~ By Tom Boggie

It was 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns who wrote, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. Gang aft agley.” The simple translation is, “The best laid plans of mice and men can still go wrong.”

I’m sure Matt DeLorenzo isn’t a big fan of ole Bobby, but he knows all about that best laid plans deal.

DeLorenzo entered the 2022 racing season with a solid plan to do as much racing as possible while taking some weekends off to watch his daughters compete in elite softball tournaments around the Northeast.

But then something got in the way. Matty D started winning … a lot. And after nearly missing a race at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in mid-July because he got stuck in a traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike returning from a tournament in Maryland, DeLorenzo opted to go all in on racing for the rest of the season.

“I think I thrive on pressure,” he said with a smile at Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Friday, after recording his fourth win of the season at Malta on John Grady Memorial Nostalgia Night.

It’s a good thing, because the pressure keeps building.
Here’s what the DeLorenzo Racing Team has dealt with in the last couple of weeks.

DeLorenzo came from deep in the pack to come away with a solid third-place finish on Stan Da’ Man Night on July 29 at Albany-Saratoga, but damaged the motor in the process.

They spent that Saturday taking out the big block and dropping in a small block to compete at Fonda Speedway that night, and the best he could do with the small block was sixth.

DeLorenzo sent the big block out to be repaired, and had it back in plenty of time to race at Albany-Saratoga last Friday, but as a precaution, he also hauled KFG Racing/BBL Companies teammate Brian Gleason’s car to Malta. That proved to be a smart decision, because the hot lap session revealed that his own big block still wasn’t 100 percent right.

“We had a problem last week, and thought we had it fixed,” said DeLorenzo. “We broke something in the valve train.”

After changing the number on Gleason’s car from 3G to 3D (gee, what would the world be without duct tape) and improvising a seat cushion so he could reach the gas pedal, DeLorenzo outran Jessey Mueller to win the 43-lap feature.

After the victory, DeLorenzo said, “I didn’t even get a chance to scrub the tires on this car. I wanted to scrub the tires and get a feel for the steering box. But when we went out for the heat, they threw the green right away and we were racing.”

DeLorenzo again gave the credit for the win to his brother Mike, who is also the crew chief on the car.

“My brother just keeps digging and digging. He never gives up,” DeLorenzo said. “He told me to run this car at Fonda last week. I should have listened to him.”

DeLorenzo went back to Fonda last Saturday, but had to drop out of the feature with a bent axle, finishing 21st, his worst finish of the season.

So now, the pressure continues. His win at Albany-Saratoga allowed him to increase his lead in the battle for the modified championship to 59 points over Peter Britten, with four more point races left in the regular season. DeLorenzo has never won a title at Albany-Saratoga.

But things are different at Fonda. Saturday is Champions Night, and DeLorenzo’s lead over Ronnie Johnson, one of the co-defending champions, has been cut to eight points. DeLorenzo hasn’t won a title at Fonda since 2007.

If DeLorenzo really thrives on pressure, he’s got a good chance to prove it.

MORE FROM MALTA

No one really wants to finish second, do they? But Mueller was pretty pleased with his runner-up finish to DeLorenzo last Friday, a performance that allowed him to win $3,000 from Chris Grady’s inflated purse. He also won the Four States Enterprises Dash for Cash, which was worth another $200.

“Two seconds in a row at Albany-Saratoga, that’s pretty awesome for us,” said Mueller, who has had one of the fastest cars on the track in the last couple of weeks.

Britten wasn’t feeling too bad about finishing third, either.
“A big thank you to everyone who helped organize this event,” he said. “Matty D and Jessey were just a little bit too good for us tonight.”

The Bear Ridge USAC midgets will be part of Friday night’s racing card. The modifieds will again be running for $3,000 to win, and the winners in the sportsman, pro stock and limited sportsman features will each receive $1,000.

Melissa Lazzaro, one of the newest inductees into the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame, was behind the wheel of one of the cars pacing the field for the Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modifieds feature last week. She was driving a replica of the car that her father Lou drove in 1969 when he won his only track championship at Malta.

Albany-Saratoga will be the site of a benefit truck and tractor pull on Sunday. The event will run from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m., with live bands playing from 1-6 p.m. The proceeds will go to promoter Lyle DeVore and help him defray some of the medical expenses incurred as he continues cancer treatment. Admission to the grandstand or the pits is just $10.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Many of the Albany-Saratoga regulars went to Airborne Park in Plattsburgh last Saturday for the big block/small block challenge, which paid $4,000 to win. Mueller finished second, Mike Mahaney was third and received a $250 bonus for having the first 358 across the finish line, Adam Pierson was fourth and Ken Tremont Jr. finished fifth. Erick Rudolph got the win and the $4,000.

Rocky Warner, no stranger to big paydays at Devil’s Bowl, won last Sunday’s C.J. Richards Classic “Battle at the Bowl” and took home $10,000. Warner, who was a regular at Albany-Saratoga when he was driving for Jake Spraker, also won the Vermont 200 in 2019, winning a total of $14,490.

Warner’s win last Sunday was his first modified victory of the season (last month, he won a 602 sportsman race driving Brian Calabrese’s car). Tim Fuller finished second, with Mahaney third.

Who said racing is a young man’s sport? Buzzie Reutimann, who is still racing at the age of 81, won last weekend’s feature at Volusia County in Florida.

Thunder Mountain ran a DIRTcar 358 Series race Wednesday, with 12-year-old Albany-Saratoga regular Brock Pinkerous making the field and coming away with a 12-place finish. The DIRTcar Sportsman ran a Central Division Tour race, with Andrew Buff crossing the finish line ninth.

Shouldn’t victories be worth more, when it comes to points? DIRTcar only has a gap of four points between the winner and the runner-up. Formula 1 is a little better, giving 25 points to the winner and 18 for second. Indycar has, in my opinion, the right idea, giving 50 points to the winner and 40 to the second-place finisher. NASCAR isn’t included because of stage racing, which I always thought was a dumb idea.