Friday, May 11, 2012 – Malta, NY  —   Brett Hearn is on a tear at raceways in the Capital District area this season.  On Friday evening Hearn and his Madsen Motorsports team secured their third consecutive modified win at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway.   The win was also Hearn’s 100th career win at the Great Race Place.

Hearn’s success on the 4/10 mile oval placed him in a back-marker starting position for the 35 lap modified feature.  He quickly came from his 16th starting spot — already placing himself in a top five slot on the fourth circuit.  Hearn sailed through the laps and on to another win.

“The cushion was really rough and you really had to be careful out there,” said the 53 year old Hearn.  “It was a really different kind of track tonight but this is awesome.  I was so wrapped up in the race that I wasn’t even thinking about the 100th win.”

It was an impressive night for Dustin Delaney, who followed Hearn across the finish line for second place.  Matt Depew, Jeff Trombley and Matt Delorenzo rounded out the top five.

Andy Durie won the 25-lap Budget Sportsman feature event.  Durie grabbed the race lead early on — losing it later to a fast running Frank Hoard.  On lap 20 Hoard was involved in an accident which took him out of the race.  Durie would hold off the late race challenges from Tim Hartman to go on to take his first career sportsman win on the dirt surface.

Durie, who barrel rolled down the frontstretch the week before, was in a borrowed car for the feature.

“I borrowed the car from my boss [on vacation in Florida] and I don’t know how he is going to be about this one but I’m ecstatic,” said Durie.  “Last week we totaled a car and here we are standing in victory lane.”

Tim Hartman came from the 22nd starting spot to follow Durie across.  Midway through the event Hartman already owned a top five run and was challenging Durie when time ran out on his effort.  Dave Baranowski, Bobby Hackel and Mark Hughes rounded out the top five.

A great run through the field from Hackel, who failed to qualify from his heat race and from the consolation event, and used his top five status in the point standings to start the event from the 29th slot.

Chip Smith took the win in the 25 lap Pro Stock feature event.  Smith gave up the race lead for a brief moment early on to Albany-Saratoga’s most winningest driver, “Hollywood” Joe Santoro, but took the race lead back on lap 6 and went unchallenged to take the win.

Chip Smith won the Pro Stock event on May 11, 2012

“That was just awesome, I have to thank everyone that helped me to get here, we had to do a lot of work on the car this week to get ready.”

Ken Martin, early season race winner Rob Langevin, Dan Older and Dean Charbonneau made the prestigious five.

Randy Miller was the race winner for the 25 lap Street Stock feature event and Todd Goldstein picked up the win in the 4 Cylinder feature event.

Bits:   The rainy weather all week played havoc on getting race ready…  car counts were through the roof again with six qualifying events for the Budget Sportsman and four for the Modifieds being needed…  it was a rough night for Neil Stratton who suffered through a crash and a flat tire during his qualifying event.  He was in a qualifying slot during the 10 lap Modified consolation event when he spun bringing out the caution.  Laps later he came to a stop on the frontstretch which required assistance from the tow vehicle.  Stratton’s car had a lot of fluid leaking on the raceway…  a packed house offered up a $1,500 payoff for the 50/50… Brett Hearn has six wins going between Howard Commander and Lyle DeVore’s track endeavors.  Hearn just secured his third consecutive win at Albany Saratoga Speedway and he had a three consecutive streak broken last weekend at the Lebanon Valley Speedway by Kolby Schroder.

Freihofer’s MODIFIED (35 Laps) – 1. Brett Hearn, 2. Dustin Delaney, 3. Matt Depew, 4. Jeff Trombley, 5. Matt Delorenzo, 6. Marc Johnson, 7. Stewart Friesen, 8. J.C. Flach, 9. Donnie Corellis, 10. Bob Savoie, 11. Keith Flach, 12. Don Ronca, 13. Mark Kislowski, 14. Bodie Bellinger, 15. Mike Perrotte 16. Elmo Reckner, 17. Pep Corradi, 18. Joe Williams, 19. Hector Stratton, 20. Jimmy Cottrell, 21. Chris Busta, 22. Brian Whittemore, 23. Erik Nelson, 24. Ken Tremont Jr, 25. Ronnie Johnson, 26. C.G. Morey, 27. Cass Bennett, 28. Chris Johnson,  DNS. Jason Herrington, DNQ. Rich Ronca, DNQ. John Lutes Jr, DNQ. Craig Hanson, DNQ. Justin Boehler, DNQ. Neil Stratton, DNQ. Justin Barber

