The 4th Turn

~ By Tom Boggie

Anyone been watching “Jeopardy” lately?

James Holzhauer, a professional sports gambler, is killing the show. In racking up 20 straight wins, he’s collected over $1.5 million and he’s just destroying his competition. In three weeks, only one contestant has even come close to knocking him off.

Sounds a lot like Matt Sheppard, doesn’t it?

Sheppard finished an incredible month of April with a victory in the “Diamond State 50” Short Track Super Series race at Delaware International Speedway on Tuesday. His five wins in April came at five different tracks, and netted him a total of $42,500. Included in those victories was a win in Fonda Speedway’s opener last Saturday, a regular 30-lap feature with a winner’s payoff of $8,000 (more on that later).

Since parting ways with H&B Racing at the end of the 2015 season and starting his own team, Sheppard had 96 wins in three seasons, and the six he has this year (he also had a win at Volusia County Speedway in Florida in February) gives him 101 in a little over three seasons.

As good a driver as Sheppard is, I think some of the credit has to go to his crew chief, Randy Kisacky.

When Sheppard went out on his own, he switched to Bicknell chassis and Kisacky joined the team as a consultant for Bicknell Products and is now listed as the crew chief. For those who are too young to recognize the name, Kisacky is a legend in dirt track racing.

Known as a top-notch engineer and car builder, Kisacky built cars for two Southern Tier legends, Charlie Castle and Chuck Akulis, in the 1980s. I crossed paths with Kisacky when he was the crew chief of the Elaine-James Motorsports Doughboy car that was owned by Jim Beachy and piloted by Alan Johnson in 2003. At the end of that season, Kisacky was honored as the Mechanic of the Year at the Northeast Modified Hall of Fame ceremonies.

Kisacky also spent some time in the World of Outlaws late model series, maintaining cars for Leo Milos’ Super Deuce Racing Team, which once had Ricky Elliott as a driver.

Although Sheppard gets all the headlines, Kisacky deserves a lot of the credit.

DID YOU KNOW?

In doing a little research on Sheppard, I discovered that he’s one of a very small list of drivers who have won features in the top division at Albany-Saratoga, Fonda, Lebanon Valley and Glen Ridge Motorsports Park (Glen Ridge includes both modifieds during the Romano-Spraker regime and the current sportsman/ modifieds).

The only other drivers on that list are Friesen and Ken Tremont Jr. Am I missing anybody?

AROUND THE TRACKS

Tremont won last Saturday’s season-opening modified race at Lebanon Valley. He had announced earlier this year that he’s not going to compete in the small block modified division anymore, so that division is going to be wide open. Tremont’s big block win was the 133rd of his career on the high banks.

Andy Bachetti won the small block feature at the Valley in the Jimmy Winchell-owned No. 17. After spending his Friday nights racing at I-88 Speedway in Afton the last two years, Bachetti, who is Ronnie Johnson’s brother-in-law, will be campaigning the Winchell small block at Accord this season.

It wasn’t a good week for Friesen. After losing the win to Sheppard at Fonda on Saturday, he was running second in Delaware on Tuesday when his left front tire clipped the inside barrier, resulting in a flat tire. He officially finished 15^th.

Brett Hearn, back at his old stomping grounds, picked up his first win of the season in the small block modified feature at Orange County on Saturday. Veteran campaigner CG Morey made the haul from his Vermont home to Orange County, finishing 24^th in the big block feature and 18^th in the small block race. If you remember, Morey suffered a broken back in a horrific accident at Orange County during Eastern States weekend last fall.

Connor Cleveland, a regular at Albany-Saratoga Speedway and the 2018 King of Dirt Series sportsman series champion, won the sportsman feature on opening night at Airborne Park in Plattsburgh last Saturday. The 358 modified field also included two Albany-Saratoga regulars, Jack Lehner and Jessey Mueller. Lehner crossed the finish line seventh, with Mueller two spots further back.

Albany-Saratoga Speedway will be trying to end its streak of three straight rainouts Friday. The last time the Malta track lost its first three races of the season because of bad weather was 1992. Friday’s card will feature a Native Pride $1,000 to win sportsman race.

Utica-Rome had to cancel its card last Sunday because of rain. That cancellation also delayed the first race of the VP Summer Sportsman Series, which will now be held this Sunday. The postponement also meant that Albany-Saratoga has switched its first race in the six-race series involving Utica-Rome, Albany-Saratoga and Lebanon Valley, to June 7.

Rain also washed out the practice at Glen Ridge last Sunday. The Ridge, now under the direction of co-promoters Butch Hazzard and Ray Sefrin this year, will open its season with a full racing card this Sunday. The new starting time this season is 5 p.m.