MALTA – Mike Mahaney has had a lot of frustrating nights at Albany-Saratoga Speedway this season.

Friday wasn’t one of them.

On a night when everything was decent, from his race car to his starting position, Mahaney ended it in spectacular fashion, chalking up his first victory of the season in the 32-lap modified feature that highlighted the annual Stan Da’ Man Night at the historic Malta track.

The night was a tribute to the late father of promoter Lyle DeVore. Stan DeVore, who passed away in 2016, was a custom car enthusiast and his favorite car was a yellow 1932 Ford. So the theme for the night was the number 32, which meant that Mahaney earned $3,200 for his victory.

His win also brought a smile to the face of car owner George Huttig, who has been fielding cars at Albany-Saratoga since the mid-1980s. “That’s what a race car should look like,” laughed Huttig, pointing to the Adirondack Auto-sponsored car than had more wrinkles in it than a shar pei. “They shouldn’t be pretty. They should look like they’ve been raced. This reminded me of the old CVRA days, when you just ran against the cushion and hung on.”

“We didn’t have the best car,” said Mahaney. “But I had a better starting position than I usually have. I started 10^th and that was good enough to get us up there.”

In the beginning of the 32-lap feature, all eyes were on defending champion Demetrios Drellos, who hadn’t finished a feature in three weeks and as a result, was starting sixth in the 30-car field. He worked his way up to second after just seven laps, and when the first caution came out on lap 14 to bunch the field, he rocketed by early leader Ronnie Johnson on lap 17 to take the lead.

Mahaney started to make his presence felt after another caution, this one on lap 21, when Johnson and Jack Speshock, who was battling for the No. 2 spot, made contact between the third and fourth turns, with Speshock spinning around.

Mahaney took over third on the restart and ducked under Johnson for second on lap 22.

Two more cautions prevented Mahaney, who was running the extreme outside, from building any momentum, but on another restart, on lap 24, he got a great jump out of turn four, blew past Drellos coming down the front straightaway, and then cleared the leader coming out of the second turn to snatch the lead away.

And that’s where he stayed, rim-riding the rest of the way, finishing with a comfortable cushion over Drellos and Marc Johnson, who got up for third.

“I couldn’t use the middle or the bottom much,” Mahaney explained. “So the top was my only option. The curb was tall and challenging, and I think it scared some people away, so it was still there until the end.”

Robert Bublak Jr. and Jack Lehner, who was looking for his second straight win, completed the top five.

The modifieds heats each paid $320 to win, courtesy of Grady Racing Photos. Those bonuses went to Scott Huber, Ronnie Johnson and Speshock. Speshock also won the Four States Enterprises Dash for Cash, pocketing another $320.

Zach Buff recorded his first victory of the season in the 32-lap “Flying Trowel” sportsman feature, which paid $1,320 to win. Buff started on the pole and had to survive a number of restarts to get the win. Defending champion and current points leader Tim Hartman Jr. worked his way to the front from his 15^th starting position and took over the No. 2 spot with three laps left, but he never got a decent shot at Buff, who had a 1.4 second margin of victory. Chris Jakubiak finished third, his best finish since opening night.

Rich Crane walked off with a $1,320 payday, thanks to Ron Mensing’s Native Pride program, after recording his first win of the 2024 campaign in the 25-lap pro stock feature. Crane got under early leader Shane Henderson to take the lead on lap seven, and then had to hold off a persistent Brandon Emigh, who hounded him for the second half of the race. Scott Duell, back behind the wheel of a pro stock for the first time in about 10 years, drove one of his father Kim’s cars to a third-place finish.

Steve Burch reached a milestone in his career, coming away with his first career victory in the limited sportsman division. Burch got the lead in the 20-lap feature on a restart on lap seven and then got a big break with two laps remaining, when back-to-back cautions created a single-file restart, which allowed him to hold off Dakota Green.

Burch earned $500 for the win, through sponsorship from Gary and Patricia Van Alstyne.

