~ By Tom Boggie

Two songs kept popping into my head this week as I was working on this 4th Turn column.

One was the 1981 song “Too Much Time on My Hands” by Styx. That pertains to me, as you’ll see later.

The other was Paul Simon’s 1975 hit “Still Crazy After All These Years.” That one pertains to Mike Ballestero.

The 62-year-old Ballestero, who has been in and out of retirement more times than I can count, is back in the spotlight, sort of, this season. Tim Hartman Jr., who is just a young whippersnapper compared to Ballestero, tied Ballestero at the top of Albany-Saratoga Speedway’s all-time sportsman win list with 32 victories late last season, and it’s kind of a foregone conclusion that Hartman Jr. will break the record. After all, Ballestero hasn’t won a sportsman feature at Albany-Saratoga since 2008.

Both Mike and his brother Tony were part of Albany-Saratoga’s star-studded sportsman field early in their careers, racing against the likes of Tim Clemons, David Towns, Tim Hartman Sr., Joe Budka, Randy Hotaling and Derrick McGrew Sr. Mike stepped away from racing for a while in 2006, following the death of close friend and crew member Robert Bublak Sr., returned in 2008 and then vanished again. Tony Ballestero took a 10-year hiatus, retiring in 2009 before returning to action in 2019.

The 2019 season also saw Mike get back behind the wheel of a race car, when Tony was on vacation in Ireland, Mike offered his services as a substitute driver, and before the season was over, Mike was back with his own 27M, sponsored by Stone’s Pharmacy.

“A friend of mine, Leigh McConchie (who owns Stone’s Pharmacy in Lake Luzerne) said, ‘If I buy one of those, will you drive it?’ said Mike last Friday at Albany-Saratoga. “I might have hesitated for a couple of second before saying, ‘Sure.’”

“This is a drug,” he added with a smile, “Once you’re addicted, you can’t stay away.”

The brothers may have taken a long time off, but they hadn’t forgotten how to race. In February 2020, they made the trek to All Tech Speedway in Lake City, Fla., for an early-season sportsman series and put on a heck of a show. When the first night of the series was rained out, a complete doubleheader was staged the second night. Mike won the first feature, and Tony sat in victory lane after the second. Mike lost a chance at a sweep when he blew the motor in his car during a heat race prior to the second feature.

Rather than throw in the towel, the Ballestero brothers talked to a local driver who said he had a spare engine, and they spent the night in a race shop putting an old late model engine into Mike’s sportsman so the brothers could race in the Saturday finale. But Tony only ran 15th, while Mike struggled home 20th.

Mike finished eighth in points at Albany-Saratoga last year, and made the trek to Florida again in February. And darned if he didn’t come back with another win.

This one came in a different fashion, however. On the third night of the series, Mike finished second, behind Brian Calabrese, but Calabrese was later disqualified for a rocker arm infraction, giving the win to Ballestero.

“It’s funny, because he got by me late in the race,” said Ballestero. “He probably should have let me win. The car was awesome. I came from like 17th. We had to work our butts off for that one.”

Ironically, Ballestero had finished fifth on the opening night of the series, but was disqualified for a tire infraction.

“It was just a stupid mistake. We were supposed to have a 53, or whatever the number was, on the right rear, and one of the boys put on a 48 by mistake,” he said. “That’s like being light. It’s not cheating. It’s just a mistake.”

The smart money says that Hartman Jr. will soon get to the top of that sportsman win list, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Ballestero finds his way to victory lane this year. He’s still running a crate engine, and knows he might have to take advantage of the track’s open motor rule.

“We saw it at practice,” he said. “The guys that we know had the open motors were 3/10th of a second faster than we were. I’ll have to keep track of who’s finishing ahead of me for the next couple of weeks. If I’m running fourth or fifth, and all the guys ahead of me have open motors, I may have to consider getting one. You can’t take a knife to a gunfight.”

Now, back to the too-much-time-on-my-hands part.

I was wondering how long Ballestero has been at the top of the sportman win list, so I did some deep diving.

I know that Don Ackner and Bobby Haswell dominated the first three years of the sportsman class in the late 1970s. Haswell won the first sportsman race ever held in 1977. Records from that time are sketchy, but in those three years, Ackner won 13 features, and Haswell had 12, so by the end of the 1979 season, Ackner was at the top of the list.

Along came Tim Clemons, winning his first sportsman feature on April 14, 1991. He recorded his 14th victory, passing Ackner for No. 1, on May 11, 1996.

