~ By Tom Boggie

Geez, I thought I had been kidnapped last Friday night.

I thought Doc Brown had strapped me into a DeLorean, activated the flux capacitor and pushed the speedometer up to 88 miles an hour, taking me back to the early 2000s.

How else could I explain talking to Michael Ballestero and Todd Ryan on the same night?

The 65-year-old Ballestero won his first sportsman feature in over a year, and Ryan, who sits at the lower end of the sixty-something generation, finished fourth in the modified feature, the first time he’s finished in the top five at Malta since Sept. 13, 2009, the year before the track switched to asphalt racing.

Want to tie this package together with a neat little bow? On Sept. 5, 1997, the night that Ryan recorded his first career modified win at Malta, Ballestero also won one of two sportsman features that night.

Ballestero, who sits second on the all-time sportsman win list with 36 victories, admitted last Friday that he was beginning to doubt if he was ever going to win another race.

“It’s getting tougher and tougher,” he said. “I know I’ve got good stuff, and I’ve been racing my ***** off, but it seems like I just don’t get any luck.”

Recent results will attest to that. Since June 28, Ballestero has finished 28^th, 20^th, 14^th, 28^th and 23^rd.

“This is the first time we’ve raced in a month,” Ballestero said Friday. “There were the two rainouts, and I took last week off for vacation.”

Ballestero finally got to experience some of the racing luck that has been avoiding him all year long. After starting third, he had the lead after just four laps and was running so well that he caught the tail end of the field after just 10 laps. But just when it looked like lapped cars were going to become a problem, the yellow came out, and Ballestero again had no one in front of him.

“Sometimes, all the stars get lined up right,” Ballestero said. “I didn’t have to deal with any lapped traffic, which was good.”

I asked him why he keeps coming back, week after week, and after a little hesitation, he said, “We have a lot of fun in the garage. The guys have confidence in me, even if sometimes I don’t.

“Racing is 80 percent mental and 20 percent the car,” he added. “Even when I’m here, sometimes, I’m not really here, you know what I mean? I’ve had some much going on lately that I’m always thinking about all the other things I should be doing.”

Ryan, who won his only sportsman feature at Albany-Saratoga in 1995, and later recorded single modified victories in 1997, 1998 and 2001, came out of retirement this season because he hadn’t had “a one-and-done year,” he had told me back in April. But he’s also had his share of problems this season, and until last Friday night, hadn’t even finished in the top 10.

In fact, last Friday was just the fourth time this season he’s completed all 35 laps of a feature.

The week before, he had only completed 14 laps before pulling in. “The car was the worst it’s been all season,” said Ryan. “It’s not that I didn’t want to race. I had put on new tires and filled it with fuel and I didn’t want to run up any more expenses if I didn’t have to, so I pulled in.

“Tonight, it’s the best it’s ever been.”

Like Ballestero, Ryan also started third in his feature, and ran with the leaders all night. He tried to make a move on leader CG Morey on the low side on lap 15, but couldn’t make it stick. Ryan then lost the number two spot to Ryan McCartney on lap 16, who got around Morey for the lead one lap later.

Ryan got the second spot back on lap 17, with Morey starting to fade, and then finished in fourth, falling prey to late charges by winner Jack Speshock and Matt DeLorenzo, who finished third.

“The car was really great tonight, but a couple of the other guys were a bit better,” said Ryan. “I know I can still drive. It’s all about racing the track, and making the car work week to week.”

In the past, Ryan has had some of his best races on nights that Ballestero has been in victory lane. That happened on Aug. 4, 2000 (Ballestero won the sportsman feature; Ryan was sixth in the modifieds) and on July 27, 2001 and in early August 2002 (Ballestero won on both nights, Ryan finished 10^th in both modified features).

There were even a couple of years when Ballestero moved up to modifieds and he and Ryan went head-to-head. Ryan finished ninth and Ballestero was 10^th on Sept. 12, 2003, and Mike finished fifth (his best modified finish ever) and Ryan was ninth on June 11, 2004.

Although Ryan said this was going to be his one-and-done year, he may rethink that decision. If Albany-Saratoga will indeed run in 2025 before the property is sold for development, Ryan said he might want to be around for that final campaign.