Matt Mosher ended a long winless drought by winning the 20-lap street stock feature, which paid $320 to win through sponsorship by Burt’s Tree Service. Mosher, who started third, had the lead after the first lap and stayed out front in the caution-free feature, surviving a late charge from points leader Chris Stalker. Mosher hugged the inside coming out of the fourth turn on the final lap and beat Stalker to the finish line by half-a-car length.

The four-cylinders had extra incentive Friday, as both the single and dual cam divisions were racing for $375 to win, courtesy of Glenville Funeral Home, one of the track’s newest sponsors. Slappy White, making a rare appearance at Albany-Saratoga, won the 15-lap feature, while Kyle Lanfear finished second overall and had the first single-cam car across the finish line, Lanfear also ran his winning streak to a perfect 7-for-7.

STAN DA’ MAN NIGHT NAPA MODIFIEDS: MIKE MAHANEY, Demetrios Drellos, Marc Johnson, Robert Bublak Jr., Jack Lehner, Ronnie Johnson, Peter Britten, Matt DeLorenzo, David Schilling, Scott Huber, Brian Calabrese, Neil Stratton, Kolby Schroder, Don Ronca, Jessey Mueller, Garrett Poland, Brendan Darrah, Derek Bornt, Josh Masterson, Matt Depew, Jack Speshock, James Meehan, Justin Stone, Chris Bisson, Ryan McCartney, Todd Ryan, Tom D’Angelo, Eric Mack, CG Morey, Rich Ronca.

DOUG WHOLEY’S IDEAL EXCAVATING SPORTSMAN FLYING TROWEL 32: ZACH BUFF, Tim Hartman Jr., Chris Jakubiak, Dylan Madsen, Dylan Grogan, Brendon Gibbons, Mike Benson, Travis Witbeck, Dave Baranowski Jr., Pat Jones, Mike Coffey Jr., Michael Wagner Fitzgerald, Taylor LaPlante, Chris Crane Jr., Dan Grignon, Scott Duell, Scott Towslee, Drew Cormie, Fire Swamp, Elliot Lussier, Jeff Washburn, Craig Wholey, Mike Ballestero, Alex Palmer-Sawyer, Tyler Rapp, Connor Crane, Scott Bennett, Taylor Wason, Jon Miller, Daryl Nutting. Cody Ochs.

SARATOGA MASONRY SUPPLY PRO STOCKS: RICH CRANE, Brandon Emigh, Scott Duell, Jason Casey, Beau Ballard, Kyle Hoard, Kim Duell, Caden Dumblewski, Jay Fitzgerald, Chucky Dumblewski, Pete Stefanski, Shane Henderson, Jordan Modiano, Rob Yetman, Slater Baker, Chris Wemple.

HAUN WELDING LIMITED SPORTSMAN: STEVE BURCH, Dakota Green, Matthew Gebo, Nick Auspelmyer, Nick Brundige, Chase Zimmer, Mike Parodi, Tanner Coon, Dan Seguin, Mike Block, Sara Arnold, Jordan Hill, Cordell Younger, Lucas Duncan, Dan Odell, Colton Emigh, David Zelker, Mike Baker, Sloan Cherko, John Santolin, Maclain Campbell, Keith Pelkey, Dana Palumbo, James Galarneau.

CORNELL’S AUTO PARTS STREET STOCKS: MATT MOSHER, Chris Stalker, PJ Cram Jr., Mark Burch, Dan Madigan, Josh Bussino, Josh Hemming, John Filarecki, Mark Lester, Dana Van Veghten, Ray Pierre Jr., Dan Buell, Derek Van Veghten, Tim McFarland, Jimmy Duncan, Damien Ward, Jason Barrett.

GREG’S TOWING FOUR-CYLINDERS: SLAPPY WHITE, Kyle Lanfear (first single-cam finisher), David Frame, Josh Ramsey, David Mullineaux, Ben Ladd, Tom Hill, Ashlynn Ramsey, Brittany Ladd, Anthony Johnson, Micah Grant, Adam Montville, Josh Allen, Dawson Thompson.