~ By Tom Boggie

Can he do it again?

That’s the big question when DIRTcar’s six-race OktoberFAST series kicks off at Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Tuesday. Can Demetrios Drellos, “The Greek Streak”, pull off another big upset?

The Queensbury driver stunned the racing world last season when he led flag-to-flag in the 100-lap Super DIRT Series race at Albany-Saratoga. That was his first Super DIRT Series win ever, and was worth $10,000.

Drellos, who will turn 24 on Nov. 14, won’t be such a big underdog this year for the 60-lap OktoberFAST feature. In fact, if you throw out Stewart Friesen, he may be the hottest driver on dirt heading into OktoberFAST.

Like so many other drivers, Drellos’ season was thrown into chaos by the COVID-19 pandemic. He hauled to Florida to begin the season and was bitten by the racing gremlins right off the bat, breaking a driveshaft in his first start of the year.

He had every intention of racing a full schedule in the Northeast, but the pandemic delayed the season for almost two months. When it did get under way, he finished eighth in the opening race of the year at Albany-Saratoga, and also made early appearances at Orange County and Bridgeport speedways.

But as restrictions from the coronavirus tightened, Drellos decided to stay closer to home and concentrate on racing his sportsman/modified at Devil’s Bowl, which turned out to be a season-altering decision.

Drellos ended up winning five features at the Vermont track, including the Vermont 200. That win put $10,876 in purse and lap money into the Drellos Racing Team bank account, easily the biggest win of his career.

Last weekend, Drellos wrapped up the track championship at the Bowl, but there was no storybook finish. Late in the feature, Drellos clipped the inside barrier, barrel-rolled his car and wound up with heavy front end damage. To make matters worse, Drellos then exited his car on the track, which is a direct violation of track rules. That dropped him to the last spot in the feature field. But it was still enough to just hold off Adam Pierson by eight points for the track championship. His car had to be towed to victory lane for the championship celebration.

Drellos got his first win of the year at the Bowl in the Vince Quenneville Sr. Memorial on Aug. 2, and his hot streak began on Aug, 30, when he won the Charlie Laduc Memorial. He won the Vermont 200 on Sept. 6, and did double duty the next weekend, finishing eighth in the Slate Valley Big Block/Small Block Challenge and also winning the KOD Crate Nationals.

He won his fourth straight sportsman/modified feature on Sept. 14, but Justin Comes put up the $500 protest fee to have Drellos’ engine confiscated. The motor was sent to Hunt’s Machine Shop in Schenectady, where it was found to be a perfectly legal 602 crate.

The Drellos Racing Team is a tight-knit operation, consisting of Drellos’ father George, his mother Dawn, his wife Alexis (they were married in January) and his crew chief Mikey Horton. If he can get a couple of other friends to tag along, that’s great. When he’s not racing, Drellos works fulltime for his father’s Sanitary Sewage Service, installing septic systems.

Drellos has been racing open-wheel cars for just six years. After a successful career in slingshots, Drellos stepped up to a 358 small block in 2015, and recorded his first career win in just his fourth start at Lebanon Valley. He began racing at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in 2016, and won his first feature at the Malta track on June 16, 2017.

Drellos’ championship at Devil’s Bowl is just the tip of the iceberg. “The Greek Streak” has a bright future in front of him.

SANTA BART
Remember a few years back, when Mike Sowle earned the nickname “Santa Sowle” for offering a rash of bonuses at area speedways?
It looks like Bart DeRocha has taken over that role, at least at Albany-Saratoga.

DeRocha, who runs Bart Contracting in Copake, has been a regular contributor to the weekly purse at Albany-Saratoga Speedway this season, helping promotor Lyle DeVore keep a huge field of modifieds in the pits, and will be adding nearly $4,000 in bonuses for the three divisions that will be running Tuesday night in OktoberFAST.
The bonuses include payouts to the front row qualifiers, a bonus for the hard-luck drivers in all three features, a hard charger award in all three divisions, a bonus for the first non-qualifier from the Last Chance Qualifier and even a bonus for leading the most laps of the feature without winning.

The racing card itself will include a 60-lap DIRTcar modified feature, a 30-lap DIRTcar sportsman feature and a 25-lap DIRTcar pro stock feature. Both the sportsman and pro stocks will be racing for $1,000 to win. Bart Contracting’s bonus package for the modifieds will total just over $2,000, while the packages for the sportsman and pro stocks will be worth just over $900.

AROUND THE TRACKS
While Drellos was wrapping up the track championship at the Bowl last weekend, Marty Kelly III chalked up the first win of his career in the sportsman/modified feature in the No. 357 Butch Jelley tribute car. Kelly also had a solid season at Albany-Saratoga, highlighted by a second-place finish behind track champion Tim Hartman Jr on Aug. 7 and an 11th-place finish in the points race.

Friesen, who will be one of the big favorites to win the top prize in Tuesday’s OktoberFAST race, recorded his 27th win of the season last weekend at Penn Can Speedway, taking the checkered flag in the prestigious “King of the Can” race. The win was worth $5,500. Friesen has announced that he’ll be running all six races of the OktoberFAST series.

Two Albany-Saratoga regulars hauled to Can Am Speedway last weekend for the Big Block/Small Block Challenge there. Rocky Warner finished sixth in the Jason Simmons ride, while Marc Johnson was eighth. Both were getting some track time at Can-Am, which will also be hosting an OktoberFAST race next week. Erick Rudolph, who won at Can-Am, is also expected to be in the field Tuesday night at Albany-Saratoga.