MALTA – The first night of Malta Massive Weekend at Albany-Saratoga Speedway certainly lived up to its name, as a massive of number of cars signed into the pits, necessitating a massive amount of time to complete the card, and Chad Jeseo walked off with a massive payday.

The Upstate Chevy Dealers Autism Awareness “Dare to be Different” 53-lap feature highlighted the first night of “Massive” Weekend. And it was Jeseo, a two-time pro stock champion at Malta, who took home the top prize of $10,500, the richest payoff of the season for pro stocks.

Jeseo started 11^th in the 28-car starting field, but it was outside pole sitter Pete Stefanski and Shane Playford, who started fourth, who had the fans on their feet early in the race.

Stefanski jumped right into the lead and because of a couple of early cautions, Playford was able to stay right on his tail, with Nick Stone, who started third, waiting for the leaders to make a mistake.

Obviously getting tired of just watching the lead duo, Stone switched to the outside groove and the trio came out of the fourth turn on lap 16 three-wide, with Stone taking the lead for the first time.

Stone, Stefanski and Kim Duell, who started sixth, occupied the top three spots on lap 21, but by lap 30, Stone began to pull away. Then on lap 38, a pair of caution flags caution flag changed the complexion of the race.

On the first restart, Stefanski was able to get around Stone for the lead. Then, on the second restart, Duell appeared to get a flat left rear tire going into the fourth turn, and when the rear end of his car wiggled, he was hit in the left rear quarterpanel by Luke Horning, which sent Duell spinning in front of the field. Jeseo was able to avoid the traffic jam that developed as cars bounced off Duell and each other, and came away in second place, behind Stefanski.

After the next restart, Stefanski, Jeseo and Stone raced like they were glued together. Then, on lap 42, they went three wide through the third turn, with Jeseo in the middle, and he came out with the lead for good.

Eleven laps later, Jeseo secured the biggest payday of his career, beating Stone to the finish line by 0.453 seconds. Horning got up for third, with Stefanski fourth and Rich Crane, who won the Autism Awareness Night race in 2022, fifth.

“This is awesome,” said Jeseo in victory lane. “This was like Super DIRT Week. What a night. This was absolutely awesome. It was great to be a part of this.”

The Buff brothers, 2023 champion Andrew and his younger brother Zach, started on the front row in the 35-lap DIRTcar Sportsman Series, and that’s where they finished, with Andrew recording his third win of the 2023 season. But as they usually do, the Buff brothers had their hands full with four-time champion Tim Hartman Jr.

Hartman Jr., who started 11^th, was aided by a couple of early cautions and used another restart, on lap 14, to move into third.

Zach Buff had been leading since the drop of the green flag, with his brother constantly applying pressure, but the scenario changed after Hartman Jr. took over third. Now, he and Andrew Buff had a battle of their own to settle.

Hartman Jr. tried to pull a slide job on Andrew Buff on the second turn on lap 18, but Buff ducked to his left and the two made contact, with Hartman Jr. going off the backstretch, breaking his momentum.

Andrew Buff again went after his younger brother, and on lap 25, used a lapped car as a pick and drove into the lead on lap 25.

Two laps later, Hartman Jr. lost the handle on his car in the fourth turn as he was battling Zach Buff for second, leaving the two Buff brothers to finish one-two. Canadian invader Cedric Gauvreau, who won the DIRTcar Sportsman feature at Malta Massive Weekend last year, finished third.

Malta Massive Weekend always seems to bring out the best in Mat Williamson, and Friday was no different, as he won the 50-lap DIRTcar 358 Modified Series feature and walked out with $5,000.

The night looked like it was going to belong to Mike Mahaney. Mahaney had the fastest overall time during hot laps, stopping the clock in 15.943 seconds, won his heat, and then also won the Four States Enterprises Dash for Cash, which was worth $300.

He lined up fourth in the feature and was never far from early leader Marc Johnson, who drew the pole. But Williamson, who started sixth, was also hooked up early. He rocketed by Mahaney to move into second on the sixth lap and then moved under Johnson coming out of the second turn and had his first lead of the night on lap 11.

