~ By Tom Boggie

Was there a full moon hanging over Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Friday night? Must have been. How else do you explain all the wild things that happened, like drivers disappearing right before your eyes, 12-year-old winners, 70-year-old winners, Adam Pierson pulling a rabbit out of his hat, Justin Stone snake-bitten not once, but twice; the list goes on and on.

Let’s start with Pierson. Despite starting 13^th, he finally exorcised the demons that have haunted him this season and recorded his first modified win of the year. It had been over 20 months since the last time he sat in victory lane at Malta, on Sept 3, 2021.

“I’ve been racing 23 years, and last year was the first time that I didn’t win a feature anywhere,” said Pierson after the victory. “Last year was tough. It was tough here every week, and also out on the Series (the Super DIRTcar Series, which Pierson began running fulltime last season).

In 23 starts at Albany-Saratoga in 2022, Pierson had just six top-five finishes, with his best run a second to Ken Tremont Jr. on May 6.

Now, look at this year. In just nine starts, he’s already chalked up four top-five finishes and last week’s victory pushed him into sixth place in the point standings.

“Honestly, we’ve been fast all year. We’ve just had some rough breaks, things that weren’t our fault,” he said. “I haven’t changed anything on the car since the second week. We have the same shocks, the same set-up, everything. This was a good night. We finished second in our heat, won that clash thing and came from 13^th to win the feature.”

Ah, yes. That clash thing. More appropriately, the Crazy Horse Clash for modifieds as part of Ron Mensing’s Native Pride program, which paid $500 to win.

The top two finishers from the three heats lined up and went out for the six-lap dash, and as they were circling the track, learned the format from promoter Lyle DeVore. Starter Rich Peterson would not use the green flag to start the race; instead, the drivers had to watch the caution lights, and when they turned green, it was time to hit the gas (sort of like Musical Chairs, but in reverse; wait for something to happen before making your move.)

So the green came out when the cars were coming out of the second turn after a couple of slow laps. The aforementioned Stone, who started on the front row, led the first four laps, but then the mandatory yellow came out, bunching up the field. Pierson got the jump on the restart (obviously, without Peterson’s green flag flying), grabbed the lead and took home the $500.

Stone, the son of former CVRA modified driver Todd Stone, wasn’t done yet. He started on the pole for the 35-lap feature and led the first 12 laps, but on lap 13, he slowed dramatically on the front straightaway and pulled off.

“He broke a brakeline,” said Todd Stone after the race. “He didn’t have any brakes, he tried to stay out there for a couple of laps, but then pulled it in. Hey, he’s here to learn and he’s not in the points race, so there’s no sense in damaging the car. I don’t know if he could have won tonight, but he was probably going to get a good top five. I just told him, it’s not your time yet.”

How about the two drivers disappearing? Neil Stratton came out for the modified hot laps, shut his car down in the fourth turn, was pushed into the pits and wasn’t seen again. He broke an oil pump.

Then there was Demetrios Drellos. Drellos came out for the feature, but stopped on the backstretch. A push truck got behind him and began pushing, but to no avail. Drellos also went back to the pits and headed home early, the victim of a faulty fuel pump diaphragm.

As a result of Drellos’ DNS, Matt DeLorenzo has opened up a 41-point lead over Drellos and Mike Mahaney, who are now tied for second. DeLorenzo finished second to Pierson last week, after starting 15^th in the feature.

Moving on. The 12-year-old winner was Connor Crane, the youngest member of the racing Crane family of Canaan, Ct., which includes Rich, his brother Chris and Chris’ son Chris Jr., and Connor’s older brother who won the limited sportsman championship at Malta last year. The younger Cranes both won titles last year, as Connor was the junior slingshot champion at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park. Keep an eye on the Crane kids. Those guys are going to be the face of dirt track racing for a long time to come.

The 70-year-old winner was Ron Proctor, who won one of the dual sportsman features. Proctor won his first modified feature at Albany-Saratoga Speedway on May 24, 1985, the first year that C.J. Richards instituted the 358 cubic inch engine rule for the CVRA modifieds, and he’s still winning, 38 years later.

“This one means a lot,” said Proctor in victory lane. “There are a lot of good people helping me and they really stepped up their game this year and gave me a car that’s really competitive.”

I had talked to Proctor about his new Bicknell chassis on opening night. “I think the last new car I had was in 2008, a new TEO,” he said. “I was running against Jack (Johnson) and Brett (Hearn) back then.

“In a sportsman, I can still be competitive and have fun,” he added. “I’m not here just to ride around. When I start riding around is when I quit.”

One other sidelight. Last Friday marked the debut of limited sportsman driver EJ Gallup at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. The 41-year-old Gallup is in just his second season behind the wheel of a limited sportsman, and never raced anything else in his life until buying a chassis during the winter of 2022. He made a very good first impression at Malta last Friday, coming from the last row of his heat to finish fifth, and then also finishing fifth in the feature after starting deep in the field and getting in some good, tight-quarters racing with Nick Arnold and Dylan Grogan.

Last year, as a limited sportsman rookie, he had a pair of wins and finished sixth in points at Utica-Rome, and also won the limited sportsman feature run at part of Outlaw 200 Weekend at Fulton.

What you don’t know is that Gallup is probably the best athlete to ever race at Malta. He was one of the best basketball players in the history of Gloversville High School, was a starter in every game of his Division I college career (the first two at UAlbany and then finishing up at Coastal Carolina), played a couple of seasons in the German Bundesliga pro league and is now the head coach of men’s basketball at Fulton-Montgomery Community College in Johnstown. As a shooting guard, he had the distinction of scoring more than 650 points and hitting more than 120 3s for two different Division I programs.

MORE FROM MALTA

Was I the only one who was surprised to see Pete Stefanski pull his pro stock into Albany-Saratoga last Friday? Stefanski is a legend in the Western part of the state and is rarely seen in the East. He’s a four-time Mr. Dirtcar Pro Stock champion and in 2021, was voted one of the greatest 50 drivers in the history of Super DIRT week.

Sportsman rookie Brendon Darrah picked up the first heat win of his young career last Friday at Albany-Saratoga in a race that featured a bad wreck. Tyler Rapp hit the inside concrete barrier in the fourth turn and shot out to the right, where he made contact with Taylor Wason, turning Rapp back to the inside. Cody Ochs slammed into Rapp’s car, catapulted into the air, landed on the front of Rapp’s car and then was hit again by Mike Benson.

Thanks to running dual features every week, there have been 16 different sportsman winners so far this season. The only two-time winners are Daryl Nutting and Michael Ballestero. But the amazing thing about the winners’ list is that Tim Hartman Jr. and Andrew Buff aren’t on it yet!

Albany-Saratoga will be holding its annual 4^th of July weekend fireworks display Friday, with the modifieds running for $2,500 to win through sponsorship from Next Generation Roofing, and the sportsman division will be holding the annual Mark Hughes Memorial.