~ By Tom Boggie

About a month ago, I thought I had seen the ultimate “Veterans’ Night” when Ron Proctor and Michael Ballestero won the dual sportsman features at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. Their combined ages were 134 (Proctor had just turned 70, Ballestero is 64) and I thought that was a pretty astonishing accomplishment.

I should have known that Lebanon Valley Speedway would come up with a whatever-you-can-do-I-can-do-better finish.

Last Saturday night, the combined ages of the top two drivers in the modified feature was 135. Winner Eddie Marshall is 64, and second-place finisher Mike King is 71.

And the spotlight couldn’t be shining on two nicer guys.

Since I first crossed paths with Marshall in the early 1980s, I was always impressed with his professionalism. At the time, I was spending most of my Saturday nights at Fonda, but on my trips to the Valley, I always made it a point to stop by Marshall’s hauler, getting to know him a little better each time. He was outgoing, articulate and everything about his racing operation was top shelf.

With so much competition at the Valley in those days, winning never came easy, but Marshall was always a contender in one of his meticulously-prepared Olsen Eagles. His victory last Saturday (he’s now campaigning TEO Pro cars) was the 34th of his career at the Valley since he first started racing modifieds in 1983.

But Marshall wasn’t just a one-track wonder. Some of his best runs came on the Moody Mile at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse. He started sixth in the Miller High Life 300 in 1988, led some laps for the only time in his career during Super DIRT Week, and finished 10th.

He won the annual Labor Day race at the Fairgrounds twice, first in 1990 and again in 1999. Those victories were easily the crown jewels in his racing career. His best finish during Super DIRT was a fifth in the Eckerd 200 in 2004, driving a TEO chassis with Enders power. He also finished seventh in the Eckerd 300 in 1998, but on that day, he was overshadowed by another Lebanon Valley driver, as Bryan Goeway finished fifth after starting 46th.

Needless to say, when Eddie Marshall parks his modified in victory lane at the Valley, it’s a popular win.

And then there’s “Kingfish.” Mike King is enjoying his 50th season of racing at the Valley, a career that began when he built a limited sportsman under a canvas tent in his backyard in 1973.

How dedicated is Mike King? It took the low-budget driver 32 seasons before he recorded his first modified victory at the Valley in 2005, on Aug. 15 when the modifieds ran as the support division to the World of Outlaws sprint cars. I wasn’t there that night, but the stories say the party on the front straightaway went until the wee hours of the morning.

You can count the rest of King’s wins on the Valley on one hand – July 7, 2009; May 1, 2010; and July 31, 2010. He may never get to victory lane again, but he won’t stop smiling. He loves to race at the Valley. And he loves to party at the Valley, as he’s a familiar face in the Phaze 3 group that heads to the parking area across Route 20 every Saturday night for some laughs and camaraderie. He loves to be around his Valley cronies, which makes his Kingfish car show at Stewart’s in Nassau each spring a must-attend event.

In an interview with Hall of Fame racing columnist Robin Yasinsac-Gillispie, Mike talked about his career. “I can’t get enough of this,” he said. “I have thoroughly enjoyed everything about this. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Marshall and King shared the spotlight last spring when they were both inducted into the Lebanon Valley Speedway Hall of Fame, along with Ken Tremont Jr., and they got to share another moment together last Saturday at the Valley.

It’s little things like that that make dirt track racing great.

AROUND THE TRACKS

How about that run by Stewart Friesen last weekend in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Mid-Ohio? Friesen went off course during practice and missed qualifying as his team made repairs to the truck. That put him in the last row in the 36-truck field. Then, to make matters worse, the race was started in the rain, and the worst place to be on a wet road course is at the rear. But Friesen stuck with it and came away with a fourth-place finish, which put him just one point below the cutoff point for the playoffs.

During a post-race interview, Friesen said, “Everything looks good as far as us coming back for another season in the truck series”. Friesen, who will turn 40 in two weeks, has drastically cut back on his dirt racing schedule this season. To date, he’s only run 15 dirt races, but had five victories and 12 top-10 finishes.

An announcement this week stated that there will no longer by mandatory pit stops during the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 during Super DIRT Week at Oswego in October. Instead, there will be one or two competitions cautions between laps 75 and 125. Whenever I hear about pit stops on short tracks, I just want to curse out Mike Romano. If he hadn’t won the Mohawk Valley 200 at Fonda in 1989 by running the entire 200 laps on one load of fuel, this whole pit stop crap never would have happened.

Derrick McGrew Jr. was back in victory lane last Thursday, recording his second win of the year at Brookfield Speedway. He drew the pole and went on to earn $1,000.

Anthony Perrego held off Matt Sheppard to win Tuesday night’s Super DIRTcar Series race at Big Diamond in Pottsville, Pa. The win was Perrego’s first points-paying SDS victory. He previously had two wins during the 2020 OktoberFAST series. A trio of Malta regulars had great runs at Big Diamond, as Mike Mahaney finished fourth, Peter Britten was fifth and Jack Lehner was seventh. All three started in the top 12.

Mahaney’s best SDS finish so far this year was a second at the King of the Spring at the Valley. Britten recorded his third top-five finish after finishing fourth at both Bridgeport and Albany-Saratoga, and Lehner has finished in the top 10 in the last two races, beginning with an eighth at Orange County Speedway in Middletown.

Britten is currently third in points with 689, trailing Sheppard (742) and Mat Williamson (707). Adam Pierson, who finished 20th at Big Diamond, is eighth, with Mahaney ninth and Lehner 12th.

Tim Fuller won Wednesday night’s Canadian Big Block Series race at Mohawk International. The field included Demetrios Drellos, who finished sixth.

Weather permitting, Albany-Saratoga will return to action Friday, with the modifieds competing for $3,000 to win. The pro stocks will be racing for $1,000 to win, through sponsorship from A to Z Landscaping, while the limited sportsman drivers will be chasing a $500 payday, courtesy of Gary and Patricia Van Alstyne. Friday will also be the First Responders Night that was rained out last weekend.

NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Briscoe will be behind the wheel of a sprint car Friday night at The Flat Track at New Hampshire Motor Speedway as part of the NASCAR weekend at NHMS. Briscoe will be teaming up with Matt Tanner of Stephentown for the dirt sprint car race and will be driving a car that Tanner finished second in last Saturday night at Devil’s Bowl.

Saturday night will feature the Tommy Corellis Tribute Night at Lebanon Valley, with the modifieds running for $5,000 to win.