Mahaney, who was searching for the quickest way around the slippery Malta surface, moved to the outside and took the lead away from Williamson coming out of the fourth turn on lap 14, but when a caution came out five laps later, Williamson used the restart to slide up in front of Mahaney to regain the top spot on lap 19.

Williamson just wasn’t going to be denied. He easily sliced through lapped traffic, and although a couple of cautions allowed Mahaney to start right next to him, Williamson was getting a good launch on the restarts and as the end of 50 laps, had his second DIRTcar 358 Modified Series victory at Malta in the last three years.

Mahaney crossed the finish line second, with Marc Johnson third, Billy Dunn fourth and Chris Rabbe fifth. Stewart Friesen, who had the quality through one of the LCQs, finished sixth and won the Hard Charger Award, after starting 24^th.

Dan Madigan started on the outside pole and led all 20 laps to win the 20-lap street stock feature, which paid $400 through sponsorship from Linda and Emil Meltz, and Jonathan Sheppard used a last-lap pass on Adam Montville to win the 15-lap four-cylinder feature. Robert Garney was eighth overall and had the first single-cam car across the finish line. With over 200 cars in the pits, the final checkered flag on the long night of racing fell at 1:25 a.m. Saturday.

UPSTATE CHEVY DEALERS AUTISM AWARENESS NIGHT PRO STOCKS (53 laps): CHAD JESEO, Nick Stone, Luke Horning, Pete Stefanski, Rich Crane, Jason Casey, Jay Corbin, Beau Ballard, Shane Henderson, Chucky Dumblewski, Kyle Hoard, Randy Miller, Jordan Modiano, Rob Yetman, Shane Playford, Phil Difiglio, Zach Daniels, Jaxson Ryan, Tom Dean, John Greene, Kim Duell, Jay Casey, Devon Camenga, Burton Ward, John Rivers Jr., Caden Dumblewski, Dan Older, Shawn Perez.

DIRTCAR 358 MODIFIED SERIES (50 laps): MAT WILLIAMSON, Mike Mahaney, Marc Johnson, Billy Dunn, Chris Rabbe, Stewart Friesen, Felix Roy, Matt DeLorenzo, Brett Haas, Adam Pierson, Justin Stone, Max McLaughlin, Ryan McCartney, Peter Britten, Chris Mackey, Andy Bachetti, Jordan McCreadie, Chad Brachmann, Amy Holland, Lance Willix, Darren Smith, Brian Calabrese, C.J. Casteletti, Matt Woodruff, Alan Barker, Matt Meade, Chris Bisson, Jarrett Herbison, Noah Walker, David Marcucilli. DQ: Ryan Bartlett.

DIRTCAR SPORTSMAN SERIES (35 laps): Andrew Buff, Zach Buff, Cedric Gauvreau, Gavin Eisele, Travis Witbeck, Tyler Corcoran, Mike Coffey Jr., Ryan Dolbear, Dylan Madsen, Mike Fowler, Zach Sabotka, Nick Root, Jessica Power, Tyler Stevenson, Cody Bleau, Mike Ballestero, Nick Lussier, Cory Castell, Chris Crane Jr., Connor Crane, Taylor Laplante, Jason Bruno, Angelo DiCarlo, Kevin Ward, Kearra Backus, Tim Hartman Jr., Drew Cormie, Taylor Wason, Bryce Breault, Marty Kelly III, Dan Grignon.

LAKE AUTO PARTS STREET STOCKS: DAN MADIGAN, Pat Cram Jr., Chris Stalker, Jimmy Duncan, Jeff Meltz Sr., Mike Bussino, Matt Mosher, Lou Gancarz, Josh Hemming, Dave Striebel Sr., Wayne Russell, Mark Burch, Dan Buell, Dave Striebel Jr., Jason Meltz, Evan Denue, Mark Burch, Jason Barrett, Fred Shippee, Nick Napoli, Al Relyea.GREG’S TOWING FOUR-CYLINDERS: JON SHEPPARD, Adam Montville, Jay Ingersoll, Josh Rheome, David Mullineaux, Greg Zindler, Damian Ward, Robert Garney, Kyle Lanfear, John Lindblade, James Guertin, Joe Wolfe, Brittany Ladd, John Mason, Daniel Joubert, Matt Tedrow, Andrew Palmer, Tom Hill, Ben Ladd, Blaze Post.