Malta, NY – The previous week it looked like Matt Delorenzo was really enjoying himself — he was extremely fast as he rim rode the top of the speedway.  But a broken torque arm left him in the pits on two occasions with flat tires.  Well, Delorenzo came back this week and the story was exactly the same, except this time he placed the Recovery Sports sponsored automobile in victory lane for his first win this season at Albany Saratoga Speedway.

Delorenzo was given the seventh place starting position when the 35 lap feature event got rolling.  And by lap six he was already in the race lead. With the event going caution free for a good stretch (lap 25) it allowed Delorenzo a good sized lead with a buffer of lapped cars behind him. However, a lap 29 yellow would change all that — it wouldn’t matter — Delorenzo was too strong again this week.

Marc Johnson, who has been experiencing a great season this year, came from 11^th to chase Delorenzo down.

“Marc was real good and he runs on the low side,” said Delorenzo.  “I thought I was a little faster through three and four but I saw his nose and I figured I got to go to the bottom and he’s going to have to go around me.”

Kenny Tremont, Jeff Trombley and Brett Hearn rounded out the top five.  Tremont, Johnson, Rich Ronca and Trombley spent a good portion of the race exchanging positions.

The 25 lap Sportsman feature started out with Joe Orlando jumping right into the lead from his outside front row start, but he didn’t enjoy the view from the front for long, because Jack Gentile was reeling him in on lap seven.  Five more times around and Gentile was leaving very little room between the two cars.  The next time around Gentile owned it but for only two circuits.  On lap 16 the weather took a big turn with wind gusts making the pit area look like a dust bowl and then the skies opened up.  The race was called.

Unfortunately Gentile, who has five former wins under the CVRA helm, didn’t get to celebrate his first win of the season as folks were running for cover.  Gentile’s last win at the ‘Great Race Place’ came back on May 23, 2009.

Orlando, Mike Burdo, Dave Baranowski, Jr. and point leader Jeremy Pitts rounded out the top five.

Due to division domination by Rob Yetman, many are still in search of their first wins of the season in the Pro Stock ranks.  Dean Charbonneau, Cale Kneer, Brandon Emigh and Byron Wescott entertained the fans swapping spots back and forth but Yetman wasn’t far behind them.  By the 11^th time around the Lazzaro Auto Body sponsored car of Yetman’s was already claiming stake on the third place slot.

You could throw a blanket over the top three with Wescott and Charbonneau swapping the lead a few times before Yetman took them both in one clean sweep to take his sixth win of the 2013 season.  It was also Yetman’s 100^th career victory.  Pretty impressive.

“In the beginning [of the race] it seems like I need that first caution for the car to come around but once it comes around boy look out,” laughed Yetman during post race ceremonies of the $500 to win Warrior Series event.

Wescott, Charbonneau, three time winner Kenny Martin and Kim Duell rounded out the top five.

Paul Braymer took off from his fourth place starting position to the front at the start of the 20 lap Street Stock feature event.  And he never looked back despite all kinds of position swapping going on behind him.  When Braymer crossed the finish line he had a several car lead over the rest of the field.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said an elated Braymer in victory lane.  “I’ve got to thank my father-in-law who did the set-up.”

Braymer didn’t realize that Bill Duprey, who’s seen great runs turn into bad ones the last few weeks, was right behind him for the final five times around the Malta oval.  Duprey (also winless this season) held on for an impressive runner-up spot.  Ken Conroy, Scott Lawrence and Josh Coonradt rounded out the top five.

Stewart Friesen did double duty — in his regular Jake Spraker owned Modified and behind the wheel of a Midget for the night.  To the crowd’s delight Friesen took the win coming down for the checkered flag in the 15 lap feature event.

“Yeah, that was a lot of fun,” said Friesen after exiting the midget.  “What a great group of guys to race with — the track is super racy and they are quick little cars, we had a ball.”

The Vintage Mods brought back some memories to the older folk.  The 10 car field displayed some restored automobiles of some greats of the past.  Ray See Jr. picked up the win in that feature event.

“We made some changes after hot laps — we pulled some gear out of it and the car really came out good,” said See.  “It’s really fun, I probably haven’t been here in about 10 years and the last time I was here I was racing a Pro Stock.”

The Novice Sportsman feature event was scheduled last on the night’s racing card so they will run that event next week.

