The 4th Turn: June 26, 2025
~ By Tom Boggie
A little over a month ago, I was scrambling around to find enough material to fill The 4th Turn column because Albany-Saratoga was being plagued by rainouts.
Now, there’s so much going on, it’s nearly impossible to stay on top of everything.
Let’s start with last Friday night’s modified feature, when 66-year-old Don Ronca added another win to his historic resume. I won’t rehash all the details of his accomplishments, because I did a long piece on the Ronca family after Don’s win last season, when he became the oldest winner ever in the modified division.
The thing that struck me last Friday night was a quick conversation I had with Don’s younger brother Rich, while Don was getting pictures taken in victory lane.
Rich looked at me and said, “That’s a very old motor in that car.” I asked him “How old?” He replied, “I think Ken Tremont ran that motor at Syracuse one year.”
So after all the pictures had been taken, I asked Don how old the motor was. “I’m not really sure, but it’s got 23-degree heads on it, and I’m sure I’m the only one here who has a motor like that. Dave McFeeters put this engine together for me, and he did a heck of a job.”
Longtime dirt track fans will remember McFeeters doing the bulk of his racing in modifieds at the Valley.
After back-to-back cautions on lap two, the 35-lap modified feature went green the rest of the way, allowing Ronca to open up a huge lead and survive some scary moments in traffic. He took his time when he caught James Meehan and Tommy D’Angelo, who were battling for position, and once he cleared them with five laps to go, it was clear sailing.
So clear, in fact, that when Jessey Mueller passed Neil Stratton for second with one lap to go, he thought he had made the race-winning pass.
“Yeah, I thought I had won,” said Mueller. “If we had caught a caution, I know I could have put on a show for the win. Second is good. I’m a little disappointed, for sure, but we work for a living, and this is our fun, so we’ll take it.”
Until last Friday, Ronca didn’t even have a top-10 finish to his credit. “The car’s been hooked up, but we’ve had nothing to show for it,” he said. “Geez, on practice night, I ended up on my roof. But we just keep plugging along. I honestly didn’t think the track would be here this long, so I guess we’ll have to keep coming back.”
Earlier in the night, I saw that Marc Johnson only had one car, his big block, in his pit area, even though the night’s racing card included the third leg of the DiCarlo Auto Body 358 Shootout Series. He’s taken part in every 358 race in the last two seasons, but decided not to last week.
“I’m tired of crashing, or getting crashed, and pounding out body panels,” he said. “Those races don’t pay enough to make it worthwhile. That car is sitting home, ready, but I’m just going to concentrate on this (pointing to his big block) for a while.”
And then there’s the Tim Hartman Jr. saga. The defending sportsman champion drove to his first win at Albany-Saratoga last Friday, enjoying the victory lane celebration of the front stretch after catching leader Dan Grignon in the late stages of the feature. “I didn’t know if I had any chance to catch Dan because he was so far out in front,” said Hartman Jr. “But I just kept hitting my marks and caught him. The car was unbelievable.”
But almost as soon as the frontstretch celebration was over, a call went up to the control tower that a protest had been filed. The car was taken to the tech shed and the Hartman crew began pulling the motor to have it inspected on Monday.
Hartman Jr. went to Lebanon Valley on Saturday and thought he had his second win of the season there, but failed tech and was disqualified. He posted on Facebook, “Crossed the finish line first, but it’s all for nothing. Had a wire unhooked from tech at Lebanon last week that never got plugged in appropriately.”
Which takes us back to the tech shed at Malta, where Hartman Jr. made another Facebook post on Monday, showing his motor in the back of a pickup truck, being taken back to his shop.
“The clock struck midnight on the protestor to decide which part was illegal,” he posted. ” ‘The whole engine’ isn’t a good enough answer for DIRT. So we’re heading home with the motor.”
Grignon, who finished third (his best finish of the year) in the sportsman feature, also put on a heck of a show with Jon Miller during their heat race, with Grignon beating Miller to the finish line by inches, or .017 seconds.
