The 4^th Turn

~ By Tom Boggie

If you’re looking for scintillating and thought-provoking material, you’ve come to the wrong place. The one or two functioning brain cells I have left are overworked. The NHL has already started playing exhibition games, for God’s sake. Enough of this dirt track racing.

Wasn’t it Ferris Bueller who said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Like Mr. Bueller, I need a day off.

Depending on when you’re reading this, we’re either starting “Malta Massive Weekend” or are heading into Day 2 of the weekend, going full steam ahead into Saturday’s Super DIRT Series 100-lapper, which will be the 22^nd consecutive night of racing at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. Who would have thought, when five of the first six race dates were rained out, that there would be 22 consecutive nights of racing? No wonder I need some time off.

I did a little checking and the longest streak I could come up with was Fulton running 25 straight shows in 1991 (OK, I admit it. I got bored and stopping looking after that!). I also discovered that Canandaigua ran its entire 22-night schedule without a rainout in 1995.

Let’s move on.

A second set of champions was crowned last Friday at Albany-Saratoga. The previous week, the points season ended for the modifieds, sportsman and pro stocks. Last Friday featured the final points races for the limited sportsman, street stocks and four-cylinders.

I admit, I don’t like this format. Either crown all the champions on the same night, or end the points for the three support classes the week before the three main classes decide their champions. That way, the three support classes would be getting a little more recognition, instead of getting shuffled to a weekend when the stands are going to be half-full.

But I digress.

Taking home titles last Friday were Dylan Bokus (limited sportsman), Al Relyea (street stocks), David Frame (dual cam four-cylinders) and Alanna Jordan (single cam four-cylinders).

Two of the new champions are teenagers.

Bokus, who is 18, finished with a 103-point margin over Dave Richer. After having one win last year, Bokus finished with two wins this season in the Troyer he purchased during the offseason. But the thing I was impressed with was his consistency. It seemed like he was finishing in the top 10 every week, in a class where mechanical breakdowns and wrecks are common. He had 13 top-five finishes overall. On his Facebook page, he posted, “A shoutout to Marc Johnson. Without your help getting us where we needed to be on a baseline with this new Troyer, we probably would not have been as fast as we were all year.”

The Bokus ride, sponsored by Saratoga Surveillance, underwent a change in midseason, coming out with a new color scheme and graphics package created by DE Designs, giving the team a more professional look.

And when Bokus had a medical issue In August, his older brother Colin got behind the wheel of the No. 39 and finished fourth, keeping the championship hopes alive.

Jordan, 17, returned to Albany-Saratoga after a one-year absence. She finished third in points in the single-cam division in 2017, and this year, had one win and a string of consistent finishes to come away with her first title. She finished with an eight-point margin of victory over defending champion Robert Garney. If I’m not mistaken, Jordan is just the second female to win a division championship at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. The other was Lori Cary, who won pro stock titles in 2006 and 2007.

AROUND THE TRACKS

The big news last week was Stewart Friesen’s switch to the Bicknell chassis from the DKM Cyclone. In the last three years, he’s worked closely with Dave Constantino, Kyle Hoffman and Eric Mack on the development of the Cyclone, and they’ve won some big races. But this year, the dominate chassis has been the Bicknell (Matt Sheppard, Mat Williamson and Erick Rudolph all drive one) and Friesen decided it was time to make a switch.

After spending a hectic week preparing the Bicknells for himself and wife Jessica, Friesen debuted the new chassis last Saturday at Fonda and won the feature, which paid $4,000 to win.

During a post-race interview, Friesen also said he’s got Jay Castimore doing his tires. Castimore was Brett Hearn’s tire man during Hearn’s glory days, and in recent years, has been working with Keith Flach. There’s no one better at tire prep and selection than Castimore.

Tim Hartman Jr. had another nice payday last Saturday, winning the $2,000-to-win, 50-lap sportsman race at Fonda, which was the final event of the series formerly known as KOD (nice little Prince reference, eh?) Bobby Hackel IV finished fifth and was crowned the series champion. After the year Hackel IV had at Albany-Saratoga, it’s nice to see him WIN something.

It was also good to see Jessey Mueller back in victory lane last Friday at Albany-Saratoga after a season that had one bad break after another. “It wasn’t a good year, that’s for sure,” he said after the 35-lap race, which paid $3,000 to win. “I destroyed a lot of [expletive]. I’ve had bad luck all summer.” Friday marked the second straight year that Mueller has won the small block race that followed the end of the modified points season at Malta.

Hearn, who had thought about skipping the Friday night show, finished fourth in the small block race. “Honestly, I thought about taking the night off,” he said as he swept out his pit area (Brett Hearn with a broom in his hand? What’s the world coming to?). “If we weren’t running here next week [Friday night’s small block race in ‘Malta Massive Weekend,’] I probably would have stayed home.”

Rocky Warner continued his habit of being late, arriving at Malta long after warmups were completed last Friday. After an adventurous heat race, Warner and crew were scrambling to get some dents and dings out of his car. “No one here can drive in a straight line,” he grumbled as the crew made sure the front end wasn’t bent. He went on to finish fifth in the 35-lap feature.

Jeff Trombley picked up his fourth CRSA sprint series win of the year last weekend at Fonda. Going into the season finale at Afton on Oc.t 10, he has a 112-point lead over Darryl Ruggles as he tries to win his third straight championship.

Matt DeLorenzo still had his sense of humor after blowing his motor last Friday night at Albany-Saratoga. “They always run best before they blow,” he said. He ran Brian Gleason’s backup car at Fonda on Saturday.

Randy Miller’s victory in the street stock feature at Albany-Saratoga last Friday was the 50^th win of his career. Half of those wins came in a span from 2013-15, when he won 25 features. His best year, win-wise, was 2015, when he won 11 races at Malta, including one stretch of five in a row. Although Miller is known as “The Wheelman,” he could have switched his nickname to “Full Moon” this year. After having a disagreement with tech officials in June, he started taking more Friday nights off and was only showing up at Albany-Saratoga about once a month, for the races that had bigger purses. But he made sure he was there to get win No. 50.

Devil’s Bowl had to set a record for closest finish ever last Sunday in its 50-lap sportsman/modified season finale. Joey Roberts recorded his first win of the year, holding off Justin Comes by .001 seconds. You can’t get any closer than that.

Devil’s Bowl promoter Mike Bruno was a proud papa Sunday when son Johnny secured the limited sportsman championship. In his first year in a sportsman/modified, 16-year-old Johnny Bruno finished two points ahead of James Hanson.

Racing lost one of its true legends when NASCAR modified great Mike Stefanik was killed Sunday when the ultralite he was flying crashed in Rhode Island. If you get a chance, Google “Aerolite” on the internet and take a look at what Stefanik was flying. Even he called it a “flying lawn chair.”

Ironically, Stefanik’s death came almost two years to the day that another NASCAR asphalt modified legend, Teddy Christopher, was killed in a single-engine plane crash on his way to a race at Riverhead Speedway on Sept. 16, 2017.