~ By Tom Boggie

For over 30 years, Yolanda Vega was the voice and face of the New York Lottery. Known for her trademark introduction of “I’m Yoolaaaaaanda Vega,” she came into millions of living rooms every week as ticket buyers waited to see if their dollar was going to turn into a dream.

Where am I going with this? Glad you asked. Like Yolanda Vega, I’m going to read off some numbers today.

THE FIRST NUMBER is 33. That’s the number of career sportsman wins Tim Hartman Jr. now has at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, which puts him at the top of the all-time win list. The previous leader was Mike Ballestero, who has been sitting on 32 wins since 2008.

After his win last Friday, when asked who he wanted to thank, Hartman Jr. quickly said, “Mike Parillo (his car owner). He’s given me an unbelievable opportunity to do what I like to do at the highest level.”

Parillo put Hartman in his cars prior to the 2016 season, and the two have racked up 54 wins since then, bringing Hartman’s overall total to 72.

The next number that Hartman Jr. will be trying to reach is four, as he’s chasing his fourth track championship at Malta. No one has ever won four sportsman titles, including his father, Tim Sr., who is a three-time champion (2003, 2005 and 2006). The other three-time champions are Don Ackner (1977, 1978 and 1979), Ballestero (1998, 2001 and 2002) and Jeremy Pitts (2013, 2014 and 2016).

THE NEXT NUMBER is 71. That’s the number of laps in Friday night’s Super DIRTcar Series race at Albany-Saratoga. So I asked myself, why 71? I thought maybe promoter Lyle DeVore, who is a diehard Washington Capitals fan, had picked the number of one of his favorite players. But no one on the Caps wore number 71 this year. The last number 71 was defenseman Jonas Sigenthaler in 2020, and the Capitals traded him to the New Jersey Devils before the 2021 season. So I decided to just ask Devore.

“I hate 100 lappers, and everyone is running 75 laps, so I wanted to do something different,” he said. “I was born in ’71, so I thought, I’ll use that.”

THE NEXT NUMBER is 10: That’s the number of extra-distance races that 13-time champion Ken Tremont Jr. has won at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. He won his first extra-distance race on Aug. 8, 1984, taking the checkered flag in one of the Triple 50s that were part of Super Shootout ’84, and won his first 100-lapper on Aug. 29, 1997, in a Victoria 100 qualifier.

In the first half of the 2000s, he was the king of the 100-lappers, especially the cvra.com 100. He won that race in 2005 (when leader Brett Hearn blew his motor on lap 89), finished second in 2006 when Hearn passed him on the last lap and then was back in victory lane after the 2007 edition on Aug. 3. He also won the 100-lap “The Big One” in May of 2007.
But if my records are accurate, that 2007 cvra.com win was the last time Tremont has won an extra distance race at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

THE NEXT NUMBER is 16. That’s the number of wins that Matt Sheppard has so far this season. He’s won 16 of the 42 races he’s competed in, giving him a .380 winning percentage. Sheppard will be looking for number 17 Friday at Albany-Saratoga, according to his Facebook page.

THE FINAL NUMBER is 50. That’s the number of laps Sheppard led last Sunday in the Slate Valley 50 at Devil’s Bowl. Sheppard drew the pole and cruised to the win, picking up a total of $10,350. Mat Williamson was second, and former track champion Demetrios Drellos finished third.

MALTA NOTES

After bringing out a new Bicknell chassis two weeks ago, Marc Johnson is again showing the form that made him a two-time modified champion. He finished third in his first win with the new chassis on June 10, then outran Matt DeLorenzo to chalk up his first win last Friday.

“This is the first year we didn’t start out with a new car,” said Johnson after his win. “We took the old car to Florida and we were happy with the way it ran, so we stayed with it. I think we’ve been pretty consistent since then, but we kept breaking oddball stuff. It got a little frustrating, but I’ve got a great bunch of guys who have stuck with me, and that’s all that matters.”

By finishing second, just half-a-second behind Johnson, last Friday, DeLorenzo has opened up a 45-point lead (445-400) over Peter Britten in the modified point chase. Mike Mahaney (399) is right on Britten’s heels, while Drellos is fourth overall with 395 and just four behind Mahaney.

