~ By Tom Boggie

Now I know why Don Ronca kept all “his stuff.”

For nights like last Friday.

A two-time modified champion at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Ronca has really struggled in recent years. Prior to his early retirement from General Electric, I used to run into him at 151 Restaurant in Schenectady, a favorite stop for GE employees on their way home, and I would badger him about why he kept racing.

If he wanted to stay involved, he could work in the garage and at the track with the rest of the family, I would say. He didn’t need the weekly aggravation to just finish 15th or so. He’d nod his head, like it was a really good idea, and then add, “But I’ve got so much stuff.”

And on Friday, there he was, standing in victory lane after winning his first race in three years. Driving a 7-year-old Hig Fab chassis, Ronca ran a perfect race in a 35-lapper that didn’t have a caution to finally snap his drought.

“This is important,” he said in victory lane. “This is why I hung around for so long. This is what keeps me coming back. I just wanted to win one more.”

Looking for a perfect end to his career, I told Ronca he should announce his retirement right there, in victory lane at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. Heck, I don’t know of anyone who won a race, and then promptly retired.

Ronca, who recorded the first modified win of his career at Drummondville in 1982 (for the record, that was a year before Stewart Friesen was born) just laughed. “There are two more races this season, and then I’ll think about it.”

Ronca also made history last Friday night, becoming the oldest driver to win a modified feature at Albany-Saratoga. Ronca will celebrate his 62nd birthday Saturday, meaning he was 61 years and 11 months last weekend. Frank Hoard Sr. was 61 years and four months when he recorded his final win at Albany-Saratoga in 2003.

For one more night, Ronca relived his glory days. There wasn’t anything lucky about it. It was just a case of the stars all aligning on one night.

“We need everything to be perfect,” said Ronca. “We need a good car, a good starting spot, and a clean race. Tonight, we got all of it.”

Getting back to the racing last Friday, Ronca and Bobby Hackel IV put on a real show, running side-by-side for the second half of the feature, bobbing and weaving through lapped cars. Ronca only ran into one problem, when he slammed into the front stretch wall when he was overtaking James Meehan on lap 24.

“I’m lucky the right rear is still on,” he said as he looked over his car after the win.

Friesen thought he had picked up his fifth win of the season when he made another dramatic, last-lap pass to rocket by Hackel coming down to the checkered flag. He didn’t even know Ronca was the leader. “I thought I was racing Bobby for the win,” said Friesen.
For the record, the last time Ronca won, on July 14, 2017, Friesen was also second.

Ronca’s dramatic victory overshadowed Mike Mahaney wrapping up his first modified crown at Albany-Saratoga. In his second year driving for George Huttig, who started racing at Albany-Saratoga in the mid-1980s with Mike Perrotte behind the wheel, Mahaney had a solid season, winning the first modified feature of the year and then finishing outside the top 10 (an 11th) only once during the remainder of the season.

He finished 10th last Friday, giving him a 14-point margin of victory over defending champion Marc Johnson, and later admitted he was being a little cautious.

“I knew I had to finish the race, and I figured I had to finish in the top 10,” he said. “The outside seemed a little quicker, but I couldn’t find room to move up. It was one of those nights where if you wanted to get to the top, you’d have to move someone out of the way, and I didn’t want to do that. With no cautions, it was tough to get through the field.”

BIG PAYDAY
Demetrios Drellos chalked up the biggest payday of his career by winning the Vermont 200 at Devil’s Bowl last Sunday. The race paid $7,500 to win, and Drellos, who started 21st, but led the final 115 laps of the race, racked up another $3,376 in lap money, giving him a total of $10,876. Kevin Root finished second but was later disqualified, moving Mike Maresca up to second. He was followed by Matt Janczuk, Tim Hartman Jr. and Josh Masterson.

In the Vermont 200 prelims on Saturday, Robert Bublak Jr. won the Ron Casey Memorial, a non-points race, and Josh Coonradt won the pro stock feature, giving him the title in the four-race series at the Bowl.

BIG FINALE
Albany-Saratoga Speedway will end its regular season Friday night on the anniversary of 9/11 with a “Never Forget” night of racing. The highlight of the card will be a 50-lap modified feature, paying $5,000 to win. The sportsman will be running for a top prize of $1,500.

Because Albany-Saratoga is also part of the OktoberFAST Super DIRT Series that will be held in October, many of the top drivers in the Northeast are expected to come to Malta on Friday night for the 50-lapper to get some notes on track conditions.

One of the invaders will be Brett Hearn, the winningest driver in the history of the speedway. Hearn retired at the end of the 2019 season to become the track manager at Orange County Speedway, but The Jersey Jet has been testing recently at Orange County in preparation for the October series, and will be getting back into competition for the first time on Friday night.

The modified event will feature a draw for heats and a redraw before the feature, giving invaders like Hearn, Mat Williamson, Billy Decker and Matt Sheppard an equal opportunity at a good starting position.

AROUND THE TRACKS
The modified, sportsman and pro stock point races at Malta are over, and the champions in the limited sportsman, street stock and four-cylinder classes will be crowned Friday. Bryce Breault has a 35-point lead over Shane Larman in the limited sportsman division, Al Relyea and Jeff Meltz Sr. are tied for the lead in the street stock division after their wild finish last Friday, Wayne Russell leads Alanna Jordan by eight points in the four-cylinder single-cam division and David Frame has already wrapped up the title in the dual cam division.

Congratulations go out to Gina Voris, who picked up the first win of her mini-stock career at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park last Sunday. Also at Glen Ridge, Andrew Buff finished second in the crate modified division on Sunday, giving him a share of the track championship with Travis Green. Luke Horning was crowned the pro stock champion, giving him the titles at both Albany-Saratoga and Glen Ridge.

Devil’s Bowl will be hosting the Slate Valley 100, a big block/small block challenge paying $10,000 to win, on Saturday. In the event of rain, the race will be held on Sunday.