~ By Tom Boggie

I finally made my pilgrimage Wednesday.

After years of always finding excuses for not going, I went to Weedsport for the Northeast Dirt Modified Museum and Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.

I went primarily because the late C.J. Richards was receiving the Lenny Sammons Award for Outstanding Contributions to Auto Racing, a tribute that was long overdue. I had worked with C.J., and worked for C.J. and later his son Bruce, for over 20 years, and was asked to write a tribute to C.J. for the Hall of Fame program, so, of course, I wanted to be at the ceremonies.

As a side note, I wrote a 3,000 word piece about C.J. I thought that was appropriate for a career that spanned 50 years. But Buffy Swanson, the chair of the selection committee, who I have also known for half-a-lifetime, kindly asked me if I could cut it down.

I did, and sent a revised version. But then Buffy went to work on it like someone in a slasher movie. She got out her hatchet and hacked and whacked until my original “masterpiece” fit the hole she had made for it. Oh, well, at least she left the beginning and the ending intact, the tenets of good journalism.

Marty Beberwyk did the introduction speech for C.J. and did a great job in his allotted time. If you know Marty, who celebrates his 82nd birthday today (Thursday), once he gets rolling, he can spin yarns for hours.

“C.J. was probably the most determined person I ever met,” Beberwyk said. “If he got something in his head, he got it done.”

Beberwyk had been a flagger for C.J. at Devil’s Bowl in Vermont and when C.J. took over Albany-Saratoga Speedway in the late 1970s, one of the first people he called was Beberwyk.

“He called me and said, Martin … he always called me Martin … I need you. I said great, I’ve never flagged at Albany-Saratoga. C.J. said, and you never will. I need you to be the pit steward. I said, I don’t know anything about being a pit steward. C.J. said, neither did the last guy.”

Then there was the time Beberwyk was at Albany-Saratoga while C.J. was watering the track. Foam was coming out of the water truck. “I said, C.J., what happened? He said he had dumped a big box of Tide into the water truck. ‘Now those guys can’t say they can’t get ahold of the track,’ he said. I had seen people use calcium on race tracks before, but that was the first time I saw anyone use laundry soap.”

Then there was the time C.J. got fed up with racing and vowed to get out. He arranged a deal with Marty’s wife, Hertha, who was the general manager of Lebanon Valley Speedway at the time, to sell her Albany-Saratoga Speedway. The contract was even signed.

“She was going to have the race track, and I was going to stay at Mack Trucks. I told her I’d help out on Friday nights, but that was it. The contract was signed. But then C.J. let her out of the contract. Thank God for C.J. Richards.”

“The only thing predictable about C.J. was that he was unpredictable,” said Beberwyk. “I miss the son of a gun.”
Don’t we all.

I ended the program tribute to C.J. by writing: PT Barnum never met C.J. Richards, but one of Barnum’s famous quotes perfectly describes Richards. “No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.”

Thanks for leaving that part in, Buffy.

The ceremonies also included the induction of drivers Billy Decker, Craig Von Dohren and Don June (pioneer’s category) and other special awards went to Eric Mack (Mechanic/Engineering Award), Melissa Lazzaro (Outstanding Woman in Racing), Guy Madsen (Gene DeWitt car owner) and photographer Ace Lane Jr. (Andrew S. Fusco Award for Media Excellence).

Stewart Friesen introduced Mack (the two started working together in 2012, with Mack becoming Friesen’s right-hand man) and reminisced about their early days together. “When I started out, I wasn’t smooth and polished, and neither was the team I drove for,” said Friesen. “Early in my career, we took the Marty Burdick 85 to Malta and went out and won that night, and from there, we just went racing. We thrived on chaos.”

Friesen also put in a plug for Madsen, whose greatest accomplishments as a car owner came with Brett Hearn behind the wheel.

“I thank Guy Madsen for giving me two good years in his car,” said Friesen. “We’d go to Malta on Friday and we didn’t go very good there, but Patty (Madsen’s wife) loved Publik House pizza, so we kept going back.”

CHANGE OF PLANS

Early in the season, Matt DeLorenzo said he didn’t want to set any of his racing plans for 2022 in stone, because he wanted to spend as much time as he could during the summer traveling to his daughters’ softball games.

Well, those plans have changed.

After driving back from Maryland on Friday and getting to Albany-Saratoga just in time to go out for warmups, DeLorenzo is going to concentrate on racing for the rest of the season.

“We’ve worked it out,” he said after his third win of the season last Friday. “My daughter has another tournament in Maryland this weekend, but only my wife will be going. I’m staying here. Then, the last three tournaments are local, so that will work out.”

His daughter Toni’s Electric City Bombers 12U team was competing in the USSSA East National Championship in Salisbury, Maryland, last weekend, and had advanced through pool play to the quarterfinals, which were set for Friday morning.

“I was going to watch her first game, which was supposed to start at 8,” DeLorenzo said. “But then there was a rain delay and it didn’t start until 9. I only watched the first three innings, and then left. They ended up losing the game, and I think it was because I left.”

Then he ran into the mother of all traffic jams on the New Jersey Turnpike.

“It was bumper to bumper,” said DeLorenzo. “And all the time, people kept calling me and asking, ‘Where are you, where are you?’ I thought I could get back in six hours, and it took me two more than that.”

DeLorenzo has never won a modified championship at Albany-Saratoga, but now has a 595-566 lead over Peter Britten. He also has the lead, by 34 points, over Ronnie Johnson at Fonda.

The amazing thing about DeLorenzo’s success this season is that he does it with one car, powered by a big block motor. After racing at Albany-Saratoga, the race team, headed by his brother, Mike, spends Saturdays switching the car over to run at Fonda.

“We put on the American Racers, change springs, check the ride heights and then go to Fonda with the same car,” DeLorenzo said. “Hey, this is all we’ve got.”

Mike DeLorenzo was in a good mood Friday when I asked him about the week-after-week changeovers. “I was hoping to get some more rainouts, but that didn’t happen,” he said with a laugh.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Ken Tremont Jr. chalked up the 141st win of his career at Lebanon Valley last Saturday. The win also gave his father, Ken Sr., the distinction of winning at least one race in 50 different years of competition.

Tim Hartman Jr. won the sportsman feature at the Valley. That was his third win of 2022 at the Valley and his fourth overall.

Anthony Perrego, the 2021 modified champion at Albany-Saratoga, swept both the big block and small block features at Orange County last Saturday, marking the third time this season he’s pulled off the sweep.

Jessey Mueller has had two bad weeks in a row at Malta. He pulled into the infield after just one lap last Friday, and two weeks ago, only completed 10 laps before pulling into the pits.

When you read through the Albany-Saratoga modified results each week and see a lot of inconsistency, it’s easy to understand why DeLorenzo says, “you can dial these cars out in a hurry.”

Talk about bad luck. Vinnie Visconti finally turned in a good run last Friday and finished second in the second modified heat at Albany-Saratoga, earning a spot in the Four States Enterprises Dash for Cash. But something broke in Visconti’s car during the dash, which prevented him from running the feature.

The Empire Super Sprints will be making their second appearance of the season at Albany-Saratoga on Friday.

I better say nice things about Buffy Swanson, because she’s going to be at Albany-Saratoga for the John Grady Memorial Nostalgia Night on Aug. 5. Swanson authored a biography about Billy Pauch Sr., who will be signing copies of his book on Nostalgia Night.