~ By Tom Boggie

When I was waiting for Marc Johnson to finish posing for pictures in victory lane after his modified win at Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Friday, I happened to look over at his crew chief, John “Apples” Albanese, who was wearing a big smile.

“Thought you were going to have to write another ‘second sucks’ story,” he said to me, and we had a good laugh.

It’s become a running joke. If Johnson finishes second in a modified feature, I don’t even bother heading down to his trailer to get a comment. It’s always the same. Second sucks.

He had been down that road three times this season, and I wasn’t looking forward to a fourth. But he made my job easier when he passed Rocky Warner coming out of the fourth turn on the last lap last Friday to finally get his first modified win of the year.

Anyone who watches races at Malta knows that Johnson loves to hug the inside, and that’s where he stayed last Friday, He nearly lost the race when he came up on the slower car driven by Brian Calabrese with two laps to go and had to guess which lane to take, but with Warner sliding up a little more in the fourth turn on each lap, Johnson was able to come away with his 28^th career modified win, which puts him 10^th on the all-time win list.

“It was tough to stay on the bottom,” said Johnson, whose last winless season at Malta was 2015. “You really had to be disciplined, and I messed up a couple of times. But thanks to Lyle (promoter Lyle DeVore) for getting this place back to where it should be. He’s been working his ass off.”

Johnson downplayed his temporary problem with Calabrese. “He was in Rocky’s way, too,” Johnson said. “We had to overcome the same obstacle.

“I thought I made the wrong tire choice,” Johnson added. “I really didn’t think I had a chance to win. I don’t think I got any faster. They just came back to me.

“We’ve been close a lot of times this year. It (his winless streak) hasn’t been a lack of horsepower. It’s just been a tough year. I forgot to thank Jaime Scott (in the post-race interview on the front stretch). He’s really helped us out in the shop this year. I really think things will be different next year. At least I hope they are.”

Although Johnson picking up his first win of the season was a good story, a better one would have been Warner showing up at Malta and stealing a win. The last time Warner raced at Malta was Sept. 24, 2021, when he finished eighth in the Fall Foliage 358 Spectacular.

Warner, part of a long line of drivers and crew members who have come out of Johnstown, has a great sense of humor and thrives on sarcasm. When I asked him what happened on the last lap, he said, “I would have felt bad if I took it away from Marc,” he said. “Besides, it probably would have put me in a different tax bracket.”

It was nice to see the “Flying Squirrel” hasn’t changed in the years since he left Malta. He was the sportsman champion at Albany-Saratoga in 2017 for car owner Jake Spraker and then moved up to modifieds, getting his first (and only) career win in the top division on June 26, 2019.

In those days, it wasn’t uncommon to see Spraker sitting in a chair next to Mike Romano’s speed truck trailer, looking at his watch and wondering if Warner was going to show up on time.

And guess what? He was late again last Friday.

“We had been planning on coming here all week, but we had a lot to do to the car,” he said. “We swapped motors and then had to scale it with Hoosiers. We didn’t even leave Johnstown until 5 o’clock, so we didn’t get here for warmups or anything. When Brian (Calabrese) went by my shop at 3 on his way to the track, we didn’t even have a body on this yet.”

Warner was in a new Jason Simmons Racing-owned car last Friday, the first step in getting it prepared for Super DIRT Week in Oswego in October. I would say that the package he ran on Friday was a darn good one.

“I felt so good in (turns) one and two,” he said. “In three and four, I was losing the entry a little bit, I think it was my lack of set-up experience. I didn’t run here for three or four years.”

Johnson became the 14^th different modified feature winner at Malta this season. That number includes the DiCarlo Auto Parts 358 Series, because those winners (Felix Roy, Matt DeLorenzo and Mike Mahaney) also earned wins in the big block division. The record for individual winners is 16, set in 2021. That number was inflated by first-time victories by Jeremy Pitts, Jack Lehner, James Meehan and Adam Pierson.

