~ By Tom Boggie

Fans love to debate when it comes to naming someone the “Greatest of All Time.” It’s easy to match statistics, play the what-if game, drone on about who’s better than whom. But I like to head in the other direction, and find drivers who are underrated.
With that in mind, I’d like to put in a vote for Andy Bachetti as one of the most underrated modified dirt track drivers ever. The 44-year-old Bachetti, the son-in-law of the legendary Jack Johnson, is coming off a heck of a week. After finishing second at Afton last Friday night, he pulled off a double dip at Lebanon Valley Speedway on Saturday, winning both the big block and small block features.
In fact, he’s won the last two big block features at the Valley, and will be trying to keep that streak intact on Saturday.
Depending on which statistics you give credence to, Bachetti has either 190 career wins (that coming from Auto Racing Research Associates) or a couple more than that (according to his own homepage). Either way, he’s closing in on 200 victories.
I think one of the reasons that Bachetti is underrated is because he’s never won “The Big One,” namely either the 358 modified championship or the big block championship during Super DIRT Week.
His best finish on the Moody Mile at Syracuse was a third in the 358 modified championship in 2000, when he finished behind Pete Bicknell and Steve Paine. He also sat on the pole for the 358 championship in 1996.
And just because he hasn’t won “The Big One,” that doesn’t mean he hasn’t won SOME big ones. He’s a three-time winner of the Mr. Dirt Track USA race at the Valley and won “The Gobbler” at Accord Speedway last fall, his second career win in that Fall classic.
Bachetti got the racing bug from his father, Scott who used to run a big, ole coupe at Lebanon Valley. Scott Bachetti put his son in a 1,200cc sprint car in the early 1990s, and Bachetti, nicknamed “The Wild Child,” recorded the first win on his career at Hi Groove Speedway (if I’m not mistaken, that’s in New Hampshire) in 1993.
Since then, he’s won 85 races at Lebanon Valley, 52 at Accord, another 21 at Orange County Speedway and several others at a variety of tracks, including Albany-Saratoga Speedway, where he registered his only modified win on May 18, 2001.
Among his accomplishments are sweeping the small block and big blocks championship at Lebanon Valley twice, in 2006 and 2009. With his victories this season, he’s won at least one modified feature at Lebanon Valley for the last 20 consecutive seasons.
Bachetti will probably never make it into the conversation of Greatest of All Time, but the Sheffield, Mass., driver is certainly Hall of Fame material.

I SCREWED UP
OK, I admit it. I make mistakes sometimes, and I’m not afraid to admit when I do.
In last week’s 4th Turn, I brought up Ken Tremont Jr.’s run of bad luck at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, and said he hadn’t finished a feature in three starts.
That was wrong. On opening night, despite two trips to the pits, he did finish all 35 laps, and finished 11th overall.
The black cloud that has been hanging over Tremont’s head followed him to Devil’s Bowl last Thursday (July 2) for the Independence Day Firecracker. Because of a fuel pump problem, Tremont missed his heat race, and was forced to take his son Montgomery’s limited sportsman out for the sportsman/modified consolation. But he came up one spot short of qualifying, making him a spectator for the rest of the night.

AROUND THE TRACKS
Bobby Hackel IV won the sportsman/modified portion of the Independence Day Firecracker at the Bowl, his second win of the season. At least his crate motor keeps humming along.
As previously mentioned, Bachetti finished second in last Friday’s season opener at Afton. Jeff Sheely dusted off his modified for another season, and finished 14th.
Stewart Friesen will be back at Albany-Saratoga Speedway Friday night before heading to Kentucky Saturday for the next stop in the NASCAR Gander RV And Outdoors Truck Series. Friesen won three dirt track races last week, one at Orange County and two at Fonda, pocketing over $21,000 in the process.
I need someone to explain how the COVID-19 quarantine works.
Kentucky is one of the states on which New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has instituted a travel ban. If Friesen races in Kentucky Saturday, does that mean that he’ll have to self-quarantine for 14 days when he returns to New York, or is there a loophole that he can squeeze through?
Too bad the casino in Schenectady is closed. I’d like to bet that Jessica Friesen will win a modified feature at Fonda sometime this year.