Malta, NY — Mike Sowle, of Sowle Trailer Repair, changed the format at Albany Saratoga Speedway on Friday.  A frequent supporter of auto racing in the Capital District area, Sowle wanted to see three $2,000 to win 20-lap features for the Modified boys, and he put his money on the table to make it happen as he sponsored the event.

From the drop of the green silk in the first 20 lap feature Jimmy Cottrell was fast from his starting spot on the outside of the front row.  Cottrell was smooth and fast in search of his first win of the 2013 season.  But on a lap nine restart Jamike Sowle took the race lead and went on to his second win this year.

“Yeah, this is nice, the car was running great tonight,” said Sowle, regarding picking up some of dad’s cash.  “I would like to thank all of my sponsors and crew for helping me to get here.”

Cottrell continued on in good fashion and followed Sowle across the finish line.  It was a feature where the young chauffeurs dominated — the top five consisting of young drivers of the future.  Nice runs being put on by Brian Gleason, Jeremy Wilder and past 2013 feature winner Bodie Bellinger.

In the second Modified feature event Don Ronca put his Fairways of Halfmoon sponsored automobile in the front, taking the race lead from Neil Stratton on the third time around the oval.  But Keith Flach wasn’t letting Ronca out of his sight.  Flach, who won on the Malta asphalt, was in search of his first dirt victory at the Malta oval.

“I want to thank all of the guys on the crew,” said Flach from victory lane.  “We had a little bit of a hard year and they keep coming back and working hard.”

A rare sighting in the seventh lap when Brett Hearn went up-and-over the birm, turning the car around and giving up his fourth place spot on the field.  The race was restarted and Flach took the lead from Ronca. Despite a hard charging Kenny Tremont and Marc Johnson, the third generation driver hung on and claimed ownership on the second-of-three feature events.

With five circuits remaining Marc Johnson took second place from 12 time point champion Ken Tremont.  Matt Delorenzo and Don Ronca rounded out the top five.

The start of the final 20-lap feature was filled with several caution laps.  When the event finally got underway, Stewart Friesen let Jimmy Cottrell lead briefly but on the second lap Friesen was already enjoying the view from the front.  At times Friesen was showing a full straight-a-way lead over the rest of the pack.

Friesen went on to secure his first win of the season in the Modified ranks.  Friesen took wins this season in both a midget and sprint car.

“I like the format tonight,” said Friesen.  “We’re not right up there in the points battle for the title so we were able to try some things out tonight.”

Cottrell put forth another successful run following Friesen across the line.  Ronnie Johnson, Marc Johnson, and Neil Stratton rounded out the top five.  Brian Gleason had a good run going but he went high and spun with only three laps remaining, giving over his third place spot.

All three runs were combined to compile the points for the night.  Jimmy Cottrell’s successful evening placed him on top of the combined totals with his second, 14^th, and second place runs.

The 25 lap Sportsman feature event went caution free and Mike Ostrander owned the entire event.  Ostrander had Mike Jeske and Jeremy Pitts putting on a show behind him, and he hit some heavy lapped traffic in the later stages of the event, but held on to take his first win this season.

“The car was really hooked up good tonight,” said Ostrander after securing his first career Sportsman win.  “I would like to thank Eddie Sears for letting me drive this car.”

In the final laps of the event Jeske lost a few spots turning over third place to Pitts who was followed by Brett Wright, Jeske, and Jon Miller.  Wright, who started eighth on the field, was getting stronger as the race progressed.

Despite having Jack Bublak all over his back bumper Pete Jeske led the Novice Sportsman event from the fifth circuit until the 12 lap race concluded.  It was Jeske’s first win of the season.

The 25 lap Pro Stock feature was a $500 to win Warrior Series event and was another that was tough to get going in the early stages.  Dean Charbonneau was the dominant factor in the race but as the race progressed so did the competition.  In the later stages of the event the top four were all over each other with previous winner Dan Older trying everything to get around Charbonneau.  On lap 16 Older found his way around and went on for his second win of the season.

Another good run by Kim Duell who took the runner-up spot during the intense late race battle.  Walt Brownell, Rob Yetman, and Ken Martin rounded out the top five.

