~ By Tom Boggie

Rocky Warner is heading down a road he doesn’t want to be on.

With time quickly running out in a COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season, The Flying Squirrel is running out of chances to get to victory lane.

Warner hasn’t had a winless season since 2008, and you can be darned sure he and car owner Jake Spraker don’t want to have one now.

But it’s going to be tough to be first under a checkered flag. His TEO chassis/small block motor combination produced a milestone win at Albany-Saratoga Speedway last season, but that combo has only produced three top-five finishes at Malta this year.

And forget about Fonda Speedway. Stewart Friesen is 7-for-7 (yes, I realize there have been eight races at Fonda this season, but you don’t get credited with an at-bat if you don’t come to the plate) going into the final night of the season on Saturday.

Warner, who highlighted his 2019 campaign with a $14,000-plus victory in the Vermont 200 at Devil’s Bowl, just keeps plugging along, hoping for the night when everything falls into place.

“It’s not like I’ve been terrible here,” he said prior to last Friday’s racing program at Albany-Saratoga. “But it’s tough to watch guys like Marc (Johnson) and Stewie running through the middle and up on top while I’m stuck on the bottom.

“On the nights I look competitive, the old girl (his small block engine) really has her tongue hanging out because I’m abusing her so much.” I thought about the old girl as I was watching the feature last Friday. Pushing that small block to its limits, Warner came away with a fourth-place finish, behind the big blocks of Matt DeLorenzo, Marc Johnson and Danny Varin.

I think I could hear the old girl wheezing as Warner went over the scales after the race. Warner, who is the defending big block champion at Fonda, is even more frustrated by his Saturday night program. His best finish was a second on June 28, the night Friesen was a no-show because of other commitments, and he hasn’t been in the top five in the last four races, which include blowing a motor on the first lap of the feature on Aug. 5th.

“I can’t say Stewie is the problem because I haven’t felt like I’ve even been competitive with him,” said Warner. “There hasn’t been a night this year where I’ve come in from hot laps and said, ‘Wow.’”

The Flying Squirrel is running out of time to find the Wow factor.

ONCE UPON A TIME
… there was a kid from Cropseyville who loved to race. He raced during the winter, all summer long and became really good at it. He lived to race and achieved coveted track champion status.

But then the kid became a man, and with it came all the responsibilities of manhood, including the coveted status of fatherhood.

The now 47-year-old man from Cropseyville still loves to race, and still loves to win.

That man is Matt DeLorenzo, and he thinks he might have had some divine intervention Friday night, prior to recording his first modified win of the year at Albany-Saratoga.

“We got in an accident on the way up here,” he said after the feature. “A girl cut inside of us and hit us, and we did some damage to the hauler. But no one got hurt. Maybe someone was watching over us today.”

Prior to Friday night, DeLorenzo only had two top-five finishes to his credit. “It’s been a lot of stupid stuff, but we kept chasing it,” he said. “Pretty much, we’ve just been trying to get better every week. Dennis (Palmateer) from Integra Shocks has been a big help, and so has Randy (Williamson, of Bicknell Racing Products). My brother is still the only one who’s in the shop every night. I try to get there as much as I can, but I’m so busy all the time, I usually only get there a couple of times week.”

But he still knows what to do when he’s behind the wheel, and he was nearly perfect Friday night, hugging the cushion to hold off defending modified champion Marc Johnson.

“I figured if I ran the top, there was less of a chance of making a mistake than there is trying to hold the bottom,” DeLorenzo said. “I just trying to hit my marks.”
I can remember the days when Matty D. was a threat to win every time he climbed behind the wheel of the BBL modified. Included among his career achievements are winning the CVRA Vs. The World feature at Albany-Saratoga in 2009, which was worth $5,000, and also winning the Lou Lazzaro Memorial race at Fonda in 2010, taking home the top prize of $4,444.

GOIN’ BOWLIN’
Devil’s Bowl Speedway drew a star-studded field of cars for its Big Block/Small Block Challenge last Sunday. Anthony Perrego, who switched to a Bicknell chassis two weeks ago at Albany-Saratoga, went back to his old TEO and won the 50-lapper and the top prize of $7,500.

