The 4th Turn: 5/22/2025
~ By Tom Boggie
I’m sure everyone is familiar with the term déjà vu. If not, I’ll help you. It’s the illusion of having experienced something before.
But what Matt DeLorenzo pulled off last Friday night at Albany-Saratoga Speedway went beyond déjà vu. It was history repeating itself.
If you weren’t there or don’t know the facts, DeLorenzo arrived at the track late because he had been watching his daughters, Bella and Toni, playing in the Wasaren League softball championship game. With no preparation at all, DeLorenzo climbed into Brian Gleason’s 3G (more on that later) and went out and won the modified feature.
He did the same exact thing three years ago. On July 15, 2022, he was in Maryland watching Bella and Toni playing in a summer softball tournament. He got stuck in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike and got back to Malta late, missing warmups. But he went out in the feature and sat in victory lane when all was said and done.
And here’s the kicker. Each time, Mike Mahaney finished second.
Mahaney had a good shot at winning last Friday, but a rare single-file restart on lap 24 ended his chances. LJ Lombardo brought out the caution originally, putting Mahaney right next to DeLorenzo. But on the restart, Robert Bublak Jr. spun around between the first and second turns, bringing out a second yellow and putting the cars single file, per track rules, for the subsequent restart.
“I wanted that last restart to be double file,” lamented Mahaney after the race.
Having two cars in his garage paid off for DeLorenzo. Early in the season, he tested Gleason’s car and liked the power Gleason’s motor was producing, so the teammates switched engines, with DeLorenzo’s old, reliable Enders motor going into Gleason’s car.
But DeLorenzo blew the motor in the 3D in the first of double features at Malta on May 2 and because the team is stretched pretty thin in the garage, DeLorenzo made the decision to run Gleason’s 3G, powered by the Enders motor, last weekend.
“My brother Mike (his crew chief) pounded out the body panels, put my shocks in it and here we are,” said DeLorenzo in victory lane last Friday. “We just threw three cushions on the seat so I’d fit. I wanted to show Brian that the old girl can still win.”
DeLorenzo shouldn’t run into any more scheduling conflicts in the near future. His daughters are members of the Tamarac High School softball team and the team doesn’t play again until Tuesday, against Hoosick Falls in the Section 2 Tournament Class B semifinals. If they win that one, the championship game will be held on Thursday, May 29, at the Luther Forest Fields in Malta.
DeLorenzo’s win last Friday was his first victory in the premier division at Malta since May 19, 2023. He did have one win last year, but that came in one of the DiCarlo Auto Body 358-Modified Series races.
MORE FROM MAHANEY
The 2025 season has been a matter of close-but-no-cigar for Mahaney. He didn’t travel to Florida in the winter, opting to stay in the Northeast as he and wife Mandee are expecting their first child. He’s had a dozen starts to far, and has finished in the top five in half of them, including a pair of seconds (last week at Albany-Saratoga and one at Airborne Park in Plattsburgh) and a 4th in the season-opening 60th Anniversary Special Super DIRTcar Series race at Albany-Saratoga.
“We didn’t start out so well,” said Mahaney, referring to a 14th-place finish at New Egypt in his second start of the year and a 20th at Big Diamond. “We’re just trying to get better every week. It’s tough here, especially with the way the weather has been. The track’s a little different every week.”
George Huttig, the owner of Mahaney’s cars, offered some words of wisdom. “I used to think restarts didn’t matter much here,” he said. “But now, when you get one, you had better make the best of it.”
Mahaney made one of the best moves of the modified feature last Friday, pulling off a slide job on Jack Speshock in the fourth turn on lap 22 to move into second. I told Mahaney after the race that I didn’t think he would be able to pull off that type of move on a slippery track. “Either did I,” he said with a smile.
MORE FROM MALTA
Pete Stefanski put his name into the Albany-Saratoga records book by chalking up his third consecutive pro stock victory last Friday. Stefanski is the first pro stock driver to win three in a row since Chad Jeseo did it in 2022. If I’m right, Rob Langevin and Joe Santoro share the record of five in a row. Santoro did it in 2005 and Langevin matched that in 2006. Rob Yetman won four in a row in 2013, and Josh Coonradt won three in a row in 2019.
The female drivers in the limited sportsman division are starting to draw a lot of attention. Last week, Sloan Cherko and Jordan Hill won their heat races, with Kirsten Swartz finishing second to Cherko. And Sarah Arnold makes a weekly appearance in front of the grandstands, singing the National Anthem.
Albany-Saratoga has another busy card set for Friday night, with double features for both limited sportsman and four-cylinders. In additional, there will be a DIRTcar Pro Stock Series race. Check the Albany-Saratoga Facebook page for all the details. Cherko will restart the first limited sportsman feature, which was rained out after three laps last Friday, from the No. 1 position.
It was nice to see Jake Scarborough celebrating his twin brother Joey’s win in one of the sportsman features last Friday at Malta. Jake, who also has a win at Malta, is confined to a wheelchair after a serious car accident in September 2023.
AROUND THE TRACKS
Memorial Day Weekend always means a lot of racing. Modified drivers have the opportunity to run five nights in a row – Airborne Park on Thursday, Albany-Saratoga Friday, Devil’s Bowl or Lebanon Saturday, Devil’s Bowl or Weedsport Sunday and Thunder Mountain Monday.
Felix Roy, the modified points leader at Albany-Saratoga, said earlier this week that he will be at Devil’s Bowl Saturday for the $2,000-to-win 358 modified race that is part of the Northeast Crate Nationals Weekend. The Nationals, a 100-lap race paying $5,000 to win, will be held on Sunday (with a Monday rain date). Fire Swamp won the Nationals last season, with Demetrios Drellos second and Brian Calabrese third.
Bobby Hackel IV, a former modified campaigner at Albany-Saratoga, recorded his first win of the season last Friday at Accord Speedway.
Lebanon Valley was rained out last Saturday, delaying the Jason Herrington Memorial race. That event has been rescheduled for July 26.
Here’s a little known fact about the 52-year-old DeLorenzo. His victory last Friday at Malta was the 70th of his career, and he’s only won races at three different tracks … 45 at Fonda, 24 at Malta and one at Devil’s Bowl.
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