One of the things I like about DeLorenzo is his quick wit and self-deprecating sense of humor. When I jokingly pointed out to him that the top prize of $3,000 in last week’s modified feature went to the winner, not the second-place finisher, he smiled and said, “Marc should beat me. He’s got a new car and a new motor.”

Speaking of new cars, Jack Lehner made his debut in a new DKM chassis last Friday and finished fourth. After the race, he made it clear that he’s not abandoning his Bicknell chassis.
“I still have the Bicknell,” he said. “I do a lot of business with Dave (Constantino) and Eric (Mack), and we’ve become good friends. I’ve been struggling the last few weeks, so I thought I’d try something different.”

Lehner hopes he learned enough last Friday to be a contender in Friday’s Super DIRTcar Series race. “I just put a baseline set-up in it for tonight, so now we’ve got some notes to work with.”

If there was any consolation to Derrick McGrew Jr.’s 15th-place finish in last week’s modified feature, it was the fact that McGrew completed an entire feature for just the fourth time this season, as the team has been plagued by motor problems all year. “The motors run OK in the shop, but then we get here and something happens,” said Randy Hotaling, a former Albany-Saratoga sportsman champion who is McGrew Jr.’s uncle, prior to racing last Friday. “It’s been like that all year.”

Mark “Rowdy” Burch finally made it back to victory lane last Friday, winning the 15-lap street stock feature. Burch recorded his first win at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in 2005 in the limited class and if my records are accurate (I’ll admit, they might not be because there were some years where the limited/street stock results are a little sketchy) last Friday’s win was the 13th of his career, which also lncludes two Renegade wins when the track had an asphalt surface in 2010 and 2011. He moved up to pro stocks for the 2014 and 2015 season, but then went back to street stocks and had his best season in 2019, when he recorded three wins and finished third in points. He began this season in a limited sportsman, but is now back at the level he knows best.

Sometimes, great runs go unnoticed, but Rich Ronca and Brian Calabrese both worked their tails off last Friday. Ronca started 18th, but worked his way up to seventh at the finish of the modified feature, while Calabrese started 23rd in the 25-lap sportsman feature, and came home fifth.

Dylan Madsen, who lost the limited sportsman championship in the last race of the season in 2021, took a big blow last week in his quest for a good finish in the sportsman division point standings. He broke a rocker arm during warmups and was done for the rest of the night. His “Did Not Start” status dropped him to seventh in points. Madsen started the season with a DNQ in the first race of the season, putting him behind the 8-ball from the start, but had worked his way up to third in the point standings before Friday night’s setback.

You had better enjoy success when you have the chance. Two weeks ago, 69-year-old Ron Proctor won the sportsman feature, his first win at Albany-Saratoga since 2011. Last week, he got into the side of Brock Pinkerous during the fourth sportsman heat race and tore the right front shock off the car. He had to run the consy, but smacked the wall on lap three and was done for the night.

As good as the modified feature was last week, the sportsman feature was better, with Hartman Jr. beating Tyler Rapp to the finish line by 0.114 seconds, after the two cars banged together coming out of the fourth turn on the final lap.

Although Friday will mark the first time that a Super DIRTcar Series race will be held on a regular race night at Albany-Saratoga, it’s not the first BIG race to be held on a Friday. The Empire State Nationals were run on Friday. Sept. 17, in 1999.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Danny Varin had another good weekend, winning the Patriots sprint car feature at Utica-Rome on Friday and then taking the checkered flag on Saturday in the Empire Super Sprints stop at Evans Mills, which is asphalt.

Troy Audet won his first sportsman/modified feature of the season at Devil’s Bowl as part of the undercard for the Slate Valley 50. Jimmy Davis finished third, and Elmo Reckner was fourth in the Larry Gallipo team cars.

Zach Buff held off older brother Andrew in the Crate modified feature at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park Sunday. If you had been playing “Let It Ride,” you could have made some serious money. Of the seven divisions run, six of the winners recorded their second straight wins. The only exception was the Slingshot division, where Adam Fusco notched the victory.

Lebanon Valley will be holding its 70th anniversary bash on Saturday. Vintage modifieds will be on display beginning at 3 p.m. and an autograph session with the top 25 winningest modified drivers in track history will take place on the midway, beginning at 4 p.m. The modifieds will be running for $3,000 to win.