Scott Lawrence appeared to have the 20 lap Street Stock feature covered.  Lawrence grabbed the race lead on lap 10 and was easily in control, but with five laps remaining race-leader Lawrence came to a stop on the frontstretch.  Second place runner David Shippee took the race lead and the win.

Things…   The night started out with last week’s feature winners being brought out for their time in the limelight since they were sent into the pits right after their wins last week due to time constraints…  Marc Johnson was the fastest in pre-race practice for the Modifieds…  Kenny Tremont pulled off the speedway from his hot lap session smoking pretty good…  Stewart Friesen behind the wheel of the Jeff Daley and Sons owned #44 that has brought Friesen to success at many locations…  Skip Shippee pushed up on the track and Jack Gentile went into the wall during his qualifying event. Gentile tried to drive it back into the pits but had to be hooked up to a tow vehicle to get there…  Brett Hearn must have missed the Malta oval (missing for an event at Ransomville Speedway the week before) because he was right on for his qualifying event as he went from last to first in 10 laps… If the Pro Stock heats are any sign of things to come we are in for an exciting feature event…  Brett Hearn was the fastest in hot laps prior to the start of the Triple 20’s…  Gentile looked to have things taken care of after his QE and he was easily leading the Sportsman Consolation event when it appeared something broke on the final circuit around the speedway and Gentile came to a stop on the backstretch…  Scary moment for Alissa Cody in the Novice feature, Cody’s car went over and started on fire.  The car burst into flames three times…

Also was a scary moment for Brandon Emigh after he hit the frontstretch wall on lap four of the Pro Stock feature.  Emigh got out of his vehicle, his knees buckled, and he went down on the track.  The safety crew tended to Emigh who was taken away in the ambulance…

Modified Results – Triple 20 #1 (20 Laps) – 1) JAMIKE SOWLE, 2) Jimmy Cottrell, 3) Brian Gleason, 4) Jeremy Wilder, 5) Bodie Bellinger, 6) Peter Britten, 7) Matt Delorenzo, 8) Brett Hearn, 9) Stewart Friesen, 10) Jeff Trombley, 11) Ken Tremont Jr, 12) Keith Flach, 13) Marc Johnson, 14) Don Ronca, 15) Neil Stratton, 16) Mike Perrotte 17) Chris Busta, 18) Mark Kislowski, 19) Matt Depew, 20) Ronnie Johnson, 21) Justin Boehler, 22) Rob Pitcher, 23) Joey Scarborough, 24) Nick Hotaling, 25) Wayne Figler, 26) Rich Ronca, 27) Dylan Scribner 28) C.G. Morey, DNS) Hector Stratton

Modified Results – Triple 20 #2 (20 Laps) – 1) KEITH FLACH, 2) Marc Johnson, 3) Ken Tremont Jr, 4) Matt Delorenzo, 5) Don Ronca, 6) Peter Britten, 7) Jeff Trombley, 8) Neil Stratton, 9) Brian Gleason, 10) Bodie Bellinger, 11) Mark Kislowski, 12) Ronnie Johnson, 13) Stewart Friesen, 14) Jimmy Cottrell, 15) Jamike Sowle, 16) Brett Hearn, 17) Justin Boehler, 18) Rich Ronca, 19) C.G. Morey, 20) Matt Depew, 21) Chris Busta, 22) Jeremy Wilder, 23) Rob Pitcher, 24) Wayne Figler, 25) Nick Hotaling, 26) Dylan Scribner 27) Joey Scarborough, 28) Mike Perrotte DNS) Hector Stratton

Modified Results – Triple 20 #3 (20 Laps) – 1) STEWART FRIESEN, 2) Jimmy Cottrell, 3) Ronnie Johnson, 4) Marc Johnson, 5) Neil Stratton, 6) Bodie Bellinger, 7) Jeff Trombley, 8) Mark Kislowski, 9) Don Ronca, 10) Brett Hearn, 11) Matt Delorenzo, 12) Peter Britten, 13) Jamike Sowle, 14) Keith Flach, 15) Ken Tremont Jr, 16) Matt Depew, 17) Jeremy Wilder, 18) Mike Perrotte, 19) Brian Gleason, 20) C.G. Morey, 21) Joey Scarborough, 22) Rob Pitcher, 23) Justin Boehler, 24) Wayne Figler, 25) Nick Hotaling, 26) Rich Ronca, 27) Chris Busta, 28) Dylan Scribner DNS) Hector Stratton