MORE FROM MALTA

Pete Stefanski had a great season at Malta in 2025, winning his first pro stock championship, but his year got even better last Friday, when he walked out with the top prize of $10,064 in the 60-lap Autism Acceptance race, which was promoted by fellow racer Jordan Modiano.

“We were really loose and I didn’t think I was going anywhere,” said Stefanski, who started fourth. “Chris (Stalker) was hugging the bottom, but then I got stuck on the outside on that last restart, and the car came in and just took off for the last 10 laps or so.”

After the last restart on lap 48, Stefanski started to run the middle and passed leader Rich Crane coming out of the fourth turn on lap 51.

If there was a hard-luck award, Stalker deserved it. The pole position was awarded through a charity auction prior to the race. A table was set up behind the grandstands and fans, teams and supporters could make donations in the name of their favorite driver. The driver with the most donations was awarded the pole, which went to Stalker, who had a total of $1,930 in donations.

Stalker lost the lead to Crane after a restart on lap 46, and it soon became apparent why. Stalker had a flat left front tire and could no longer stay with the lead pack, dropping to 10^th in the final running order.

Crane was looking for his second Autism Acceptance race victory, but ran into some problems of his own. “I boiled the brakes,” he said after the race. “The pedal was going to the floor and I thought, that’s no good. I honestly thought Chris was going to hold us off on the bottom.”

Also finding themselves on the hard-luck list were two Malta regulars, Kim Duell and Jason Casey. Duell, who looked strong in his heat race, started seventh but grenaded his motor on the 46^th lap. Casey didn’t even get to the feature. Forced to compete in the 25-lap B main, he was sitting in third place and had a qualifying spot when he tangled with the lapped car of Kayleigh Gates in the third turn late in the race, getting a flat tire. He came back out to finish seventh, missing transferring by one spot. Ironically, that spot was occupied by his father, Jay.

Congratulations to Tim Hartman Jr. for notching his 50^th career sportsman win at Malta last Friday. That brings his career win total to 120.

Friday night’s card at Malta is the John Grady Memorial Nostalgia Night, presented by Chris Grady, with increased payoffs in all divisions. The modifieds will compete over 43 laps for $4,300 to win. Because of the loaded racing card, there will again be a 6:45 starting time.

Here’s a little nugget from Friday night’s race that is interesting, but really irrelevant. Last Friday, many of the top drivers at Malta, including champion Mike Mahaney, Peter Britten and Lehner, were racing in a Super DIRTcar Series race at Can-Am Speedway, which may or may not have played a role in Johnson ending his winless streak. When Pitts picked up his first career win at Malta in 2021, many of the top drivers, including Johnson, were racing on the dirt at Bristol.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Last Sunday at Orange County Speedway, Lehner finished third, after starting 11^th, in the Championship Night modified feature and won the track championship in the process. The championship also guaranteed Lehner the seventh starting spot in the Eastern States 200, if he doesn’t lock down a top-six spot. Dom Roselli, who had won the first two races of the five-race campaign at the Middletown track, started on the pole but early in the race, caught a rut and spun in front of the field, damaging his car. He only finished 19^th, allowing Lehner to come away with the championship. In his four starts, Lehner finished second, fourth, sixth and third. Dylan Madsen, who gets a lot of set-up help from Lehner, won the sportsman feature.

Roy had a big night on Thursday, winning both the big block and 358 races at Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh. Mahaney finished fourth in the big blocks and third in the small blocks, while Jack Speshock made a rare trip to Plattsburgh and finished sixth in the big blocks.

Glen Ridge Motorsports Park will bring down the curtain on its 2025 season Sunday with the Mini-Sprint Bash. There will be four different mini-sprint features, with each one paying $1,000 to win, based on a full field of 24 entrants.

Demetrios Drellos was racing his late model in West Virginia last weekend, finishing eighth at Winchester Speedway. That finish moved him back to third place in the overall point standings and increased his lead in the Rookie of the Year standings to 17. The RUSH Series is off until Oct. 3-4, so Drellos should be back at Malta for the next couple of weeks.