BUDGET SPORTSMAN A-Feature (25 Laps) – 1. Andy Durie, 2. Tim Hartman Jr, 3. Dave Baranowski Jr, 4. Bobby Hackel IV, 5. Mark Hughes,  6. Derrick McGrew, 7. Jeremy Pitts, 8. Jack Swinton, 9. Scott Duell, 10. Mike Burdo, 11. Leo Sousie, 12. Joey Budka, 13. Adam McAuliffe, 14. Mike Ostrander, 15. Jeff Rockefeller, 16. Nick Lussier, 17. Mike Jeske, 18. Jack Speshock, 19. Jack Gentile, 20. Fred Mullberger, 21. Stan Lemiesz, 22. Brett Wright, 23. Frank Hoard III, 24. Matt Shadic, 25. D.J. Brundige, 26. Mike Minick, 27. Skip Shippee, 28. Brian Gleason, 29. Robert Bublak, DNS. Mike Tholin

BUDGET SPORTSMAN B-Feature #1 (10 Laps) – 1. Stan Lemiesz,  2. Adam McAuliffe, 3. Cody Hunt, 4. Bobby Hackel IV, 5. Mike Tholin, 6. Jeremy Digert, 7. Butch Wilcox, 8. Colin Clow, 9. Joe Orlando, 10. Elliott Lussier, 11. Bert Film, 12. Jon Miller, DNS. Fred Proctor, DNS. Pete Carlotto

BUDGET SPORTSMAN B-Feature #2 (10 Laps) – 1. Mike Minick, 2. D.J. Brundige, 3. Dan Santabarbara, 4. Paul Dunham, 5. Chuck Dickinson, 6. Dan Boni, 7. Luke Klob, 8. Shannon Donnelly, 9. Larry Niemiec, 10. Greg Catlin, 11. Nelson Passino, 12. Jim Osgood, 13. Chris Murray 14. Rocky Warner, 15. Jason Otty, 16. Rick Lamont

Freihofer’s and Toro Present PRO STOCK Series Race (25 Laps) – 1. Chip Smith, 2. Ken Martin, 3. Rob Langevin, 4. Dan Older, 5. Dean Charbonneau, 6. Kim Duell, 7. Jay Fitzgerald, 8. Chad Jeseo, 9. Joe Santoro, 10. Bill Smith, 11. Dave Emigh, 12. Sheldon Martin, 13. Rob Yetman, 14. Bernie Campanion, 15. Kevin VanChance, 16. Tom O’Connor 17. Luke Horning, 18. Kent Clark, 19. Jeff Washburn, 20. Walt Brownell, DNS. Brandon Emigh, DNS. Ed Thompson, DNS. Johnny Donnelly, DNS. Jim Franklin, DNS. Cole Lawton, DNS. Justin Knight

STREET STOCK (20 Laps) – 1. Randy Miller, 2. Yule Cook, 3. Paul Mulrain, 4. Josh Coonradt, 5. Ken Conroy, 6. Dave Stickles, 7. Jody Thew, 8. Justin Smith, 9. Mitchell Sequin 10. Rowdy Burch, 11. Jon Hayes, 12. Fred Harris, 13. Paul Braymer, 14. J.T. Ronner, 15. John Lindblade

4-CYL COMBINED (15 Laps) – 1. Todd Goldstein, 2. Art Clement, 3. Phil Defiglio, 4. Chris VanDePutte, 5. Mark Lindblade, 6. Dan Older, 7. Lance Robertson, 8. Anthony Alger, 9. Dave Labarge, 10. Josh Dupree, 11. Hunnter Sanchez, 12. Keith Tesiero Jr., 13. Keith Tesiero, 14. Pete Vila, 15. Blake Schwarting, 16. Brooklyn Wescott, 17. David Frame

4-CYL SINGLE CAM – 1. Mark Lindblade, 2. Dan Older, 3. Lance Robertson, 4. Anthony Alger, 5. Dave Labarge, 6. Josh Dupree, 7. Keith Tesiero Jr., 8. Keith Tesiero, 9. Blake Schwarting, 10. Brooklyn Wescott

4-CYL DUAL CAM – 1. Todd Goldstein, 2. Art Clement, 3. Phil Defiglio, 4. Chris VanDePutte, 5. Hunnter Sanchez, 6. Pete Vila, 7. David Frame