MORE FROM MALTA

I find it ironic that Speshock’s crew gives him a beer shower when he wins a race. According to Speshock, he doesn’t even drink beer!

Speshock picked up his second win of the season last Friday by sticking to the bottom, when everyone else wanted the top. “I could only run the bottom,” Speshock said after his win. “I was tempted to try the top, but I didn’t want to get too scatter-brained, so I stuck to the bottom.”

Point races for modifieds, sportsman and pro stocks end Friday night. All Peter Britten has to do is show up and make an attempt to qualify to win his second modified title, and Tim Hartman Jr. wrapped up his fifth sportsman championship last weekend. After being involved in a lap 3 mishap, he dove into the pits, got a new left front tire and came out to battle his way back to eighth.

That leaves the pro stocks, where Beau Ballard has an eight-point lead over Brandon Emigh, with Kim Duell third, 12 points behind the leader.

Here’s something you won’t see very often. Ronnie Johnson and Anthony Perrego both failed to qualify for the modified feature last Friday.

Rounds Paving, one of the long-time sponsors at Malta, put up $200 bonuses to the second-place finishers in all of the features last Friday. Those bonuses went to McCartney (modified), Craig Wholey (sportsman), Emigh (pro stocks), Nick Brundige (limited sportsman) and Al Relyea. The $200 was split in the four-cylinder feature, with David Frame (dual cam) and Dawson Thompson (single cam) each getting $100.

At a time when other tracks are scrambling to assemble full fields, Albany-Saratoga is still packing the pits. Last Friday, 40 modifieds signed in, making it necessary to run a consy, and a few new cars showed up in the pro stock division, wanting to get some track time prior to the $10,000 to win Autism Awareness Night feature on Sept. 6.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Andy Bachetti put a dramatic finish on the big block modified point race last Saturday at Lebanon Valley Speedway. Bachetti passed Eddie Marshall on the final lap to win the big block feature, which also gave him the championship by three points over Brett Haas, who finished fourth. Bachetti also recorded his 10^th small block win of the season on Saturday, while Matt Burke ended Hartman Jr.’s 13-race winning streak in the sportsman feature.

The Valley will be holding its Mr. Dirt Track USA race Saturday, with the wInner walking off with the top prize of $15,500.

The DIRTcar Pro Stock Series was in the Capital Region last weekend, running at the Valley on Saturday and Glen Ridge Motorsports Park on Sunday. Frank Twing got the win at the Valley in the Old Buzzard 30, run in honor of the late Jim Langenbach, while Ballard chalked up his first Series win on Sunday at the Ridge. The last time Twing had a Series win was 1999, when he sat in victory lane three times. Pete Stefanski finished second at the Ridge and took over the point lead from Emigh, who finished seventh.

Albany-Saratoga regulars had some good runs away from Malta during the last week. Brian Calabrese won the Charlie Laduc Memorial at Devil’s Bowl on Saturday, and Britten was victorious at Land of Legends on Saturday. Mike Mahaney finished fourth in the Bash at the Beach at Georgetown on Tuesday, while Dylan Madsen finished fourth in the sportsman feature at the Bash.

Also getting a pat on the back is Jeff Trombley, who began his racing career in the mini-stocks at Malta. Trombley won the Capital Region Sprint Association feature last Friday at Brewerton and is now tied for first place on the all-time CRSA win list with Danny Varin, Scott Goodrich and Josh Pieniazek with 14 career wins.

On the other side of the ledger, the winners in both the All-Star and Junior Slingshot divisions at Glen Ridge were disqualified after their motors were confiscated and sent to Tobias Speedway Entertainment, which oversees the Tobias Series, to be tested. Both motors were found to have “tampered seals.”

The 602 sportsman/modifieds will be chasing their biggest payday of the season Saturday when Devil’s Bowl holds the Vermont 200. With $10,000 to win, lap money and bonuses, one driver could take home in the neighborhood of $20,000. Promoter Mike Bruno has also instituted new pit stop rules this season, which will put a little more strategy into the 200-lapper.