Clemons added three more wins in 1996, running his total to 17, and four years later, Ballestero, who recorded his first career win at Malta on May 29, 1992, took his place at the top of the list, recording his 18th career win on Sept. 27, 2001.

Clemons wasn’t done, however. After running a modified for a number of years, Clemons dropped back to a sportsman in 2002, and pulled even with Ballestero at 21 victories on July 26, 2002. But Ballestero got hot at the end of the season, picking up five more wins. So Ballestero has been at the top of the all-time win list since Aug. 9, 2002.

Tim Hartman Sr. tied Clemons for second place with 25 victories on Sept. 22, 2006 before the 29-year-old Hartman Jr. came along. After picking up his first win on May 29, 2009 (That’s right, exactly 17 years TO THE DAY after Ballestero got his first win), he continued to climb the chart, swept by both Clemons and his father with five wins in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, and now sits level with Ballestero.

MALTA NOTES
Speaking of Hartman Jr., he had a busy night on Friday. During warmups, he broke a steering arm in the team’s 5-year-old Troyer, and the Hartman team scrambled to fix the front end. “This is the oldest car we’ve got, but it’s also the best one,” he said.

He finished second in his heat race to qualify for the feature, but he ducked into the pits under caution on the second lap of the feature. He returned, now at the rear of the field, and worked his way back to up sixth. He also had to survive a scary moment in the feature. On lap six, Andrew Buff bounced off the wall on the front straightaway and Hartman missed Buff’s car by inches.

Peter Britten’s win in last Friday’s 40-lap season opener for the NAPA Modifieds was his 13th career victory at Albany-Saratoga, but marked the first time he’s won an extra-distance race. All of his previous wins came in regular 35-lappers. With his heat-race win bonus, Britten earned $6,700, easily his best payday ever at Malta.

“It’s an expensive deal to put this (a race team) together, so to make this kind of money tonight … I really want to thank all the sponsors who were involved,” the Aussie said after the race.

“There’s no better way to start off the opener at Malta,” he added. “Obviously, I’m so happy to be here. Steve Hough came on board in a big way to help out this year. There is a whole list of people who help make this happen, both here and at home.”

How good was the modified field? Max McLaughlin got caught up in a wreck in his heat race, and was in the first consy with Ronnie Johnson, Matt Sheppard and Billy Decker. McLaughlin failed to qualify for the 40-lapper.

Rob Yetman’s victory in the pro stock feature was the 26th of his career, moving him into a tie with Joe Santoro at the top of that division’s all-time win list. Yetman drives for owner Joe Lazzaro, just as Santoro did.

“Man, oh, man. I told the guys after warmups on Sunday that this is a hot race car,” said Yetman following his win. “This class, it’s elite competition, and you’ve got to come out swinging and you have to get your hits early.”

Although Matt DeLorenzo would have loved to take home that $6,500, he wasn’t too disappointed with his second-place run to Britten.

“The last five laps, it looked like he was searching for something, but I was a little too loose on the bottom to get a good run,” said DeLorenzo. “But it was fun. The car felt good all night.”

Neil Stratton had the dubious honor of being the first modified on his roof in 2022. During the second heat race, Stratton and Jeff Rockefeller locked bumpers coming out of the second turn, and began to head off the backstretch. Stratton’s front end jerked to the right, and the car did a once-over roll down the bank, coming to rest on its wheels. Before starter Rich Peterson even had time to throw the red flag, Stratton had fired the car back up and was headed to the pits.

I ran into Elmo Reckner in the pits at Malta last week and he confirmed he’s unofficially retired. “I’m done,” he said with a smile. “I’ll run a crate at Devil’s Bowl as long as I don’t get vertigo or headaches. You come to a point where it’s time to get out, and I came to that point.”

One of the best performances last Friday was turned in by Alex Layn, who came from his 25th starting position to finish second in the 25-lap limited sportsman feature. The New Haven, Vt., driver competed in the limited sportsman division at Devil’s Bowl last year. In 15 starts, he had just one top-five finish (a fourth on Sept. 18) and finished 19th in points. So for him to show up on opening night at Malta and walk out with a runner-up finish was pretty impressive.

WHAT’S AHEAD
Friday night’s card at Albany-Saratoga will include the first race of the John Ray & Sons/Dean’s Electrical Service Sportsman Series, paying $1,500 to win. The track’s Facebook page says Decker will be back at The Great Race Place Friday.

Lebanon Valley Speedway will kick off its 70th season of racing on Saturday, with the big block modifieds running for $3,000 to win.