~ By Tom Boggie

Last Friday night, Matt DeLorenzo chalked up his third straight big block modified victory at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

He pulled into victory lane, climbed up on the roof of the car, as he always does, did his little checkered flag wave, which he always does, and then posed for some pictures. When that was all over, I walked up him and asked, “How the hell did you start seventh?”

He looked at me, and gave me a one-word answer.

“Handicapping,” he said.

Now, anyone who knows DeLorenzo knows that he can be a little bit of a wise ass, so I asked, “Handicapping?”

“Don’t forget the show-up points,” he said.

Ah, yes, the infamous show-up points, the grown-up version of a certificate of participation. On certain nights during the season, tracks will offer show-up points, giving all the participants the same number of points. It’s usually done for two reasons; first, if some of the track’s top drivers want to participate in a series race at another track and don’t want to give up a points race, or, second, if a track expects a lot of outsiders to attend a high-paying race and doesn’t want the invaders to steal track points from the regulars.

DeLorenzo started his winning streak on July 4 in the “60s Night” special, which paid $6,060 to win. Because no one knew how many outsiders the increased purse would attract, show-up points were handed out, instead of regular track points.

So, when DeLorenzo showed up at Albany-Saratoga last Friday, his last three finishes, used for handicapping purposes, were 17^th, 26^th and first, which put him seventh in the starting grid for the big block feature.

Jack Lehner, who finished second to DeLorenzo last Friday, had finished 29^th, 10^th and 26^th in his last three races, which put him on the outside pole.

“Any time you can start in the top 10 here, you have a shot,” said DeLorenzo after the win. “Everyone is so fast here.”

After suffering through some motor problems early in the year, DeLorenzo seems to have his act together. He has moved up to third in the points race, behind leader Mike Mahaney and Peter Britten, who are still looking for their first modified wins of the season.

“This car is still pretty new,” said DeLorenzo of the Bicknell chassis he debuted at the beginning of the season. “We didn’t even run it for a month. It’s just so, so smooth and really driveable.”

Let’s see how driveable it is this week, when DeLorenzo will probably be starting in Sharon Richards’ backyard off the third turn.

MORE FROM MALTA

The pit board at Malta is getting pretty crowded, as promoter Lyle DeVore continues to hand out violations to rule-breakers. Added to the list last week were Lehner, Brian Calabrese and Taylor Wason. Lehner was put on probation for the rest of the year and fined $400 for his incident the previous week with Kris Vernold in the modified feature, and Calabrese was suspended for a week for an on-track incident, also on July 11. Wason, who competes in the sportsman division, was also suspended for one week, as was his entire race team.

DeLorenzo was wearing a “Brian Gleason 3G” T-shirt when I saw him at the sign-in window last Friday. I wonder if he would have burned the shirt if Gleason had later cost him the win in the modified feature? We’ll never know, because one mistake by Lehner allowed DeLorenzo to extend his winning streak.

Rich Crane drove to his first win of the season in the 25-lap pro stock feature, which went all green. “I didn’t know if I wanted a caution or didn’t want a caution,” he said in victory lane. “We had a long week, getting this thing back together. But we got it together and it stayed together.”

He then added, “This one is for Bobby. We lost a great guy this week. Bobby was there for all the racers. This one’s for you, Bobby.”

Bobby is Bobby Chalmers, the founder of Race Pro Weekly, who passed away from pancreatic cancer last Thursday at the age of 46. In addition to running Race Pro Weekly, Chalmers also operated Bobby Chalmers Public Relations and last winter, was named Partnership and Marketing Manager for RacingJunk.com, an online marketplace for everything automotive.

Chalmers did some small block modified racing at Lebanon Valley during the late 1990s and early 2000s before opting to concentrate on the behind-the-scenes aspects of dirt track racing. He had a passion for racing that few people could match, and his loss will leave a big void in dirt track racing.

Mike Benson picked up his first career sportsman win at Albany-Saratoga last Friday night. “I’ve had a lot of success without getting a win,” Benson told Mia Meehan in victory lane. “I’ve had seconds, thirds, top fives, but I never stood in victory lane before. I’m finally here.”

Benson has been around for a long time, following in the footsteps of his father Len. Mike started racing small blocks at Albany-Saratoga in 1995, and added Devil’s Bowl to his weekly schedule in 1996. That year, he won his only 358 modified feature at Bear Ridge Speedway on Sept. 19. The next season, he began racing on Saturday nights at Lebanon Valley and was a regular there for a number of seasons, before leaving the sport in the early 2000s.

He returned to racing a couple years later, after helping a friend shake down his car, as the story goes, and finished sixth in sportsman points at Malta last season.

“My son owns this car and works on the car, and Jack Lehner works with us a lot,” Benson said. “This is a real family affair for us and I’m happy to finally get it here (in victory lane).”

On Friday, Albany-Saratoga will hold the fifth annual Stan Da Man Night, a tribute to the late father of Lyle DeVore. Previous winners of the Stan Da Man Night modified features were DeLorenzo, Demetrios Drellos in 2022 and 2023 and Mahaney last year. Stan DeVore was a master mason and a custom car enthusiast and his favorite car was a ’32 Ford, so the number 32 will be prominent throughout the night Friday.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Congratulations to Bobbi Hults for winning the limited sportsman feature at Devil’s Bowl Speedway last Saturday night. Talk about family affairs. Hults’ daughter, Katrina Leclaire, finished second.

When I saw the name Katrina, a lightbulb went off. Is that the former Katrina Bean, who won her first limited sportsman race at the Bowl in 2021? I found out it was. Katrina married Josh Leclaire, who also races at the Bowl, in 2023.

If I’m not mistaken, Hults’ win last weekend was her fourth at the Bowl. From what I could find, she won her first novice sportsman race in 2023 and had two more novice sportsman wins last year before moving up to limited sportsman this season.

Katrina Leclaire has two limited sportsman wins, one in 2021 and one in 2022.

That information sent me on a deep dive to find out how many other women have won at the Bowl. Lori Cary got the whole thing started, winning 11 pro stock features from 2001 to 2007. Lacey Hanson put her name in the record books by winning a mini-stock feature in 2013, two Sprint Cars of New England (SCoNE) features (2017 and 2019), and a limited sportsman feature in 2020. Emily Packard, then 17 years old, won three NASCAR Whelan Series late model races during 2014, and Raelin Dunham has won two novice sportsman features this season. Did I miss anyone?

Stewart Friesen recorded his 16^th dirt track win of the season Wednesday night at the second leg of the Lumberjack Swing at Le RPM in Quebec. So far this season, he’s 16-for-29 on dirt. He finished second to Matt Sheppard on Tuesday night at Granby. Friesen will be back behind the wheel of the Halmar/Friesen Toyota Friday night in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Last Saturday, Albany-Saratoga regular Pete Stefanski won the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series race at Drummondville, his first series win at Drummondville in 16 years.

Drellos hit the road Tuesday, competing in the RUSH late model race at Genesee Speedway in Batavia. He finished ninth, after starting 18^th, which put him back on top of the Rookie of the Year point standings.