The 4^th Turn

~ By Tom Boggie

Remember the movie “A Few Good Men.” Jack Nicholson is sitting in the witness chair and yells, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”

Early in the season, one of my columns featured “questions to ponder.” Now, it’s time for some answers, whether you like them or not.

Let’s go in order:

Has age caught up with Brett Hearn?

Got to say no to this one. The Jersey Jet celebrated his 61^st birthday (for the uninformed, he turned 61 on Sept. 1. What, no party?) by locking up his 16^th big block championship at Orange County Speedway, which will put a nice little $40,000 into Hearn’s bank account. He won two big block features at Orange County, and also had a small block win. He didn’t defend his championship at Albany-Saratoga, but won three features, and was about 100 yards away from taking the $11,111 top prize in his own “Big Show 11.” He also finished third in both the Mr. Dirt Track USA race at Lebanon Valley, as well as the “Battle of the Bowl” at Devil’s Bowl.

Will Ken Tremont Jr. bounce back?

This one has to be a yes. Tremont won his second straight Mr. Dirt Track USA race, pocketing the top prize of $25,500, won his 14^th big block modified point championship at Lebanon Valley, won his 10^th championship at Devil’s Bowl and finished third in points at Albany-Saratoga, with two wins under his belt. However, his streak without a title at Albany-Saratoga Speedway has now reached four years.

Is Jessey Mueller for real?

It’s hard to figure out what went wrong this season. After getting the first two wins of his career at Albany-Saratoga Speedway last season, Mueller was full of confidence. When he put his DKM chassis into victory lane in the second race of the year at Malta, it looked like Mueller was ready to take his place as one of the top guns at the track. But a rash of mishaps derailed his season. After his win, he had only two other top-five finishes all season. During the winter, he said he wanted to win at least 10 races. He has two wins during the points season (one at Albany-Saratoga, one at Airborne). So that question gets a no.

Which Lebanon Valley invader will leave first?

During the winter, Brian Berger, LJ Lombardo and Olden Dwyer all said they were going to race at Albany-Saratoga on Friday nights. Lombardo only showed up twice, so technically, he left first. Of the three, no one had a top-five finish, and only Berger ever broke into the top 10. His best finish was a seventh on June 28.

How will Derrick McGrew Jr. fare in the sportsman division?

As expected, he had his hands full. He did create a little bit of excitement on opening night, when he won the first heat race of his career, but the young driver discovered it’s a huge step up from limited sportsman to sportsman at Albany-Saratoga. He finished 18^th in points. He had one top-five finish at Albany-Saratoga, but did achieve a milestone in his career with his first sportsman win at Airborne, where he finished ninth in points. There was always a positive vibe from his father Derrick Sr. and uncle (great uncle?) Randy Hotaling, which was good to see.

Who will be the new pro stock king?

With Kenny Martin moving South, the throne was vacated, and Josh Coonradt wound up with the title, his first pro stock crown at Albany-Saratoga. Coonradt had five wins and finished third in points last year, and moved up to No. 1 with four victories and more consistency this season. Brandon Emigh finished second, overtaking Chuck Dumblewski in the final points race of the year.

Can Ronnie Johnson win his first title?

That answer is no. Johnson had three wins at Malta, as many as anyone else in the modified division, but only finished eighth in points. For long stretches during the summer, he struggled just to get into the top 10.

Where will the “Big Show” dough go?

If “Big Show 11” had been 100 laps, Hearn would have kept the money. But the extra 11 laps allowed Stewart Friesen to get his third “Big Show” win, rocketing past Hearn coming out of the fourth turn on the final lap. No Albany-Saratoga regular has won “Big Show” since Hearn took the checkered flag in 2013. Invaders haven’t been this dominant since Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard started a series of raids against England in 1003 that culminated in a full-scale invasion that led to Sweyn being crowned king of England in 1013. (Oh, stop whining. You knew I was going to throw that in again!)

AROUND THE TRACKS

Albany-Saratoga Speedway set a record with its 19^th consecutive night of racing on Friday. The record of 18 was set in 2012, the first year that Howie Commander and Lyle DeVore took over the track.

Jeff Sheely must have found the Fountain of Youth. In the final race of the regular season at Afton last Friday, he finished third, his best run of the year. Sheely, who has two career wins at Afton (the last was in 1996), hasn’t been to victory lane since July 2008, when he won a modified feature at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park. Hey, when it’s time to hand out Dedication to Racing awards (are you listening, NYSSCA officers), the Sheely brothers should be at the top of the list. Jeff and his brother Doug, who runs a pro stock at Albany-Saratoga, keep bringing their cars out week after week just because they love racing. Some people golf for a hobby; the Sheelys love to be behind the wheel of a race car.

After winning last Friday night’s 100-lap sportsman feature at Albany-Saratoga Speedway (a nice $2,500 payday), Tim Hartman Jr. and members of his crew were displaying (and quite proudly, I might add) shirts that said “Fonda Speedway Champion” on them.

Hey, Lyle. How about adding a non-winners race for Albany-Saratoga regulars to the Sept. 20 card at “Malta Massive Weekend” and giving the winner a guaranteed starting spot in the Super DIRT series race on Sept. 21? Or won’t DIRT allow something like that?

Joey Scarborough recorded his first sportsman/modified win of the year Sunday at Devil’s Bowl, while Tremont finished eighth to wrap up his 10^th title.

Rocky Warner finished second in both the modified and 602 crate features at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park Sunday to win the point championships in both divisions. That’s three titles for the Flying Squirrel and car owner Jake Spraker this year. Josh Hohenforst won the 50-lap modified feature, while Andrew Buff won the 602 crate feature.

If was a big day for the Warner family, as Tanner Warner notched his first career win in the limited sportsman feature at Glen Ridge, giving the Warner clan (Rocky, Tanner and Corky) wins in three different divisions this year.

With the NASCAR Gander World Truck Series off the weekend of Sept. 20-21, I thought there might be a chance that Stewart Friesen would show for “Malta Massive Weekend.” But I forget that Grandview Speedway had a $25,000-to-win race on Sept. 21. Choices, choices.