The 4th Turn

~ By Tom Boggie

Two guys are standing by the watercooler, talking sports.

OK, so there was no watercooler. And the two guys were modified drivers Keith Flach and Matt DeLorenzo. And they weren’t talking about sports; they were discussing their finishes Friday night in the modified feature at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

Despite having differing views about how they got there, Flach and DeLorenzo were happy with the results; DeLorenzo was second, his best finish of the season, while Flach was third, an incredible finish to an otherwise disastrous night.

Let’s start with Flach.

During the third modified heat race, Flach jumped the berm in the third turn, got sideways and flipped his primary car, coming to a stop on his roof. The car was banged up badly enough that it was done for the night.

So the Flach team hauled out the backup car. His crew gave the car a quick once-over, making sure all the bolts were tight, and Flach started the feature in 24^th position.

Driving like he was possessed, Flach was a rocket from the drop of the green flag, and with 32 consecutive green flag laps, made his way all the way to third.

Jay Castimore, the tire man on Flach’s car, put it best when he looked at me after the race and said, “KISS. Keep it simple, stupid.”

Flach’s third-place finish matched his best run of the year, as he also finished third in the first race of the season. But since then, his only other top-10 finish was a ninth on May 31, as the Flach team has been hunting for the right combination.

DeLorenzo has been in the same boat, making myriad changes to his Bicknell chassis.

“This is the same car as last year, and we’ve been running the same setup, but it’s not sticking to the track like it was before,” he said. But DeLorenzo, who had three wins last season, isn’t going to stop tinkering until he gets it right.

When I asked him why he hasn’t won yet, despite racing on both Friday and Saturday nights, he answered, “I don’t race enough. With all the new technology on these cars, things change so much. The guys who run a lot, like [Matt] Sheppard, can try different stuff whenever they want to. I have to experiment when I’m here to try to make the car better.”

Maybe they both hit on something Friday night.

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

Mike Mahaney should throw a house-warming party in his hauler. He needs to make some friends.

Three weeks ago, Mahaney blew the motor in George Huttig’s modified during hot laps, and tried to line up a ride for the feature. No one offered him a ride, and he was a spectator for the feature.

“None of the guys here know me that well,” he said after getting his first career win at Albany-Saratoga last Friday. “That’s the way it goes. I’m pretty much a stay-to-myself guy and stay in my trailer. My girlfriend always gets on me about that. She said I have to talk to people.

“When you get in trouble, you’ve got to have some friends to help you out.”

Here’s a little background on Mahaney, if anyone needs a conversation starter.

He’s the son of Jim “The Workshoe” Mahaney, who was a regular winner on the old Outlaw circuit. His family operates a farm in King Ferry, and because his father was so busy on the farm, Mike had to know how to prepare a car and do all the maintenance by the time he was 13.

Mike Mahaney, who will turn 30 on June 30, began racing a Tobias slingshot in 2005, winning 24 races that year. He got into a crate sportsman at the age of 16, and has progressed up the ladder ever since.

He got his first career modified win in 2008 at Black Rock (now Dundee), and area fans will remember his first big win in 2012, when he drove a car owned by Charlie Davis, who fielded cars for his father, to victory in the season-opening Ice Jam at Fonda Speedway. Five years later, he won the Jack Johnson Tribute at the Track of Champions. He’s also won track championships at Afton and Thunder Mountain.

Mahaney is a graduate of Alfred State, with a degree in motorsports technology. He designed and built his first modified body while in college, and later built a complete 358 modified.

And he’s probably the best basketball player in the modified ranks. He was an Interscholastic Athletic Conference all-star during his senior year at Southern Cayuga High School, and probably could have played at Alfred State if it hadn’t conflicted with his racing schedule.

IT’S SHOW TIME

Albany-Saratoga Speedway will be hosting its biggest race of the season Tuesday night when the Super DIRT Series pulls into town for Brett Hearn’s “Big Show 11.”

