~ By Tom Boggie

Well, I’m back.

Is that moaning and groaning I hear? What, you’re not looking forward to another 4th Turn season of useless trivia, trips down memory lane, obscure rock and roll references and maybe even some insight into the Capital District dirt track racing scene?

Tough crowd.

Just for that, we’ll start the season with a little quiz.

Question: What do Jack Lehner and Charles Dickens have in common?

Answer: Great Expectations (if you didn’t get the answer, I’ll assume your high school reading list was dominated by Archie and Veronica comics and Gater Racing News).

It’s time for the Ginja Ninja to have a breakout season.

This will be the 24-year-old Lehner’s eighth season of modified racing, and although he’s only got two career wins (both in 2021, first on the Nelson No. 85 at Fonda and then his first career win at Albany-Saratoga on June 18 in his own 2L), he’s developed into a consistent threat every time he gets on the track.

Lehner has learned the racing business from the ground up, from doing his own marketing, to joining the Super DIRTcar Series, to working at DKM Fabrications in 2021 so he could build his own body panels, to setting up his own shock business last winter.

He’s aging like a fine wine. The older he gets, the better he gets.

Lehner began the 2023 season competing in the DIRTcar Nationals in Volusia County Speedway on Florida. In three nights racing against his fellow Super DIRTcar Series competitors, he finished seventh, sixth and second. That second-place finish on the final night of the series could have easily been Lehner’s first career Super DIRTcar Series victory. He led until the last lap, when he got stuck behind the lapped car of Jimmy Phelps, and Mat Williamson rocketed around the outside to pass Lehner just before the two hit the checkered flag to snatch the top prize of $7,500 away from the Ginja Ninja.

After the second-place run, Lehner was quoted by the DIRTcar public relations department as saying, “When it’s racing against Williamson and (Matt) Sheppard and stuff, sometimes we can run with them, sometimes we can hang with them, but it always feels they’re a little quicker than me. Last week, I felt like we were on a level playing field with them.”

Lehner, who was the modified Rookie of the Year at Malta in 2018, made his 2023 Northeast debut last weekend at the Hard Clay Open at Orange County Speedway in Middletown. After starting 13th, he finished fifth, giving him four straight top-10 finishes to start the season.

So, when will the wins start to come? Granted, winning at Albany-Saratoga on a regular basis is never a given. If it was easy, Brian Madsen would be paying out a lot more money with his Back-to-Back bonus. Lehner, who went through a tough stretch last season when he was struggling to get a DKM chassis dialed in, had a pair of runner-up finishes in the second half of the season, losing to Demitrios Drellos on July 22 after making contact with a lapped car late in the feature, and then following Marc Johnson across the finish line on Aug. 19.

He’s got the experience, he’s got the knowledge and he’s certainly got the talent to become a consistent winner at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. What he hasn’t had in recent years are good breaks, and once those start to come, I think he’ll kick the door down.

OPENING NIGHT
Albany-Saratoga will kick off its 58th season of racing on Friday, with the modifieds running a 40-lap feature that will pay $5,800 to win, through sponsorship from Bart Contracting and Schaghticoke Wine & spirits. Because Can-Am Speedway canceled its Super DIRTcar Series race earlier this week, it won’t be a surprise if some of the SDS drivers, like Sheppard, Billy Decker, Larry Wight and Williamson, make a trip to Malta.

Peter Britten won last year’s season opener, but there’s a trend going on that leads one to think that winning on opening night at Malta may not be a good thing.

In the last 18 years, only three opening-night winners went on to win the modified point championship. That short list includes Mike Mahaney in 2020 (that was the COVID-shortened season), and Brett Hearn twice, in 2013 and 2005.

CHANGES AT THE VALLEY
A lot of subtle and not-so-subtle changes took place during the offseason, the biggest (to me, at least) being the change in the racing surface at Lebanon Valley Speedway.

Promoter Howie Commander, who is going strong again after experiencing some health issues during 2022, took out the berm on the inside of the speedway, making the track about 15 feet wider. There had been rumors during the winter that he was going to cut down the high banks and make the racing surface a little flatter, but then he changed course, and took out the berm.

That essentially adds another racing lane, but everyone who has ever been to the Valley knows that big block drivers slide up the high banks to maintain speed. I’m sure the new lane will create four-wide or even five-wide racing into the turns, but I hate to think about the carnage if one of the cars rocketing into the first turn can’t hold its line, and shoots up the track.

Commander also announced a major purse increase. The big blocks will be racing for a minimum of $3,000 to win every Saturday night, and the weekly purse has been increased so that 20th place now pays $500, up from the $300 that had been paid out previously.

The Valley will be holding a practice session from 3-8 p.m. on Saturday.

AROUND THE TRACKS
Fans of Brock “Bam Bam” Pinkerous won’t be seeing as much of the talented young driver this season at Albany-Saratoga, as Pinkerous, who celebrated his 13th birthday in February, is concentrating on late model racing on the RUSH Series. Bam Bam is driving a Rocket chassis maintained by Russ King, the 2009 World of Outlaws Rookie of the year.

Bam Bam competed Wednesday at Delaware International Speedway and won the 10-lap non-qualifiers race. He’ll be at Potomac Speedway on Friday, and then at Winchester (Va.) Speedway on Saturday.

Drellos is also doing some late model racing this year, with a family-owned car. Drellos made his late model debut at the Sunshine Nationals at Volusia County in January, and finished second. But when winner Michael Page was later disqualified, Drellos inherited the win. Drellos was also at Delaware International on Wednesday, finishing eighth. But his primary focus will be on modified racing.

Tim Hartman Jr., who was honored as the Lebanon Valley Sportsman champion at the track’s recent banquet, added a new Troyer TD5 to his stable of cars for 2023. Does that mean that the 6-year-old Troyer that carried him to four championships at Malta has been retired, or is he saving it for his daughter?

Brian Calabrese, who moved up from sportsman to modifieds at Albany-Saratoga during the middle of the 2022 season, had a productive winter. He finished second to Dylan Madsen in the 602 sportsman feature at All-Tech Speedway in Lake City, Fla., on Feb. 8, and came back with his first win of the season on Feb. 9. He started 17th, and also earned the Hard Charger Award on Feb. 9. When the final two nights of the Sunshine Swing were rained out, he received a $1,500 bonus for having the best overall finishes.

Scott Duell will be returning to the sportsman ranks at Albany-Saratoga this season, driving a 2021 TEO chassis for Gary Van Alstyne. Duell scratched an item off his bucket list last year when he did some sprint car racing.