last week and got beat up pretty good, but other than that, we’ve doing OK.”
Stratton also finished second three times last year, to Demetrios Drellos on July 28, to Adam Pierson on Aug. 9 and to Johnson on Sept. 1.
Fans will remember that Stratton appeared to record his first win on Aug. 9, 2019, but he was disqualified following a disagreement with track officials over engine rules interpretations.
While Britten seems to have all the good luck on his side, Drellos can’t get out from under the black cloud that seems to be hovering over him. Last week, he had a left rear tire go flat in his heat race, taking him out of a qualifying position and putting him 22nd in the starting grid for the feature. On a restart on lap 18 of the feature, Drellos and Josh Masterson made contact in the third turn, sending Drellos sideways, and Chris Bisson then slammed into Drellos’ car, sending him off on a hook. Since recording his only win of the year at Malta on May 31, Drellos, the defending modified champion, has finished 13th, 18th, 12th, 31st, 4th and 20th.
After running Brian Gleason’s car for two weeks, Matt DeLorenzo was back behind the wheel of his own Bicknell last Friday and finished third, the same position he had finished in the previous week in Gleason’s car.
Watching sportsman drivers battle for a $200 bonus is like watching two dogs fight over a pork chop. In last Friday’s Four States Enterprise Dash for Cash, Travis Witbeck and Pat Jones put on a whale of a four-lap show. They made heavy contact coming out of the second turn on the final lap and Jones had to back off the throttle to gather his car in, allowing Witbeck to grab the $200.
Back in April, on inspection day at Albany-Saratoga, Kim Duell and I were taking about the pro stock division. “I think this is going to be one of the most competitive divisions here,” Duell said. “Rob Yetman is coming back, and he’s coming to compete, and Beau Ballard is going to be racing here, and he’s going to be tough.”
Ballard has lived up to that prediction, as he chalked up his third win of the year last Friday. “It was hard to get my first one here, and to get three is awesome,” said Ballard. “This car was a rocket off the corners.”
Brandon Emigh leads the pro stock division with four wins, but fell back to fourth in the point race after finishing 10th last week.
The sportsman division picked up another car last weekend, when Chad Gregory made the step up from limited sportsman.
James Meehan’s fourth-place run in last week’s modified feature was his best performance since finishing third in last year’s Malta Massive Weekend Super DIRTcar Series race. Meehan’s only win at Malta came during the 2021 season.
The Empire Super Sprints will be at Malta Friday night. No, that’s not me yawning. I love sprint cars. I really do.
AROUND THE TRACKS
Well, look who’s back. Two-time Malta modified champion Dave Camara won last weekend’s sportsman/modified feature at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, the first time he’s won a race since Aug. 14, 2009, when he recorded his last win at Albany-Saratoga. Camara, who came out of retirement two years ago to race for Wes Moody, has been running the Bowl full-time this season after buying a car from track owner Mike Bruno. Camara’s last win at the Bowl came in the 2003 season, which is also the same season he stopped running at the Bowl in August after a disagreement with promoter Bruce Richards.
Did anyone follow what Stewart Friesen did last week? He won modified races at Outlaw Speedway in Dundee, at Fonda and at Weedsport, and also finished seventh in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Pocono. He collected over $21,000 for the three modified wins, but I don’t know what he took home from Pocono. Trying to unearth a truck series purse structure is about as easy as Indiana Jones looking for the Holy Grail.
Friesen is just four points below the playoff cutoff line heading into this weekend’s race at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Brett Haas walked off with the $8,000 payout last Saturday for winning “The Commander” at Lebanon Valley Speedway. The special night honored promoter Howie Commander’s 80th birthday.
Pete Stefanski, who has been a frequent visitor at Albany-Saratoga this year, won last Sunday’s Super DIRTcar Pro Stock Series race at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park. Stefanski, who makes the long haul from Western New York, started off slowly, posting just the 17th best time in hot laps, but got better as the night went on. Emigh finished second.
Tim Hartman Jr. swept the sportsman features at Albany-Saratoga and Lebanon Valley last weekend, giving him 13 wins overall this season. His single-season win record is 17, which he set in 2019, when he was racing three nights a week (Albany-Saratoga, Fonda and Glen Ridge), as well as following the Short Track Super Series. Hartman’s win streak at the Valley nearly came to an end last Saturday, as he was running a distant second to Michael Sabia when the yellow came out on the last lap. Hartman Jr. prevailed in the one lap shootout to record his 11th straight win. Like they say, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
The post The 4th Turn: July 18, 2024 appeared first on Albany-Saratoga Speedway.