The 111-lap SDS race will pay $11,111 to win, and will draw all of the biggest names in Northeast dirt modified racing. Sheppard will be back trying to make up for a disappointing finish last year. Sheppard started on the pole and had the field covered when he was taken out by the lapped car driven by Willy Decker, handing the victory to Stewart Friesen.

Earlier this week, DIRTcar announced that a non-qualifiers race has been added to the “Big Show 11” card. The race will pay $750 to win. The winner can either transfer into the “Big Show” or take the $750.

If “Big Show 11” is anything like last year, fans should plan on arriving early. Cars were parked out on Route 9 last year long before racing started at 7 p.m. Spectator gates will open at 4 on Tuesday.

AROUND THE TRACKS

The Empire Super Sprints were at Albany-Saratoga last Friday after being absent for a couple of years. Among the drivers who tried to make the show was Jeff Trombley, a six-time modified winner at Albany-Saratoga. He suffered mechanical problems during his heat, and had to start in the last row on the B main. He missed qualifying for the feature by one spot.

I liked Al Relyea’s comment after he won the John Morris Sr. Memorial street stock feature, holding off his old nemesis Randy Miller. “I knew he was going to give me a shot. I just had to contain myself,” he said.

After his victory Friday night, Mahaney was quick to give thanks to Skip Seymour, who provided the engine that powered Mahaney to his win.

“I drove for Skip for a couple of years at Utica-Rome, and he started putting cars together for me,” said Mahaney. “During the winter, he said he had an engine that he was going to get freshened, and I told him I didn’t think we would need it. But we obviously needed it.”

Fans will remember A.J. Romano driving Seymour’s North Norwich Motors-sponsored modified at Canandaigua Speedway in the mid-1990s, and getting his first win at Canandaigua in the Seymour ride in 1995.

The sportsman points at Albany-Saratoga took a big swing Friday night. Chris Johnson, who began the night in third place, crashed on the first lap and dropped to sixth. Tim Hartman Jr. used his photo-finish win over Jack Speshock to move up to second, just 14 behind Connor Cleveland. “We worked on this car really hard during the week, and it really paid off,” said Hartman Jr. after his win.

Cleveland chalked up his fourth sportsman win of the year Saturday night at Airborne Speedway. The Plattsburgh track’s 358 modified field is beginning to look like Albany-Saratoga North. Saturday’s finish included Jessey Mueller (fifth), Matt Depew (seventh), Elmo Reckner (eighth), Jackie Brown Jr. (ninth) and Mahaney (17^th).

Chucky Dumblewski’s head must have spinning after the roller-coaster ride he endured last week at Albany-Saratoga. On the first lap of the pro stock feature, he was involved in a multicar wreck in the fourth turn, with Josh Coonradt’s car coming to rest on the hood of Dumblewski’s car. Dumblewski ducked into the hot pit, and returned to the rear of the field. He worked his way back into the top five, but on a restart on the last lap, the hood of his car came flying off. Luckily for Dumblewski, it detached completely, and he kept going, batting with Dave DePaulo for third. DePaulo nosed out Dumblewski for the show spot, and the two cars then came together past the flagger’s stand, with Dumblewski winding up against the outside wall.

To make matters worse, Dumblewski was later disqualified following the post-race inspection (I’m looking at the official results sheet. It says Dumblewski DQ). But a couple of days later, because of a misinterpretation of the DIRT rules, Dumblewski was reinstated to fourth place, and as a result, is now leading the pro stock points at Malta.

Friesen won Wednesday night’s STSS race at Outlaw Speedway. He started on the pole and was still leading when rain forced the 50-lap feature to be stopped on lap 33. The win was worth $5,000.

Utica-Rome, which suffered its seventh rainout (I’m not counting the go-kart show that was postponed) last Sunday, will be running the Cole Cup for 360 sprints in addition to its regular divisions this Sunday. The Cole Cup will mark the first time the Empire Super Sprints will be running a 50-lap feature, and as a result, the race will be halted at the midway point for refueling and work on the cars, which will be done on the front straightaway, right in front of the fans.