The 4th Turn: August 14, 2025
~ By Tom Boggie
It’s good for dirt track modified racing when Jessey Mueller is winning races on Friday nights at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
Mueller is a throwback to the glory days of modified racing. He’s a businessman who races as a hobby. He’s a family man (he’s got three or four kids; I’ve lost count) who makes Friday night racing a fun night out for family and friends.
And he’s fun to watch. Give him a wide, two-lane race track, and he’ll go to the top and put on a show.
Those reasons are why drivers like Mueller are important to dirt track racing, and why their victories are vital to prolonging the life of the sport.
He chalked up his first win of the season at Albany-Saratoga last Friday, with a typical Mueller charge around the outside. Mueller’s win came in his 12th feature of the season. To put that in perspective, Mike Mahaney took part in 17 features during the MONTH OF JULY!
“We only race once a week. To be competitive against these guys every Friday night is really cool,” said Mueller in victory lane after his win. “I just wish it had been last week, when it was three grand (to win),
“We made some changes from last week, and the car came to life,” he added.
Then, as almost an afterthought, he added, “I started racing when I was 15 and I’ve won at least one race every year. I didn’t know if I was going to get a win this year, and I was starting to get a little nervous. I knew I had to click one off pretty soon.”
Hmmmmmmm.
I’ve been doing this for a long time, and have written thousands of stories and columns during that span. That last statement by Mueller got me to thinking. I was sure I had written a story about him in the past where he talked about struggling to win races.
For historical record, Mueller, who grew up racing snowmobiles, won his first open-wheel race on the asphalt at Devil’s Bowl in 2011, as a 16-year-old rookie (he had raced once the previous year, finishing second at a race in New Hampshire in the first time he ever sat in a dirt-style modified).
From 2011 to 2014, Mueller won asphalt races at Devil’s Bowl, Airborne Park, Thunder Road and Stafford Speedway, and won back-to-back Northeast Modified Series Challenge titles in 2013 and 2014.
Following an 11-win season in 2014, he decided to follow his dream of racing against his boyhood heroes like Brett Hearn and Ken Tremont Jr. on dirt, and made the transition from asphalt to dirt.
According to all the records I have, Mueller ran at Albany-Saratoga and Fonda speedways in both 2015 and 2016, and then switched his Saturday night venue to Airborne Park in 2017. He had two top-five finishes in 2015; four in 2016, including a second to Stewart Friesen at Malta on Sept 2; and 11 top-fives in 2017, including a second to Marc Johnson in a King of Dirt 358 Series race at Devil’s Bowl. He ran a total of 52 races, a career-high, in 2017.
But I don’t see any wins until 2018, when he stood in victory lane at Albany-Saratoga on June 22 for the first dirt track victory of his career.
Now, I may be wrong. He might have gone to other tracks, like Bear Ridge, during that three-year span and won some races. All I’m saying is that I don’t have any record of wins from 2015-2017.
DARRAH ADJUSTING
Keep an eye on Brendan Darrah, who just turned 22 last month. He’s only been racing big blocks for three years, but he’s going to pull off a win sooner or later. He led a good portion of last week’s feature, until a late caution ended his bid for the win. “On that last caution, the right rear sealed over,” he said after the race. “On the restart, I hit my mark on the bottom and expected to get some bite, but there was no traction at all.” That dropped Darrah from third to sixth in the final two laps.
Darrah, who recorded his first top-five finish ever on June 13, is still in the learning phase of his career.
“There have been a lot of ups and downs, but it’s been a blast,” he said. “I’m really happy for the team, in general. It seems that early in the night, I’m really fast. But we don’t seem to be as good during the feature. Maybe that’s my lack of experience.”
Longtime Albany-Saratoga fans are familiar with the Darrah name. Brendan’s father Jerry has fielded cars at Malta for years. In fact, when Peter Britten became a regular at Malta in 2013, he was driving the Darrah 14B, recording four wins with the Darrah team in their three seasons together.
MORE FROM MALTA
Fans got a good look at Demetrios Drellos’ late model last Friday, as he took the new Rocket chassis out for some hot lap sessions before and after the races. He was trying to get a little track time on the new chassis before back-to-back RUSH Late Model Series races on Saturday and Sunday. He finished third at Stateline on Saturday, earning $1,000, but only managed to finish 20th at Eriez on Sunday, after suffering a flat tire 10 laps into the feature. The 20th-place finish was his worst of the season, but he remained third in the overall points chase and still leads the race for Rookie of the Year, as his closest challenger, Zack Carley, was 22nd at Eriez.
