~ By Tom Boggie

Let’s play a little game. It’s called which of these things is not like the others?

Your choices are Stewart Friesen, Mat Williamson and Andrew Buff.

If you said Andrew Buff, you’re wrong. Actually, it was a trick question, because they’re all the same. They seem to run their best when there’s big money on the line.

Friesen walked out of Albany-Saratoga Speedway with over $5,300 last Friday night, Williamson won $10,000 at the Slate Valley 100 at Devil’s Bowl, and Buff had the most lucrative weekend of his sportsman career.

Granted, it took Buff three nights to accumulate a total of $5,500, but it was certainly worth it.

Buff began his weekend by recording his fourth win of the season in the sportsman feature at Albany-Saratoga, which paid $1,500 to win, thanks to some additional sponsorship money. The win also gave him a guaranteed starting spot in the DIRTcar sportsman series race that will be run as part of the OktoberFAST show on Oct. 6.

On Saturday, he hauled to Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh for the second race of the pandemic-shortened season at that track, and won there, adding another $2,500 to his bank account.

Then, on Sunday, it was off to the Glen Ridge Motorsports Park, where he shared the 2020 crate modified championship with Travis Green. Buff and Green had talked co-promoter Ray Sefrin into running a 50-lapper, paying $1,500 to win, and Buff completed his Triple Crown by also winning that race.

Despite the pandemic, 2020 has been the best season of Buff’s career. He began the campaign by hauling to Florida in February and picking up a win at North Florida Speedway. Since the Northeast season started, he has four wins at Albany-Saratoga, three at Glen Ridge and one each at Orange County Speedway (his first career win at the Middletown facility) and Airborne. Very few drivers in the Northeast can claim 10-win seasons in 2020. As a result, he’s currently third in the DIRTcar Sportsman Hoosier Tire Weekly Racing Series Championship points.

TWO TITLES ARE BETTER THAN ONE
The support divisions at area dirt tracks usually fly under the radar, only getting any ink if there’s a bad wreck or some kind of controversy. But Wayne Russell Jr. deserves some recognition.

Russell edged out Allana Jordan for the four-cylinder single-cam championship at Albany-Saratoga Speedway by six points, and also won the title at Glen Ridge Motorsport Park.

Russell won the championship at Albany-Saratoga without the benefit of a victory, but he did have two second-place finishes within his division. For those who may not be familiar with the four-cylinders at Albany-Saratoga, both the dual-cam and single-cam cars run in one feature, and then are scored as separate divisions.

The other support division champions crowned at Albany-Saratoga last Friday were Bryce Breault (limited sportsman), Jeff Meltz Sr. (street stocks) and David Frame (four-cylinder dual cam).

Three years ago, Breault was racing go-karts, and picked up a $2,000 victory in the Northeast Adirondack Nationals at Turkey Trot Raceway.

AROUND THE TRACKS
Last Friday was not a good night for a pair of 2020 champions. Pro stock champion Luke Horning was involved in a wreck on the first lap of the first pro stock heat and went off on a wrecker. He never made it out for the feature.

In the sportsman division, Tim Hartman Jr. suffered a flat left front tire on lap 9, probably the result of slapping the inside barrier a couple of laps earlier. Hartman came back out and worked his way up into second, but something broke on the car as he came out of the fourth turn on the last lap and he ended up eighth after coasting past the finish line on the infield grass.

Albany-Saratoga modified champion Mike Mahaney finished second in the Slate Valley 100 at the Bowl. Part of the Slate Valley 100 program was the Flying Farmer Dash for Cash presented by Josh Richards, an elimination race where the last car in the field is eliminated after each lap. Bobby Hackel IV defeated Demetrios Drellos for the top prize of $1,000. Also on the card was the Northeast Crate Nationals. That race, with $2,000 going to the winner, was won by Drellos.

Brett Hearn made his return to Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Friday, but had nothing but trouble. He had to be pushed in from the first hot lap session with obvious engine problems, and then pulled out on the fifth lap of his heat race. He never did start the feature, but took the car back out for a couple of tuneup laps after the night’s racing program was completed.

Marc Johnson ran his Lebanon Valley car at Albany-Saratoga last Friday and finished second for the fifth time this season. Four of those runner-up finishes have been behind Friesen. Johnson lost any chance he had for the win when he broke the right front brake late in the race.

According to Friesen, Albany-Saratoga was slipperier than usual last Friday, which made finding the quickest way around the speedway a little tricky. “The lane was changing,” he said after his fifth win of the season. “The top would be good, then it would slick up. The bottom would be good, then it would glaze over. I had to keep looking for the right lane.”

Who says racing is a young man’s game? Dan Ballard, who is 68 years old, wrapped up the slingshot championship at Glen Ridge last Sunday, while Billy Pauch, who is 63, won the modified title at Bridgeport. You could throw Billy Decker, who won the crown at Thunder Mountain, into that mix, but Decker, who is 55, is still only a young whippersnapper.

Speaking of slingshots, they’ll be on the racing card at Albany-Saratoga Friday night, racing for $500 to win. The modified feature will pay $2,500 to win. This should be the final racing card until OktoberFAST, but who really knows?

Friesen will be looking for his sixth win of the season Friday at Albany-Saratoga. Do you know the last driver to win six modified races in a season at Malta? How many said Hearn? Well, you were wrong. It was Friesen, who had six wins in 2016, the first season he was driving the Halmar 44.