~ By Tom Boggie

The number of New York state dirt tracks closing their doors because of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow.

Lebanon Valley Speedway officials announced earlier this week that the racing card on Saturday night will be the season finale.

If you’ve been following the developments pertaining to dirt tracks, Lebanon Valley and four other New York speedways (including Albany-Saratoga, Fonda and Airborne) filed a lawsuit in mid-July requesting an injunction to prevent New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from limiting outdoor gatherings as long as the participants observed social distancing guidelines. In simple terms, the five tracks wanted the ban on spectators lifted.

A state district judge dismissed the lawsuit on Aug. 11, keeping the ban on spectators in place.

So Lebanon Valley has opted to end its season early. In the event of rain on Saturday, the season finale will be held on Aug. 29. According to published reports, Ken McGuire Jr., Lebanon Valley Speedway’s attorney, stated that track owner Howard Commander was losing between $8,000 and $10,000 per week by racing with no fans in the stands.

Fonda Speedway completed its season last weekend. Now, with Lebanon Valley pulling the plug, Albany-Saratoga and Glen Ridge Motorsports Park are the last men standing in the Capital Region.

Albany-Saratoga promoter Lyle DeVore has been taking it one week at a time, running all of his divisions, getting as much back-gate money as possible and even bringing in organizations like the Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modifieds and the DMA USAC midgets to give them some track time without putting any extra pressure on his wallet. Sponsors have been stepping up weekly to add bonus money throughout the various divisions. For instance, Marc Johnson earned $3,000 for his first modified win of the year last Friday because of extra money put up by Bart’s Contracting.

As a result, DeVore has been getting an overflow number of cars in the pits. Last Friday, he picked up five new modifieds, bringing his modified field to 40. That necessitated a 14-car consi. That’s unheard of these days.

DeVore hasn’t given any indication that he plans to close early. If anything, he’s got his fingers crossed that Gov. Cuomo will look at the COVID numbers again next week and lift the ban on spectators sometime in September, giving DeVore an opportunity to end the year with a big show. If Cuomo gives the OK to high school fall sports next week, can spectators at dirt tracks be far behind?

MILESTONE VICTORY
Nikki Ouellette reached a milestone last Saturday, recording the first sportsman victory of her career at Lebanon Valley Speedway.

Ouellette, who campaigns her family-owned DKM chassis, posted a heartfelt thank you to all of her crew (especially her dad Ken), fans and sponsors on Facebook, saying, “This one’s for you, mom. We did it.” Nikki, who spent many years racing on the asphalt at Thompson Speedway before switching to dirt and Lebanon Valley, dedicated the 2020 season to her mother, Peggy, who died in August 2019 after a long illness.

Before getting hooked on racing, Ouellette was heavily involved in figure skating, and her sister, Casey, is a member of the U.S. Synchronized Figure Skating team.

If I’m not mistaken, Ouellette is only the second woman to win an open-wheel feature at the Valley. Kim LaVoy’s career includes nine sportsman wins and three small block modified victories.

AROUND THE TRACKS
Although Stewart Friesen went 8-for-8 at Fonda Speedway this season, Mike Maresca won his first modified point championship because Friesen missed one week when he was competing in the NASCAR Gander RV Truck Series. Maresca became the first driver to capture the championship without winning a feature since Ray Dalmata in 1979. I’m also giving Friesen the new track record for consecutive wins. Hey, in major league baseball, a starting pitcher can put together an eight-game winning streak, even though he doesn’t play between starts.

During the offseason, Chad Edwards picked up a ride in Hall of Famer John Kollar’s new Bicknell chassis, and the move paid off, as Edwards won the sportsman title at Fonda, giving Kollar his first championship in his 53 years in racing.

Jack Speshock had a great weekend go up in smoke. He won the first sportsman/modified feature of the season Saturday night at Airborne Park in Plattsburgh, and then followed that up with his first win of the year Sunday night at Devil’s Bowl. But that win proved to be costly, as Speshock’s engine seized up just as he took the checkered flag. Speshock knew he was going to be in trouble when his temperature gauge got up to 270 early in the feature. “I was out front, so I just kept going,” he said after the race.

It was good to see Buck Gasner in victory lane after the pro stock feature at Glen Ridge on Sunday night. Gasner was the founder of the Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modifieds and ran Bob Savoie and Maynard Forrette tribute cars for a couple of years. In 2018, after getting into pro stocks, he was honored by the New York State Stock Car Association as the Fonda Speedway Pro Stock Rookie of the Year.

Two weeks ago, Scott Bennett was involved in the horrific wreck with Jared Powell during a limited sportsman heat race at Albany-Saratoga. Bennett put in a lot of hours in the shop to get back to the track last Friday, but he ended up leaving on the business end of a tow truck again after getting involved in a tangle in the third turn of the feature.

The best race of the night last Friday at Albany-Saratoga was the first limited sportsman heat, in which Dylan Madsen nipped Taylor Wason by .013 seconds.

Marc Johnson’s win at Albany-Saratoga last Friday moved him into second place in the modified point standings, just eight behind leader Mike Mahaney.

Going into the season finale at the Valley, Andy Bachetti has a 28-point lead over Ken Tremont Jr., who chalked up his second win of the year last Saturday, in the race for the big block point championship. Brett Haas has a one-point lead over Tim Davis in the small block modified division, with Bachetti third, only nine points out of the lead. Bachetti won last week’s small block feature.

Tony Markou was at a loss for words last Saturday, after he ended a 21-year winless drought with his first career pro stock victory at Lebanon Valley. He raced sportsman and IMCA modifieds early in his career before taking two decades off to raise a family, returning in 2019. Prior to his return, he suffered massive injuries, including shattering both heels and breaking two vertebrae, when he fell from a 20-foot ladder in 2016.