The 4th Turn

~ By Tom Boggie

MALTA – I studied journalism in college to become a better writer (I can hear Matt Rich laughing and saying, “Yeah, how’d that work out?”).

I should have studied meteorology, so I could figure out what the hell’s going on with the weather.

Albany-Saratoga Speedway tied a dubious record when it suffered its fourth consecutive rainout at the beginning of a season last Friday. And now, because of those rainouts, the track will have the distinction of its latest opening night since 1977, the first season that promoter C.J. Richards operated the track. The season began on May 13 that year.

The latest opening night ever was held on July 16 in 1965, the first year that Joe Lesik opened the gates to his brand new Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

The last time Albany-Saratoga had four straight rainouts to open the season was in 1983, but the track still got its first race in during April, finally racing on April 29. Dave Lape won the modified feature that night, and the track rained out again the following week.

For fans with long memories, those early-season rainouts in 1983 forced Richards to announce he was going to cut the modified purse. As a result, the drivers met and voted to boycott the track on May 20. Of course, the boycott was also rained out.

Albany-Saratoga Speedway has never suffered five straight cancellations at the beginning of the season. But guess what? Rain is forecast for Friday night!

Here’s some more irony. When “Come ‘N Get It,” the 54-lap modified shootout that was supposed to be the main event of the opening night card on April 19, was rained out twice, it was rescheduled for Tuesday, May 14. The revised schedule on the track’s web site still had “Come ‘N Get It” listed as “2019 Opening Night.” And now, because of the crappy weather, that could actually be opening night!

Racing on Tuesday will include the remainder of the heat races, consis and features. No word yet from promoter Lyle DeVore if he’s going to add anything to the racing card. Ticket stubs and wristbands from April 23 will be accepted.

Albany-Saratoga Speedway obviously isn’t the only track suffering. Utica-Rome Speedway is 0-for-3. Last season the Vernon track lost six of its first seven nights to rain, and if I remember correctly, only ran nine events all year long. This weekend, Utica-Rome has a 100-lap DIRTcar 358 Series race, which pay $4,000 to win, scheduled for Sunday.

MEANWHILE, AT THE VALLEY

JR Heffner needed some racing luck to record his first modified win at Lebanon Valley last Saturday.

Heffner, who has been fast right out of the box with the new DKM chassis, had a front-row seat as two cars in front of him dropped out of the feature, putting him in the lead. First, Matt Pupello blew a tire while leading. Then, Kyle Armstrong dropped out with mechanical problems with a couple of laps to go, literally handing the victory to Heffner.

The 47-year old Heffner is one of the most accomplished drivers at the Valley. He’s recorded more than 60 career wins (including 46 at the Valley), and has four championships at the Valley, two in small block modifieds and two in big blocks (he won the big block title outright in 2007 and tied with Mark Flach in 2008).

Heffner, who has been sponsored by A. Colarusso & Son since 1997, has also run eight races in the ARCA series (his best finish was a 14^th at Kentucky in 2009) and has made four appearances in the NASCAR Truck Series race on the dirt track at Eldora.

Andy Bachetti won last week’s small block modified feature at the Valley, coming from the rear after spinning out on the first lap.

HISTORY LESSON

Maybe I should have been a history major in college. All it takes is one little tidbit of information and I’m off and running.

For instance, in looking up some of Heffner’s records, I saw that DD Harris was the modified point champion at Lebanon Valley in 1961.

My first thought was, who was DD Harris?

Turns out it was Daniel Duncan “Rebel” Harris, who was one of the top drivers in the Northeast during the 1950s and early 1960s. running at places like Rhinebeck, Arlington and Danbury, Conn.

In 1961, Harris and his buddy Joey Lawrence, who was Harris’ car builder and mechanic, showed up at the Valley with a pink 1956 Crown Victoria, one of the first cars to run at the Valley with a late model body in an era of coupes. The car didn’t have a number. Instead, it carried the letters AAA on the side, for Harris’ aluminum siding business.

As good as the Crown Vic looked, the real secret was under the hood. Lawrence’s brother was working in a Ford plant at the time and was getting Holley carburetors out of the big trucks. He would send some to his brother, who would tweak them and have a Holley four-barrel, before those carbs became all the rage of racing.

Depending on what records you look at (I found three sources), Harris won either nine, 11 or 12 features at the Valley with the Crown Vic in 1961. But there was no debating that he won the track championship.

Two years later, he was killed in a crash at Onteora Speedway in Olive Bridge (outside of Kingston), He went over the wheel of another car and starting flipping end over end in the 1934 Ford coupe he was running at that time. One impact was so severe that it compressed Harris’ seat, which loosened his belts, and he flew out of one of the windows of the coupe, and was hit by another car. He died on the way to a hospital. 

AROUND THE TRACKS

The Super Dirt Series race scheduled for Tuesday at Outlaw Speedway in Dundee was rained out.

Matt Sheppard, who dominated the extra-distance races in April, took the checkered flag in a regular feature at Canandaigua last Saturday. That was his seventh win of the season.

Orange County Speedway will hold a “Bobby Bottcher Tribute Night” on Saturday. Both the big block and small block features will pay $6,000 to win, and if one driver sweeps both races, he’ll get a $6,000 bonus. Bottcher won the modified championship at Orange County in 1973, and also won the Eastern States 200 in 1974.

Stewart Friesen will be competing in the NASCAR Gander World Truck Series race Friday night at Kansas City Speedway. Friesen dropped to third in points last weekend with a 12^th-place finish at Dover.