~ By Tom Boggie

Do you know the thing I hate most about going to a Super DIRTcar Series race?

I end up with so many notes, I don’t know where to start when it comes to a follow-up.

So I’ll just dive right in, and hope I don’t forget anything important.

Let’s start with the winner, Chris Hile. I could be wrong, but I don’t ever remember Hile racing at Albany-Saratoga Speedway before. But he drove a great race to record the first Super DIRTcar Series win of his career.

The race paid $7,500 to win, but Hile picked up a $500 bonus for leading lap 65 of the 71-lap feature. The bonus was put up in memory of Ray Minick, who passed away unexpectedly on June 6. Ray Minick was a long time race fan and had been attending races at Albany-Saratoga since the track opened in 1965. His son, Mike, raced at Albany-Saratoga for 17 years, carrying the No. 65 on his car. Mike began racing in the cruiser division in the early 2000s, and later sat in victory lane on June 15, 2007, while competing in the limited sportsman division.

Let’s move on to Matt DeLorenzo, who finished second. In doing some research, I think that was the 36th time in his career that DeLorenzo has finished second at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. Hile is the 12th different driver that DeLorenzo has followed across the finish line. Of course, anyone who has been around Albany-Saratoga for a lot of years remembers the 2002 season, when Brett Hearn and DeLorenzo finished first and second in four consecutive features during the month of May.

DeLorenzo, who turned 50 in March, has finished second to Hearn a total of 13 times. He’s also finished second behind Ken Tremont Jr. (seven times), Marc Johnson (four), Ronnie Johnson (three), Peter Britten (three), Mike Mahaney, Jack Lehner, Anthony Perrego, Jeremy Pitts and Jack Speshock.

What the fans at Albany-Saratoga couldn’t see Tuesday night was that DeLorenzo had his hands full for the last five laps or so.

“With about five to go, it really started vibrating,” he said after the race. “I checked the gauges to see if the motor was going, because the car was shaking all over the place.”

Turns out the right rear tire had chunked up. “I don’t know how much further it would have gone,” said DeLorenzo.

Although there are nights when finishing second is a disappointment, Tuesday wasn’t one of those nights.

“This is a good second,” said DeLorenzo. “The best of the best were here tonight.”

“The track stayed the same all night. It was hammer down all night,” he added. “I can’t complain. We’re just weekend warriors and I’m not used to long-distances races. This was a long race, and I’m pretty beat. After this, I may have to go to work late tomorrow. I’m just glad my daughters allowed me to come here. Their softball banquet was tonight, but they said, “Go racing, Dad.”

Then, there was Adam Pierson. Last fall, it looked like Pierson was headed to his first SDS victory, leading 83 laps of the 100-lapper during Malta Massive Weekend before retiring with motor problems. But on Tuesday, he was on top of his game again, and finished third.

“I’ll take this,” said Pierson with a big smile. “It’s a lot better than we’ve been doing. To be honest, I really thought we had a shot at winning. Once we got by (Anthony) Perrego, I started to catch Hile, but then it was caution after caution and it took too long for the tires to heat.

“We just have to get some good luck,” he added. “A lot of the problems we’ve had here so far haven’t been us. We’ve been caught in the middle of a lot of things that weren’t our fault. We’ve had a good car all year. Now, we just need some luck.”

It was a rough night for a lot of drivers. Thirteen-time track champion Ken Tremont Jr. didn’t qualify for the feature, nor did Stewart Friesen, who was making his first appearance of the season at Albany-Saratoga. Both veteran drivers struggled in their qualifying races, and had to run one of the two Last Chance Qualifiers. On the first lap of the LSQ, Freisen got into the slippery stuff between the third and fourth turns and slid into the wall, putting him at the rear of the field. Four laps later, Tremont went off the second turn and brought out another caution. Friesen pulled in with one lap to go, while Tremont finished ninth.

Also among the non-qualifiers was Ryan McCartney, a Friday night regular at Malta. He broke the driveshaft in his car during hot laps.

Mike Mahaney made the best of a bad night. During the timed hot laps, he quickly fell off the pace, and went back to the pits with motor issues. The Adirondack Auto crew quickly pulled out Mahaney’s backup car and prepared it for the heat races.

Mahaney then grabbed the fifth and final qualifying spot in his heat race, which put him 18th on the starting grid for the 71-lapper. He finished 17th, on the lead lap.

During hot laps, Canadian driver Mathieu Desjardins turned a lap of 15.379 seconds, setting a new track record for Super DIRTcar Series qualifying. He broke the record of 15.397 that Matt Sheppard set last year.

On yeah, almost forgot about Sheppard, the nine-time Super DIRTcar Series champion. He drew the seventh starting spot, but fell off the pace following a restart on lap 21. He ducked into the hot pit, where his crew scrambled around the right rear before sending Sheppard back out, now at the rear of the field.

He rebounded to finish sixth.

I’m sure no one is happy with a 16th-place finish, but at least Don Ronca ran the entire 71-lap feature. He passed Neil Stratton on the final lap of the second LCQ to get the last qualifying spot.

One of the other highlights Tuesday night was watching 64-year-old Michael Ballestero pick up another win in one of the 20-lap sportsman features. The victory was the 34th of his career at Malta, which moves him back to within one of Tim Hartman Jr., who is on top of the all-time sportsman win list with 35. Hartman Jr. finished second in the other sportsman feature on Tuesday and is still looking for his first win of the season at Albany-Saratoga.

AROUND THE TRACKS

The Super DIRTcar Series was scheduled to compete at Airborne Park in Plattsburgh on Wednesday, but that event was rained out.

In two dirt starts last week, Friesen finished seventh in the big block feature at Orange County on Saturday, and was a DNQ Tuesday at Malta. Sheppard picked up the win at Orange County, coming from his 14th starting position to win the 44-lap feature, which was honoring Al Tasnady. Sheppard picked up $7,500 for that win.

Jordan McCreadie recorded the first win of his career in the 358 modified feature Sunday at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park. Two-time winner Lance Willix finished second, but was later disqualified for being light. Also at the Ridge, Justin House’s team protested AJ Albreda after the All-Star slingshots feature. Albreda’s motor was torn down during the week and found to be 100% legal, giving Albreada his sixth straight win.

Matt Pupello drove to his first win since July 2019 in the big block feature at the Valley last Saturday. Hartman Jr. finished second in the sportsman feature, and now has three wins and three seconds in six starts.