Things…   The heat index in the Saratoga area was 105 degrees for Friday’s racing event — it was hot… Wrestler Buff ‘The Stuff’ Bagwell was on hand signing autographs for the fans…  Joe Orlando had a comfortable lead in his Sportsman qualifying event, backing that up with a good run in the main event…  it was the first visit for the USAC Midgets at the speedway, the group was originally scheduled earlier this season but rain played havoc on their visit…  Dave Emigh was behind the wheel of a Novice Sportsman mount again this week instead of a Pro Stock automobile… Midget racer, Denny Zimmerman, had to leave the Malta location not liking the second turn.  Zimmerman turned it over during his qualifying event and then had issues again in that same turn during the club’s feature event… Brett Hearn was the fastest in hot laps prior to the feature event… opening night Street Stock winner, Matt Mosher, went pitside before any laps were recorded on the 20 lap main event…

Points Peek… A look at the points after last Friday night…

Modifieds:  Hearn 506, Tremont 470,  M. Johnson 466, Delorenzo 450, Friesen 430

Sportsman:  Pitts 480, Tholin 444, McGrew 442, Duell 405, Bleau 393

Novice Sportsman: Murray 438,  Edwards 381, Davis 374, Potter 360, Lindeblade 356

Pro Stocks:  Yetman 538, Martin 480, Older 446,  Westcott 432, Kneer 416

Street Stocks: Lawrence 194, Duprey 191, Conroy 186, Coonradt 162, Miller 153

Modified Results (35 Laps) – 1) Matt Delorenzo, 2) Marc Johnson, 3) Ken
Tremont Jr, 4) Jeff Trombley, 5) Brett Hearn, 6) Jeremy Wilder, 7) Don Ronca,
8) Stewart Friesen, 9) Keith Flach, 10) Peter Britten, 11) Bodie Bellinger, 12)
Ronnie Johnson, 13) Rich Ronca, 14) Matt Depew, 15) Jimmy Cottrell, 16) Chris Busta,
17) Pep Corradi, 18) Brian Gleason, 19) Rob Pitcher, 20) Neil Stratton, 21) Jamike
Sowle, 22) Rocky Warner, 23) Ray Hoard, 24) Floyd Billington, 25) Mark Kislowski,
DNS) John Lutes Jr., DNS) Rich Scagliotta

Sportsman Results (25 Laps) – 1) Jack Gentile, 2) Joe Orlando, 3) Mike Burdo, 4) Dave
Baranowski Jr, 5) Jeremy Pitts, 6) Jack Speshock, 7) Brett Wright, 8) Stan Lemiesz,
9) Joey Scarborough, 10) Derek McGrew, 11) Jack Swinton, 12) Nick Anatriello,
13) Robert Bublak, 14) Mike Tholin, 15) Dan Boni, 16) Andy Durie, 17) Connor
Cleveland, 18) Jon Miller, 19) Mike Ostrander, 20) Mike Jeske, 21) Scott Duell,
22) Cody Bleau, 23) Elliott Lussier, 24) Jim Osgood, 25) Paul Dunham, 26) Jake
Scarborough, 27) Leo Sousie, 28) Frank Hoard III, 29) Tony Ballestero, DNQ) Dan
Santabarbara, DNQ) Luke Klob, DNQ) Nick Lussier, DNQ) Justin Barber, DNQ) Butch
Wilcox

Novice Sportsman Results (12 Laps) – Postponed Until Next Friday July 26.

Pro Stock Results (25 Laps) – 1) Rob Yetman, 2) Byron Wescott, 3) Dean Charbonneau,
4) Ken Martin, 5) Kim Duell, 6) Dan Older, 7) Bill Smith, 8) Brandon Emigh, 9)
Cale Kneer, 10) Cole Lawton, 11) Dave Depaulo, 12) Jeff Washburn, DNS) Pat Cram

Street Stock Results (20 Laps) – 1) Paul Braymer, 2) Bill Duprey, 3) Ken Conroy, 4) Scott
Lawrence, 5) Josh Coonradt, 6) Randy Miller, 7) Jody Thew, 8) Yule Cook, 9) Justin
Smith, 10) Chase Aussicker, 11) Damon Anderson, 12) John Hayes, 13) Dave Stickles,
14) Ben Newsome, 15) David Shippee, 16) Tyler Michel, 17) Matt Mosher