Modified Results – Triple 20’s Combined – 1) Jimmy Cottrell, 2) Marc Johnson, 3) Bodie Bellinger, 4) Stewart Friesen, 5) Matt Delorenzo, 6) Peter Britten, 7) Jeff Trombley, 8) Keith Flach, 9) Jamike Sowle, 10) Don Ronca, 11) Neil Stratton, 12) Ken Tremont Jr, 13) Brian Gleason, 14) Ronnie Johnson, 15) Brett Hearn, 16) Mark Kislowski, 17) Jeremy Wilder, 18) Matt Depew, 19) Mike Perrotte 20) Justin Boehler, 21) Chris Busta, 22) C.G. Morey, 23) Rich Ronca, 24) Rob Pitcher, 25) Joey Scarborough, 26) Wayne Figler, 27) Nick Hotaling, 28) Dylan Scribner DNS) Hector Stratton

Sportsman Results (25 Laps) – 1) MIKE OSTRANDER, 2) Jeremy Pitts, 3) Brett Wright, 4) Mike Jeske, 5) Jon Miller, 6) Elliott Lussier, 7) Cody Bleau, 8) Tony Ballestero, 9) Derek McGrew, 10) Joey Scarborough, 11) Joe Orlando, 12) Andy Durie, 13) Dave Baranowski Jr, 14) Matt Pappa, 15) Scott Duell, 16) Jack Speshock, 17) Frank Hoard III, 18) Nick Anatriello, 19) Paul Dunham, 20) Jack Swinton, 21) Nick Lussier, 22) Leo Sousie, 23) Connor Cleveland, 24) Luke Klob, 25) Mike Burdo, 26) Skip Shippee, 27) Justin Barber, 28) Robert Bublak, DNS) Jack Gentile, DNS) Jim Osgood, DNS) Stan Lemiesz

Novice Sportsman Results (12 Laps) – 1) PETE JESKE, 2) Jack Bublak, 3) Timothy Davis, 4) David Emigh, 5) Ricky Davis, 6) Chris Murray, 7) Jake Zak, 8) Wally Potter, 9) John Linblade, 10) Christopher Ronca, 11) Mike Minick, 12) Brandon Pitcher, 13) Collin Clow, 14) Colin Bokus, 15) Rob Maxon, 16) Jesse Edwards, 17) Randall Sousie, 18) Alissa Cody, DNS) Zach Daurio

Pro Stock Results (25 Laps) – 1) DAN OLDER, 2) Kim Duell, 3) Walt Brownell, 4) Rob Yetman, 5) Ken Martin, 6) Dean Charbonneau, 7) Bernie Companion, 8) Byron Wescott, 9) Cale Kneer, 10) Chuck Towslee, 11) Jeff McPjail 12) Jeff Washburn, 13) Bill Smith, 14) Kevin VanChance, 15) Ed Thompson, 16) Dave Depaulo, 17) Brandon Emigh

Pro Stock AIM Warrior Points (Top 10) – 1) Dan Older 158, 2) Ken Martin 158, 3) Byron Wescott 144, 4) Kim Duell 136, 5) Dean Charbonneau 136, 6) Bill Smith 132, 7) Cale Kneer 120, 8) Brandon Emigh 116, 9) Dave Depaulo 113, 10) Rob Yetman 110

Street Stock Results (20 Laps) – 1)  DAVID SHIPPEE, 2) Damon Anderson, 3) Bill Duprey, 4) Rowdy Burch, 5) Al Relyea, 6) Nathan Dahoda, 7) Justin Smith, 8) Randy Miller, 9) Josh Coonradt, 10) Chase Aussicker, 11) Matt Mosher, 12) Jody Thew, 13) John Hayes, 14) Fred Harris, 15) Mark Casey, 16) Tim Thompson, 17) Ken Conroy, 18) Yule Cook, 19) Curt Condon, 20) Scott Lawrence, 21) Paul Braymer, 22) Jason Barret