~ By Tom Boggie

Who would have thought that the biggest story coming out of the six-night DIRTcar OktoberFAST series would be a debate about bump stops?

Mike Mahaney, the 2020 Albany-Saratoga modified champion, was coasting along in OktoberFAST. After getting a second-place finish to Anthony Perrego last Tuesday at Albany-Saratoga, Mahaney was second to Jimmy Phelps on Thursday at Fulton, third at Can-Am on Friday and third again at Canandaigua on Saturday before the series-ender on Sunday at Weedsport.
Then, everything went sideways.

Mahaney had a good run in his heat race, but when he went across the scales, tech inspectors immediately looked under the rear of the car and disqualified Mahaney, saying the bump stops on the shocks were too tall by three-quarters of an inch. The DQ took Mahaney out of a qualified spot and put him in the consi.
To his credit, Mahaney battled back and came from 27th (he failed to qualify through one of the Last Chance Qualifiers and was added to the field) to 10th, winning the Hard Charger Award in the process. But after the race, he made a video and posted it to his Facebook page, and it was obvious he was disappointed.

“Apparently, when you’re running good, you get singled out.” he said.

I’m not taking sides in this issue. I’ve known George Huttig, Mahaney’s car owner, since the mid-1980s when he was fielding a car for Mike Perrotte, and George has never seemed like someone who would bend the rules. As my daughter likes to tell me, “Not your monkeys. Not your circus,” which is a nice way to say mind your own business.

But like always, I’ve got some observations.
First, in his video, Mahaney said he purchased 3-inch bump stops and then asked, “Who would have thought to take a stock part and modify it to make it legal (DIRTcar rules state bump stops should be two and one-quarter inches tall)?” I did a little checking online and there are supply companies that sell the Christmas tree-style bump stops in both 2 ¼ and 3-inch sizes. So the DIRT-legal ones are readily available.

Second, whoever blew the whistle on Mahaney must have been someone who knew the inspectors at Weedsport. If I walked up to tech inspectors in the pits with information about what I thought was an illegal part, they’d give me that “Who the hell are you look?” and send me on my way. I’m also thinking that the inspectors had to be alerted after Mahaney went out on the track for his heat race. If the infraction had been pointed out earlier in the day, wouldn’t the inspectors have gone to Mahaney’s pit, checked the car and told him the bump stops were too tall? And the inspectors only checked the bump stops on Mahaney’s car after the heat race.

Third, was this an actual protest or was someone targeting Mahaney? According to the DIRTcar rulebook, “Any official reserves the right to accept or deny any protest based on their sole discretion. Grudge protests and/or any protest that are not in the spirit of good standing will be denied.” Wouldn’t this fit into the grudge protest category?

Fourth, this could have been a lot worse for Mahaney and Huttig. Barring the DQ, Mahaney would have been in the redraw for the feature and who knows, might have won the race.

Consider, for a minute, that the whistleblower had waited until after the feature and filed a formal protest. The results would have been the same, because the bump stops were illegal. What if Mahaney had won the $10,000 first prize, and then been declared illegal?

I’m not drawing any conclusions. I just wanted to make some observations, looking at both sides of the situation. To paraphrase “Dragnet” detective Joe Friday, “All we have are the facts.”

MORE OBSERVATIONS FROM OKTOBERFAST
I’m really surprised that Stewart Friesen didn’t win one of the OktoberFAST features. After opening up with a 12th at Albany-Saratoga, he finished third at Fulton, fifth at Can-Am, 25th at Canandaigua (after breaking a brake line, the Halmar 44 was slammed in the rear end as it was limping down the backstretch on its way to the pits) and fourth at Weedsport (after starting 17th).

Fonda Speedway champion Mike Maresca failed to qualify at the first two events, but then finished second at Can-Am. The next night, he failed to make the field again at Canandaigua, and finished 11th at Weedsport.

After winning OktoberFAST features at both Albany-Saratoga and Can-Am, Perrego opted to head home to prepare for this weekend’s Speed Showcase 200 at Port Royal, which will pay $53,000 to win. But the Perrego team suffered a devasting blow on Tuesday when Perrego’s father Tom died. The entire staff at Albany-Saratoga Speedway sends its condolences to the Perrego family.

Friesen will also be participating at Port Royal this weekend. Timothy Peters will be driving the Halmar/Friesen Racing truck at the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race in Kansas.

Peter Britten’s miserable season continued in OktoberFAST. The 2017 Albany-Saratoga modified champion finished 16th at Albany-Saratoga, 16th at Fulton, 18th at Can-Am, was a DNQ at Canandaigua and finished the week with a 13th at Weedsport.

Nick Stone won Sunday’s OktoberFAST pro stock race at Weedsport, taking home the top prize of $1,000. Following him across the finish line were Luke Horning and Josh Coonradt, who have been the Big Three of Northeast pro stock racing all year. The victory was Stone’s ninth win in 17 DIRTcar sanctioned races this season. Add in the seven wins he had at Fonda, and that’s a heckuva a season.

If you were planning to head to Glen Ridge Motorsports Park for the two-day Halloween Havoc Friday and Saturday, don’t bother. Because of an unfavorable forecast, track officials have opted to postpone the event. But they’re optimistic they can still get in some more racing in 2020. Keep an eye on their Facebook Page.