~ By Tom Boggie

Marc Johnson must have felt like a bumper in a pinball machine last Friday night at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

Every time he turned around, someone was bouncing off him.

The first incident cost him a shot at his first modified win of the season. The second was more costly, in a monetary sense.

But, as everyone likes to say, that’s racing.

In the modified feature, Johnson was battling with Matt DeLorenzo for the win. With five laps to go, they went into the second turn, with Johnson on the outside. DeLorenzo drifted up, made enough contact that Johnson had to “burb the throttle,” according to track announcer Dan Martin, and DeLorenzo pulled away for his second consecutive victory.

There was no question that there was contact. DeLorenzo admitted it after the race.

“On these slick tracks, there’s not a lot of grip and you have to use every bit of the track,” DeLorenzo said. “That’s racin’. I just wanted to take his lane away. I’m sure he wasn’t happy. He showed me that under the last caution (when Johnson banged into the rear of DeLorenzo’s car).”

As I walked into the pits after the feature, Johnson was standing next to his car across from the scales, waiting for officials to do some type of inspection. As I approached him, it was like he was already reading my mind.

“He’s got one coming,” he said to me as soon as I mentioned the incident in the second turn.

The second incident came later in the night, in the second leg of the DiCarlo Auto Body 358 Shootout Series. Johnson was running seventh when two consecutive cautions came out on lap 10, creating a single-file restart (how much trouble can you get into on a single-file restart?)

As the lead group came out of the second turn, Mike Mahaney and David Schilling were battling for position, with Mahaney on the outside. Heading down the backstretch, Schilling, protecting his line, moved up a little bit on the track, making contact with Mahaney. Mahaney dipped off the backstretch, and came back on, right in the path of Johnson, who had been following Mahaney on the outside. Johnson slammed into Mahaney’s car, spun around and then was hit by both Neil Stratton and Andrew Buff before coming to a stop, with a lot of front-end damage.

Everyone knows that dirt track racing is a contact sport, but you can bet that Marc Johnson’s blood pressure was pretty high after Friday night’s racing.

MORE FROM MALTA

Pete Stefanski, who was riding a three-race win in the pro stock division, was a no-show last Friday, but he had a good reason. His oldest daughter was getting married on Saturday. Phil Diflglio acted as Stefanski’s substitute driver, with Difiglio driving his own car. He finished 14^th in the 15-car field.

You have to be a long-time Malta fan to remember one of Difiglio’s best seasons. In 2007, when he was running mini-stocks (four-cylinders), he won 15 features, including one string of 13 in a row.

Nick Arnold broke a long winless streak when he took the checkered flag in the 20-lap limited sportsman feature, which paid $500 to win through sponsorship from Burch Motors. Arnold’s last win came on Aug. 18, 2023. His win Friday kicked off a great night for the Arnold family, as his sister Sarah finished fifth, her best career finish in the limiteds. Nick Arnold began racing in the pro stock division in 2015, and although he never won a pro stock feature at Malta, he did win the King of Dirt Series Newcomer of the Year award in 2018. Nick now has three limited sportsman victories, one more than the other Arnold sibling, Phil, who has two.

Tim Hartman Jr. wasn’t real pleased with track officials Friday. Hartman Jr. started 16^th in the sportsman feature, which got off to a slow start, with the first caution coming out before the first lap was completed. That should have put the cars back in the original starting order, with the exception of the cars of Dan Grignon, who had spun in the third turn and Craig Wholey, who got caught up in the incident.

But after a lot of checking and double-checking, officials ruled that Hartman Jr. had also been involved and was also put to the rear. Earlier this week, I still wasn’t sure about the incident, so I watched the Dirt Track Digest TV replay of Friday night’s racing (George Smith loves it when he gets some of my money). From my standpoint, it looked like Hartman Jr. slowed down, pulled to the outside and never had any contact with Grogan or Wholey.

On Saturday morning, Hartman Jr. posted on his Facebook page, “Started 16^th, got sent to the rear after a wreck even though I had ZERO contact in the incident and never stopped, climbed back up to sixth by the end.”

DOUBLING UP

When it looked like DeLorenzo might win both the big block modified and 358 modified features on Friday, I began to wonder how many drivers had won two features on the same night.

The number was higher than I imagined, but when I thought about it a little more, I really wasn’t surprised, because there have been a lot of double-feature nights in the past.

The only driver to win in two different divisions, however, was Jack Johnson. In 1991, he drove his own car to victory in the big block feature and then drove Mike Budka’s B&H Auto 64 to a win in the feature for CVRA modifieds.

I’m still not sure what to do with the Shootout ’81. On that night, C.J. Richards ran Triple 50s, with the winner being determined by the best overall finish. Billy Pauch won one of the Triple 50s, but finished second overall in the Shootout to Kenny Brightbill. But Pauch’s overall win total includes that victory in the 50-lapper, because, even though no money was paid out, they were still running for points to determine a winner. Pauch also won the sportsman race held on the Shootout ’81 undercard, so I guess he and Jumpin’ Jack deserve to be on the same short list.

Modified drivers who have won double features over the years include Lou Lazzaro, Mert Hulbert, Eddie Delmolino, Bob Savoie, Billy Decker and Brett Hearn.

Matt Depew deserves some kudos for his eighth-place finish in the modified feature last Friday. Plagued by engine problems, Depew hadn’t even started a feature so far in 2025. He’s still looking for his second career win at Albany-Saratoga. He’s actually been to victory lane twice already, but the first time, on Sept. 7, 2012, was a feature for non-winners. His only regular-season win came on July 17, 2015.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Stewart Friesen recorded the 50^th Super DIRTcar Series win of his career Wednesday night at Selinsgrove. That race was marred by a bad accident on a restart on lap 12. Ryan Godown, who had won the SDS race Tuesday night at Big Diamond, and Matt Sheppard came together on the restart, with Sheppard slamming into the outside wall and both cars flipping down the front straightaway. When the dust settled, 13 cars were involved, including Mahaney and Jack Lehner. Defending Malta champion Peter Britten wound up sixth, with Lehner coming back for eighth and Mahaney ninth.

Friesen finished 22^nd at Big Diamond, the victim of mechanical issues. Last weekend, he finished 21st in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Nashville. He had to start at the rear of the field after being forced to switch engines after practice.

I’m not even going to get into who’s doing what this weekend. The way the weather has been, who knows if anyone will even race? If you plan on going to Malta or Glen Ridge or wherever, check their Facebook pages before heading out.