~ By Tom Boggie

Well, now Albany-Saratoga Speedway promoter Lyle DeVore has another plaque to hang on his wall.

DeVore, who has devoted his life to racing, received the Leonard J. Sammons Jr. Outstanding Contributions to Auto Racing award Wednesday night at the annual Northeast Modified Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at the Hall of Fame and Museum in Weedsport.

The ceremonies had a very Capital Region feel to them. Mandy Pauch Mahaney received the Outstanding Woman in Racing Award, and long-time car owner Jake Spraker, who fielded cars for C.D. Coville, Ronnie Johnson, Stewart Friesen, Bobby Varin, Alan Johnson, Ray Dalmata, Rocky Warner and many others, was the recipient of the Gene DeWitt Car Owner award.

I’ve known Lyle for years and have worked beside him and for him in a number of capacities, so I figured I might as well make the trip to Weedsport, and it was worth it … except for the ride back Thursday morning. I hate that ride.

Some highlights of the ceremonies:

Lebanon Valley Speedway legend Tommy Corellis made the trip, as a companion to Valley owner Howie Commander, and master of ceremonies Shane Andrews had a surprise for Corellis. Before the program started, he called Corellis up to the front and then led him to the rear of the museum, where one of the plaques was draped in cloth. As Andrews told it, Corellis had already relocated to North Carolina when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1998, and never had a proper plaque unveiling. That was taken care of Wednesday night.

Albany-Saratoga announcer Dan Martin had a good story about DeVore, saying DeVore is the only person who’s ever driven a water truck at Lancaster Speedway, an asphalt track in the Western part of New York. It seems Martin showed up for an ASA race at Lancaster one summer night many years ago, and saw a water truck out of the track, spritzing the outside groove. It seems that it was so hot that the asphalt was starting to ripple, and the Friesen family, who owned the track, sent DeVore out in the water truck to try to cool down the surface.

Sammy Beavers was in attendance as a presenter for new inductee Jimmy Horton, Beavers had been inducted into the Hall of fame in 1999, and hadn’t been back since. Horton had obviously turned down his induction process many times, because when Andrews asked him what took him so long to accept, he said, “I was waiting for my father to get in first. This one’s for you, Dad.”

DeVore paid tribute to the three men who helped him get to where he is today … Alex Friesen, C.J. Richards and Commander.

“I was lucky to have three incredible people to give me guidance,” DeVore said. “Each one offered me something different, so I learned things that were unique to each individual.”

With Doug Logan being honored with the Andrew S. Fusco Award for Media Excellence, I had hoped I would run into Tery Rumsey, who was also a past Fusco Award recipient. Tery and I became good friends and drinking buddies (seems like I’ve had a lot of those) when he was one of the people behind “This Week on DIRT” and “Rush Hour Live” and they allowed me to do some television work when Fusco was battling cancer.

Rumsey, who has been living in New Hampshire for the last 17 years, put life into perspective during DeVore’s award ceremony. “Who’s this guy?” Rumsey asked me. “I’ve never heard of him.”

And he was serious.

If you’re ever looking for someone to liven up a party, give Frank Cozze a call. The veteran driver, who later said he’s going to give up his driving career at the end of the season, was the presenter for Davey Hoffman, who received the Mechanic/Engineering Award, and Cozze’s off-the-cuff speech was as good as any stand-up comedy routine I’ve heard in a long time.

BACK TO REALITY

A couple milestones were achieved recently.

On Thursday, June 27, Justin Stone chalked up his first career 358 modified win at Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh. Exactly one week later on July 4, he finished ninth in the Super DIRTcar Series race at Land of Legends, his first top-10 finish ever in the series.

Last Friday at Malta, I asked him which performance he had been most impressed with.

“Both were pretty awesome,” he admitted. “It was big to get my first 358 win, but it also felt good to be able to run with those guys last night and to be up front with them.”

Stone, whose father Todd was one of the top drivers at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Vermont for years, racking up 35 wins (good for third on the all-time win list) and winning championships both on asphalt and on dirt, is in the midst of his second season on the Super DIRTcar Series. Last year, Justin competed five times, finishing 19^th at Albany-Saratoga, 27^th at Drummondville, 26^th at Land of Legends, 21^st at the second Malta stop and 37^th at Oswego.

So far this year, he’s finished 25^th at New Egypt, 21^stat at Big Diamond and 22^nd at Malta before his top-10 run at Land of Legends.

“I really like following the series because it lets me race at tracks I’ve never seen before,” he said. “Big blocks are a different animal, and every Friday night here is like a series race. You really have to be on your game, and you can’t make any mistakes.

“We’re still learning as we go,” he added. “I’ve got a green team, and I’m still pretty green myself, so we still have a way to go.”

Stone is following in the footsteps of his father and his grandfather, Gardner, a former pro stock driver at Albany-Saratoga, and already has one win under his belt, a sportsman victory in 2021.

Tim Hartman Jr. reached a milestone last Saturday, recording the 100^th victory of his career by extending his winning streak to 10 in a row (over two seasons) at Lebanon Valley.

I’m going to get out my soapbox here, climb on and tell all the keyboard jockeys who say Hartman Jr. should move up to another class to put a plug in it.

When I started covering racing at Malta in the 1980s, Bob Hackel Jr. was racing mini-stocks all over the Northeast and was damn good at it. In fact, he was known as King of the Mini-Stocks and was proud of it. Did anyone complain that he didn’t want to move up? Look at guys like Tim Clemons and Alton Palmers. Racing in the sportsman division laid the foundation for their Hall of Fame careers.

MORE FROM MALTA

Jordan Hill just missed her first trip to victory lane in the limited sportsman feature last Friday. Hill had the lead late in the race, but according to her Facebook page, “Last two laps, driver made two errors, which resulted in a last lap pass, which had us finish the race in second. That’s our best finish yet. Definitely making major improvements not only as a driver, but as a team.”

After running hot laps last week, Scott Huber had an issue with his starter and had to skip his heat race. He came out for the feature, starting 27^th, but 35 laps later, he had worked his way up to a respectable 14^th. He later thanked Ronnie Johnson and his crew for providing a backup starter.

After recording his second modified win of the season last Friday, Jessey Mueller told me what had happened the previous week, when he jumped the cushion in the third turn while running second behind Matt DeLorenzo.

“I didn’t want to run second the whole race,” he said. “I was sick of following him. I started to get antsy and wanted to do something.”

Mueller also paid tribute to Dale Planck, who had passed away during the week. “This (the win) is for Dale Planck,” Mueller said. “He did a lot for me during my career and I’m going to miss him.”

Brandon Emigh’s fourth pro stock win of the season at Malta has pulled him into a first-place tie with Kim Duell in the battle for the track championship.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Brian Calabrese won last Sunday’s DIRTcar 358 feature at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park. One of the surprise entrants was Adam Pierson, who has limited his racing schedule this season.

Jimmy Phelps won Tuesday’s SDS race at Thunder Mountain. Jack Lehner continued his hot streak with a fifth-place finish. Lehner had finished second and first in the twin features last Saturday night at Fonda.

And how about a big round of applause for Mike “Kingfish” King, who recorded his fifth career modified win at Lebanon Valley last Saturday. King, who has been a regular at the Valley since 1973, hadn’t been to victory lane since the 2010 season.