Pete Stefanski, who makes a five-hour trip to Malta every Friday, was back in championship form last Friday, recording his fourth pro stock win of the 2025 season. If you remember, he had three wins in a row before taking a week off for his daughter’s wedding, finished fourth on his return two weeks ago, and was back in victory lane last Friday. After the race, he raved about the track.
“I give all the credit to the track,” he said. “It’s so smooth and fast. When it comes up like this, there’s a lot of racing room. To come out here and win four, that wasn’t in my best dreams. It makes the trip worthwhile. Keep up the good work on the track.”
Demetrios Drellos was a no-show last Friday at Malta. He had planned on running in the Rush Late Model Series three-day show at Lernerville, but all activities at Lernerville were rained out on both Thursday and Friday, setting up a huge one-day show on Saturday. Drellos finished 10th in the Bill Emig Memorial, earning $1,000. That finish also allowed him to retain his spot on top of the Rookie of the Year standings, as well as his second-place position in the overall point standings.
Todd Ryan had his first top-five finish of the year last Friday, running fourth in the modified feature. Ryan, who came out of retirement last year, hasn’t been to victory lane since June 29, 2001.
Remember that spectacular wreck Al Relyea had two weeks ago, when he slammed into the trees off the first turn and his car caught fire? Relyea spent the next week in Albany Medical Hospital recovering from his injuries, which included three cracked vertebra. The 67-year-old Relyea has a history of back problems, and the staff at Albany-Saratoga hopes he can bounce back from this setback.
Albany-Saratoga will be staging its annual fireworks display Friday. The Next Generation Roofing modifieds will be racing for $2,525 to win as part of Mark Hughes Memorial Night.
AROUND THE TRACKS
Brian Calabrese finally got his signature win last Sunday, winning the DIRTcar 358 Series race at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park. That was Calabrese’s first DIRTcar Series win, and put $4,000 into his pocket. Calabrese went to the top of the 50-lapper with 12 laps to go, and got around both Mike Mahaney and Felix Roy for the win.
After the race, he told Mike Warren, the former co-announcer at Albany-Saratoga who now handles public relations for all of the DIRTcar Series, that he hadn’t been prepared to compete at the Ridge. “This car didn’t have a body on it today. No shocks. No radius rods.
“I have to thank my crew guy Alex. I turned the A/C on, and we got to work and got here.”
Hartman Jr.’s DQ wasn’t the only one at the Valley last week. Andy Bachetti crossed the finish line first in the small block modified feature, but he then came up light on the scales. That gave Brett Haas a sweep of the big block and small block modified features.
Former Albany-Saratoga modified competitor Bobby Hackel IV picked up his second win of the year last Friday at Accord. In 16 years of racing modifieds (I can’t believe he’s 30 years old), Hackel IV has five wins … two at Accord, one at 5 Mile Point, one at Fonda and one at Lebanon Valley. Although he had 119 career starts at Albany-Saratoga, he never won a modified race at Malta.
Mahaney has been on fire in his Adirondack Auto-sponsored small block modified. He won last Friday’s DiCarlo Series race at Malta, won Saturday’s DIRTcar Series race at Devil’s Bowl and was fourth in Wednesday night’s DIRTcar Series race at Fulton.
Jack Lehner, who is still looking for his first win of the year, finished second in the Joey Falanga Memorial at Orange County Speedway in Middletown Saturday. Former sportsman driver Dom Roselli, making only his third career big block start, won the feature as co-promoters Brett Hearn and Doug Dulgarian finally got in their first event of 2025.
What would The 4th Turn be without a Stewart Friesen reference? Friesen finished eighth in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Pocono last Friday, and will be at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut Saturday when the truck series makes its first stop ever at the historic road course.
The post The 4th Turn: June 26, 2025 appeared first on Albany-Saratoga Speedway.