The 4th Turn

~ By Tom Boggie

There are many factors that go into being a champion, but one of the primary ones is focus.

No matter what the sport, the elite members are the ones who stay focused. You have to establish a goal, and pursue it diligently, despite the distractions.

Ken Tremont Jr. and Tim Hartman Jr. both proved that last weekend.

On Saturday night, Tremont put the remnants of a roller-coaster season behind him, and won the Mr. Dirt Track U.S.A. race at Lebanon Valley for the fifth time. This win was especially satisfying, because Tremont took home a top prize of $25,500, his largest pay day since one of his Super DIRT Week triumphs.

I’ve known Ken since he began racing, and we have a lot of conversations in the pits. Some of the best details of those conversations never make it to print, because he loves to say, “You can’t print this, but …”

The 2018 season has been full of distractions – some good, some bad – for Tremont. Early in the season, he was inducted into the Northeast Modified Hall of fame in Weedsport. Granted, that’s a nice honor, but there’s also a lot of prep work that goes into the induction.

Then, in no particular order, he went through some internal problems with his race team that resulted in switching to a Bicknell chassis, his sister passed away, and then there was the incident with Demetrios Drellos at Albany-Saratoga Speedway that saw both drivers being suspended for a week and leaving Tremont wondering if he was going to finish the season at Malta.

And until Saturday, his results weren’t Tremont-like. Prior to the Mr. Dirt Track U.S.A. victory, he had one big block win at Lebanon Valley (on the night he debuted the new Bicknell chassis) and four small-block victories on the high banks, two wins at Albany-Saratoga and he has even struggled at Devil’s Bowl, where he is easily one of the best drivers in the sportsman/modified field.

But with the big money on the line, Ken Tremont Jr. got back to being Ken Tremont Jr., the kid who went from being a backup driver for his father’s team to being the winningest driver in the history of Lebanon Valley. For one night, there were no distractions, just the joy of driving a dirt track modified and the thrill of winning a huge race.

And then there’s Tim Hartman Jr. No, actually, it was the entire Hartman race team.

Hartman Jr, went into Friday night’s final points race at Albany-Saratoga Speedway leading the sportsman division, but he knew he needed a good finish to walk off with his first championship.

So the Hartman team spent the entire week in the garage, sometimes even eating dinner there (including a night of cold Chinese takeout). They didn’t leave anything to chance. No bolt was left unturned.

When the team showed up at Malta last Friday, they brought both cars. Owner Mike Parillo had provided new tires for both cars, so Tim Hartman Sr. squeezed into a firesuit so both sets of tires could get scuffed during warmups.

In the feature, Hartman gave a whole new meaning to the term defensive driving. He never pushed hard, never took chances. During the second half of the 40-lap feature, when he was battling Jeremy Pitts for fourth, there were a number of occasions when it looked like Hartman Jr. was going to squeeze by on the inside of a turn, but he would back off, stay in fifth, and keep the wheels on the car.

“I knew I had to finish 40 laps because I could finish with the championship,” he said after the feature.

He finally got by Pitts late in the race and finished fourth.

He admitted that he was driving differently during the feature.

“I could tell people that it [racing for the championship] didn’t affect me, but it did affect me.”

Then he added, “It’s been a long week. I did what I came here to do”

His fourth-place finish was enough to give him his first title, and lift an enormous weight off his shoulders. He had said before the race that if he didn’t win the championship, he would feel like he didn’t accomplish anything this season.

But all that’s history now. By staying extremely focused, Tim Hartman Jr. is a champion.

MORE ON TREMONT

Lost in Stewart Friesen’s win in the 53-lap feature at Albany-Saratoga Speedway and the nerve-wracking battle for the modified championship between Brett Hearn and Marc Johnson last Friday was an incredible run at Tremont.

On a restart on lap 7, Drellos and Jessey Mueller got together in the second turn, and Tremont was somehow muscled down into the infield (Drellos and Tremont, together again. Sounds like a reunion tour).

After the yellow flag came back out, Tremont got his car refired and from the way his right foot slammed down on the throttle, you could tell he wasn’t too happy when he took his place at the rear of the field.

So while everyone watched Hearn lose a rear end on lap 19, and Johnson fail to get enough spots to win the championship because of mechanical problems of his own. Tremont used the final 46 laps of the feature to work his way back up to second place. A huge distance behind Friesen, but a second nonetheless.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Tonight’s card at Albany-Saratoga Speedway will be highlighted by the 100-lap King of Dirt Series Northeast Sportsman Crate Nationals, which will pay $2,500 to win. The card will also include a 40-lap feature for small block modifieds, paying $2,500 to win, sponsored by Tom Clothier Trucking for Suicide Prevention Awareness.

The KOD Sportsman series was at Lebanon Valley for the Mr. Crate Track U.S.A. race last weekend. Rob Maxon got the win, with polesitter Scott Duell third. Maxon’s motor was protested after the race, but after a full tear down on Tuesday, the motor was found to be 100 percent legal. “It was frustrating,” Maxon said in a KOD release. “I don’t mind tech or even going through the process of pulling a motor, but this was my biggest career win. This is the one I’ve wanted to win since KOD started having Mr. Crate Track U.S.A. at Lebanon. I thought about this race all year long and busted my ass to get faster and when I won, I couldn’t celebrate it until Tuesday.”

The bounty on Dave Constantino and Hartman Jr. at Glen Ridge is still in effect, as Constantino recorded his 10^th win of the year last Sunday. Mueller came in as a bounty hunter, driving for Brian Calabrese, but Mueller was one of the cars involved in a big wreck on lap one, and fought his way back to fourth.

Who says dirt track racing is a young man’s game? Hearn, who won championships at both Albany-Saratoga and Lebanon Valley this season, celebrated his 60^th birthday Sunday while the 56-year-old Tremont won Mr. Dirt Track U.S.A.

DIRTcar announced this week that Dean Reynolds, who has been the vice president of Empire Super Sprints since 2006, will replace Mike Perrotte as the DIRTcar Northeast director. Reynolds will begin his new duties next week. Perrotte is retiring from the DIRTcar post so he can do more racing.

It may be the one of the hottest summers on record, but it still rains on Sunday. Utica-Rome was rained out last Sunday, the ninth rainout in 18 scheduled dates, while the Super DIRT Series race at Weedsport was also postponed.