Two Albany-Saratoga regulars picked up hefty paychecks last weekend. Ronnie Johnson walked out of Fonda Speedway with $4,444 after winning both the modified feature and the Rick Rudolph Memorial Dash, a tribute to one of Lou Lazzaro’s longtime crew members who passed away last year.
Brian Calabrese had the biggest payday of his career, earning $5,000 for his win in the C.J. Richards Memorial at Devil’s Bowl. Joey Scarborough finished second in that race.
Craig Wholey took a wild ride at Albany-Saratoga during the first sportsman heat last week. Going down the backstretch, Wholey appeared to jump a wheel on Dan Grignon’s car and at the same time, Michael Wagner Fitzgerald got into the rear of Wholey’s car, launching it into a series of barrel-rolls in the third turn. Wholey climbed out of the car on his own, but it’s been reported that he suffered a couple of fractured vertebrae in the incident. There’s a video on his Facebook page from his in-car camara.
Jeremy Pitts was back at Malta last week after missing more than a month, waiting for his motor to be rebuilt. He was subbing for James Meehan last week and proved to be a good substitute, coming from his 28th starting position to finish 14th.
Scott Bennett Jr. was rightfully emotional in victory lane after recording the first sportsman win of his career. “I cannot say enough about my crew. They’ve stuck with me if I drive like crap or drive it good. It wasn’t part of my plan to do this (give a victory lane speech) tonight. I never thought I would be here. This is wild.”
Mike Mahaney has moved to the top of the Albany-Saratoga modified point standings with 520, two ahead of Britten. Marc Johnson went into last Friday’s action at Malta with the point lead, but was involved in a wreck in the feature, finished 27th and now sits third in points, but just 13 out of the top spot.
The modifieds will be competing for $4,000 to win Friday through sponsorship from John Ray & Sons. The CRSA sprints are also on the card.
AROUND THE TRACKS
Congratulations to my old friend Brian Ross, who earned a spot on the list of the 40 greatest drivers in the history of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. The Whelen Modified Tour is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its modern era (it was called the Winston Modified Tour when it was founded), which began in 1985. Ross won seven NASCAR Modified Tour races, including the Spring Sizzler at Stafford in 1986, in his first five seasons as a full-time competitor. His best season was 1988, when he won three tour races and finished third in points. He stepped away from racing in 1990, but returned 10 years later and at the age of 55, competed in six more Modified Tour events.
Otto Sitterly, who began his racing career in the old GT division at Albany-Saratoga, won the 75-lap Mr. Supermodified feature at Oswego Speedway last weekend, picking up a check for $10,000, Sitterly, who won the pole position in time trials, tied Mike Ordway Sr.’s track record with his sixth Mr. Supermodified victory.
Drivers should reconsider their post-race celebrations after watching Connor Zilisch’s incident following his Xfinity Series win at Watkins Glen last weekend. Zilisch was standing with one foot on the door frame and one on the roof when he slipped. His foot became tangled in the window net and he fell to the ground headfirst, breaking his collarbone.
Chip Constantino and Andrew Buff won the double 358 modified features at Glen Ridge Motorsports last Sunday. Taylor Wason outran Tim Hartman Jr. in the CDRA sportsman feature, which drew just eight cars.
Hartman Jr. chalked up his seventh sportsman win of the year at Lebanon Valley on Saturday, passing Mike Sabia on the final lap.
The Super DIRTcar Series was back in action this week. Anthony Perrego won Monday night’s race at Sharon Speedway in Ohio, taking home $10,000 and a guaranteed starting spot at Oswego during Super DIRT Week. He led all 75 laps. Mat Williamson won Tuesday night’s race at Ransomville, which paid $7,500 to win. Williamson had wrecked his primary car when his throttle stuck during hot laps and had go to a backup car for the feature.
Mahaney had the best runs among the Malta regulars, finishing fifth on Monday and sixth on Tuesday. Britten was fifth at Ransomville on Tuesday. Jack Lehner had a top-10 finish at Sharon, finishing eighth.
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