The 4th Turn

~ By Tom Boggie

Anyone who’s hung around with me for a while knows I like to put down a friendly wager every now and then. And now that New York has legalized sports betting, and Rivers Casino in Schenectady is a short walk from my house, betting has become even easier.

If they had betting on dirt track modified racing at Rivers, I’d put down a chunk of cash on Bobby Hackel IV to win Friday night’s modified feature at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

To say that Hackel is overdue is an understatement. He’s been in contention for a victory on numerous occasions this season, and something always goes wrong.

Take last weekend as an example. Hackel went right to the lead from the outside pole in the Killer Crate-sponsored PMC chassis, and was cruising along until a restart on lap 15.

Did anyone else notice that, under caution, Ronnie Johnson, who was running fourth at the time, pulled up next to Hackel? He was trying to alert Hackel to the fact that his right rear tire was going flat.

Sure enough, when the green came back out and Hackel hit the gas, the pressure forced the right rear to lose air. Keith Flach and Brett Hearn, who were running second and third, banged together in an attempt to avoid Hackel’s slowing car, and Johnson grabbed the lead, going on to his second win of the year. Hackel was done for he night, finishing 22^nd.

Back on June 14, Hackel was also in contention for his first win of the season, After starting eighth, he worked his way to up second by lap 24, but then got bottled up behind the lapped car of Jack Lehner. When Matt DeLorenzo went by Hackel for second, Hackel desperately tried to squeeze through a hole that wasn’t there in the third turn, made contact with Lehner, and did enough damage to his car that he had to go off on a hook. Instead of a top two or three finish, Hackel wound up 21^st.

In 12 starts this season, Hackel has only finished in the top five once. That was on June 7, when he started fifth, and finished fourth. At least nothing went wrong that night.

After finishing 22^nd, seventh and 22^nd in his last three starts, Hackel will be starting up front again Friday night. I think he’s worth a little wager.

At least his run of bad luck at Albany-Saratoga hasn’t carried over to Sundays at Devil’s Bowl. Last weekend, he picked up his second win of the year in the 38-lap Vince Quenneville Sr. Memorial. It was probably a good thing he won the double-points feature, because he skipped a joint birthday celebration for his grandmother, who was celebrating her 75^th birthday, and his parents, who both turned 50.

The win allowed Hackel to jump from sixth to second in points, and now trails Ken Tremont Jr. by 47.

Tremont finished third after starting 26^th.

NEW HALL OF FAMERS

I spent couple of hours in the sweltering Fonda Speedway Museum last Saturday afternoon for the 2019 Hall of Fame inductions. Jackie Lape recruited me to do the inductions of both Danny Ody and Randy Glenski. The other new Hall of Famers are Jack Cottrell and Dave Camara.

Ody, who died in 2014, in probably best remembered for his work as a racing historian who dedicated countless hours to the research of defunct area tracks to help preserve the history of local dirt track racing. But he was also a heck of a racer, twice winning mini-sprint national championships, in 1986 and 1987, when he was driving for Steve Fourman of L&S Fabrications, who built the best mini-sprints in the country.

I watched Glenski put the Bottom Line Stripper car on the outside pole, and then finish fourth at Syracuse during Super DIRT Week in 1990, giving car owners Frank and Kathy Procopio their 15 minutes of fame. I watched Camara win the first USNA race at the fairgrounds in Syracuse in 2000, taking $30,000 back to Vermont. And I spent a lot of Friday nights in the Publik House in Malta with Jack and Debbie Cottrell and their crew after the races at Albany-Saratoga.

It was good to see all of them honored on the same day, despite the oppressive heat.

SUPER DIRT SERIES UPDATE

The Super DIRT Big Block Series went to Canada earlier this week, with Erick Rudolph winning at Drummondville on Monday and Matt Sheppard taking the checkered flag at Granby.

Here’s how the Albany-Saratoga regulars and other area drivers who are following the tour finished:

Drummondville: Stewart Friesen, second (he used up his tires and lost the lead on a restart with eight laps remaining); Demetrious Drellos, sixth; Hearn, 12^th; Peter Britten, 13^th; Mike Mahaney, 15^th; Jessey Mueller, 20^th; Lehner, 21^st.

Granby: Britten, second; Hearn, sixth; Friesen, ninth; Lehner, 10^th; Mahaney, 15^th; Drellos, 16^th; Mueller, 19^th.

Lehner’s finish at Granby is his first top-10 finish ever on the tour.

Here’s what Britten told DIRT media people after the feature at Granby. “We started ninth, got to the lead and got beat by the best car on the tour. It still sucks.”

AROUND THE TRACKS

What a difference a new car makes. After struggling for the last month at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Ronnie Johnson debuted a new TEO chassis last Friday, and recorded his second win of the season.

“I’m just more comfortable in this car,” said Johnson after the race. “My confidence level was building up as the race went on. Hopefully, this will give us something to build on.”

 When asked why it’s so hard to win at Albany-Saratoga, Johnson didn’t even hesitate. “The competition here is so tough. When you start near the front, and have Brett Hearn and Keith Flach next to you … nothing is easy here.”

The features weren’t the only exciting races at Albany-Saratoga last week. The way the modifieds were running in their heats, you would have thought there was some extra money on the line. In the first heat, Flach and C.G. Morey raced side-by-side to the checkered flag, with Flach winning by .0031 seconds in a photo finish.

In the third heat, Hearn and Marc Johnson finished side-by-side in a near-dead heat for second.

This Friday night’s card at Albany-Saratoga Speedway is highlighted by the “Stan Da Man 32,” a tribute to Stan DeVore. Stan, the father of promoter Lyle DeVore, died in 2016 at the age of 73. As everyone knows, Stan was heavily involved in custom cars, and his favorite was a 1932 Ford, two-door sedan, thus the “32.” The modified feature will pay $3,200 to win, and each heat race winner will receive a $320 bonus. The card will also include a Native Pride Sitting Bull 32 for pro stocks.

Jeff Trombley finished fourth in last Saturday’s CRSA sprint feature at Canandaigua, and came back with a third on Sunday at Thunder Mountain. That allowed the two-time winner to open up a 997-938 lead over Alysha Bay in the race for the series championship.

P.J. Bleau, a regular in the Albany-Saratoga four-cylinder division, is making his trips to Vermont pay off. Bleau won the mini-stock feature at Devil’s Bowl last Sunday, his third win in four appearances this season.

Marc Johnson, who says he hates to finish second, has been the runner-up in three of the last four modified features at Albany-Saratoga, and now has a 26-point lead over Matt DeLorenzo.

After last Saturday’s modified feature at Lebanon Valley was rained out, the big blocks will be running double features this Saturday.

Looking for some good food and some good stories? There will be plenty of both at the NESCOT Steak and Chicken Bake on Aug. 25 at the Nassau Sportsman Club. NESCOT is also looking for donations for door prizes. For information or to buy tickets, call Rich Carpinello (518-477-8352), Al McCoy (518-857-3583) or Mark Krosky (518-894-0197).