MALTA – Everyone is familiar with the idiom, “Save the best for last.”

That’s become the battle cry at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

For the third time in the last four years, the historic track on Route 9 in Malta will end its season with the two-day Malta Massive Weekend.

The two-day spectacular will be held on Sept. 23-24, and will culminate with a 100-lap Super DIRTcar Series feature for big block modifieds, which will pay $10,000 to win and carry a guaranteed starting spot in the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 at Oswego next month for the winner.

Action will begin on Friday, Sept. 23, with a 40-lap feature for big block modifieds, which will pay $4,000 to win. Albany-Saratoga promoter Lyle DeVore announced earlier this week that Malta-legal small block modifieds will be allowed to run with the big blocks on Friday.

Besides earning $4,000, the winner of Friday night’s feature will be guaranteed to start no farther back than 13th in the Super DIRTcar Series 100-lapper on Saturday.

Friday night’s card will also include the DIRTcar Sportsman Fall Championship Series, as well as street stocks and four-cylinders. Grandstand gates will open at 5 p.m.

The 100-lap Super DIRTcar Series race will take center stage on Saturday, and will be accompanied by the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series, as well as limited sportsman. Grandstand gates will open at 4 p.m. on Saturday. In case of rain on Saturday, the second day of Malta Massive Weekend will be held on Sunday, Sept. 25.

DeVore came up with the idea of Malta Massive Weekend in 2019, looking for a way to end the season with a bang. That first Malta Massive Weekend was actually a three-day event, as the season-opening “Come ‘N Get It” modified race was postponed so many times early in the year that it was moved to the final weekend.

That first year saw Anthony Perrego record his first career win in the “Come ‘N Get It” feature, Erick Rudolph notch his first career victory in the Friday night race and Demetrios Drellos pull off a huge upset in winning the Super DIRTcar Series 100-lapper.

The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out Malta Massive Weekend in 2020, but it returned last year, with Mat Williamson winning the Friday night feature and Mike Mahaney recording the first SDS victory of his career to highlight the Saturday show.

Matt DeLorenzo won his first modified championship of his career at Albany-Saratoga this season, but he’ll be considered one of the underdogs against the big guns of the Super DIRTcar Series. DeLorenzo has never followed the series on a fulltime basis and has made just 24 SDS starts since 2001. In those 24 starts, he finished in the top five just once, a runner-up performance behind Jimmy Phelps at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in 2015. His average finish in his SDS starts is 18.8.

Malta Massive Weekend will be the second SDS race of the 2022 campaign at Albany-Saratoga. Mahaney won the 71-lap SDS feature on June 24, with Marc Johnson second and Jessey Mueller third. Mahaney walked off with the top prize of $7,500 despite running most of the feature with a flat left front tire.

Log in to Albany-Saratoga Speedway’s web site at albany-saratogaspeedway.com or its Facebook page for updates to the Malta Massive Weekend.