Jessey Mueller won the accompanying 25-lap big block feature, which was his first win of the year and paid $1,500, while Mat Williamson won the small block feature, also worth $1,500. In addition, Williamson was second in the big block feature and third in the Big Block/Small Block Challenge.

Ken Tremont Jr., mired in one of the worst slumps of his career, only took his sportsman/modified to Devil’s Bowl and finished third in that race, behind winner Kevin Root, who made the long haul in from Geneva, N.Y. to compete at the Bowl for the first time ever, and Demetrios Drellos.

AROUND THE TRACKS
A big sigh of relief went up from the officials’ tower Friday night after Jared Powell gave the thumbs-up sign after being removed from his limited sportsman car following a vicious wreck in a heat race. Powell got out of shape exiting the fourth turn and climbed the outside concrete wall. When he hit one of the poles supporting the fence, he flew back on the racing surface, upside down and with the rear of the car facing the fourth turn. With nowhere to go, Scott Bennett barreled in and slammed into the rear of Powell’s roll cage, again flipping the car, which wound up on its side.

Emergency personnel righted the car and gingerly removed Powell, first putting him into a cervical collar and then on a backboard. But after a couple of minutes, the backboard was removed and Powell was in a reclining position on the gurney when he gave the thumbs-up sign. That was one of the worst wrecks I’ve ever seen at Malta, ranking right up with John Bellinger’s spectacular sportsman wreck many years ago, when he barrel-rolled from the fourth turn to a spot just beyond the flagstand
How good has Friesen been this year? His win Tuesday night at Delaware International Speedway ended a six-day drought, one of the longest he’s gone through on dirt tracks since the Fonda Speedway opener on June 13. He was a DNF Sunday at Devil’s Bowl, but won with the same car on Tuesday.

If Friesen manages to win the modified title at Albany-Saratoga Speedway this season, he’ll have to give his wife Jessica an assist. She was the substitute driver in the Halmar 44 at Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Friday while Stewart was racing trucks in Michigan, and despite her limited amount of experience at Malta, finished 13th, which kept Stewart within striking distance of points leader Mike Mahaney.

In the young whippersnappers category, two youngsters with bright futures were in victory lane last weekend. Brock “Bam Bam” Pinkerous, who is 11, won the All-Star Slingshots at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park on Sunday. Pinkerous, who won the Junior Slingshots title last year, outran Danny Ballard, who is 68 years old.

On Tuesday, Tanner Von Doren, 12, won the sportsman series race at Delaware International. Tim Hartman Jr. finished fourth in that race, maintaining the series point lead.

You also have to be impressed with 20-year-old Dylan Madsen, who recorded his first limited sportsman feature last Friday. That was just his fourth time in the car, the former No. 20 that Brett Hearn ran at Albany-Saratoga. In four starts, Madsen, who now uses the No. 89 because that’s the number his father Brian used when he raced, has finished 14th, 14th, fifth and first. Dylan Madsen was ecstatic after his win. “I can’t thank my guys enough,” he said. “They really killed it tonight.”

Hartman Jr. notched his 26th career sportsman win at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, moving into a tie for second place with his father Tim Sr. on the all-time win list.
Congratulations to Ronnie Johnson for getting his first win of the year at Lebanon Valley on Saturday night. Johnson has been burning the midnight oil trying to hit on the right setup for the Bicknell chassis he switched over to in the winter, and all the hard work finally paid off, when he beat his brother-in-law, Andy Bachetti, in the 30-lap feature. That’s the second time this year the in-laws have finished one-two. Bachetti won on June 20, with Johnson second.

Tommy Proctor was a substitute driver for his cousin Fred Friday night at Albany-Saratoga. Tommy Proctor was the 2000 sportsman champion at Malta.

Derek Bornt, who has been running in the sportsman division at Albany-Saratoga, stepped up to the modified division last weekend, but didn’t qualify for the feature.
The modifieds will be running for $3,000 to win Friday night at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. The DMA USAC midgets are also on the racing card.

As I was preparing to leave Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Friday, I heard the sound of a car roaring around the empty track. Looking out, I saw a black car, with no adornments at all, rocketing through a couple of hot laps. It was Marc Johnson, shaking down another new car.