~ By Tom Boggie

If you’re a sports fan of a certain age, you certainly remember the lead-in phrase from the popular “Wide World of Sports” program, when they touted, “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”

Both were on display last Friday night at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.

Do want the good news or the bad news first?

Let’s get to the bad.

Things have gone so bad for veteran Don Ronca lately that I don’t even bother to check in with him after a rough night. The last time I did that, he looked at me and asked, “What do I have to do to win a race?”

He was in line for at least a good finish, if not a win, in last Friday’s modified feature, which paid $4,000 to win, which would have been a big shot in the arm for his racing program.

Ronca started on the outside of the front row, only needed three laps to get the lead, lost the lead to Justin Stone on lap 13, then regained the lead five laps later when Stone started to lose ground.

But Ronca’s night came to a sudden end on lap 20. Jeremy Pitts, who was running the bottom, went into the fourth turn too hot, drifted up and smacked into Ronca, knocking Ronca up against the wall. If Ronca hadn’t been in the way, Pitts would have probably been the one up in the wall.

Ronca rejoined the field, but later pulled off, finishing 32nd.

And then there was Pitts. After taking the lead, Pitts was getting huge runs off the second turn, enabling him to hold off Demetrios Drellos. But just when it looked like he was going to get a big win, a shower of sparks came out from under his car going into the first turn, and Drellos charged by to get the lead.

I did catch up with Pitts later, and to say he was dejected would be an understatement.

“I blew the motor,” he said. “Put a hole through the oil pan. We made a lot of changes this week. The guys from JAM Shocks did the shocks for us, and Tom Conroy helped me with the setup. We basically went back to square one, and the car felt better than it had all year.”

Drellos, who became the seventh different modified winner in as many race nights this year, admitted that Pitts probably had the better car.

“I didn’t have the maneuverability to get by Pitts,” he said. “He was getting away from us in traffic. We’ve been searching all year and I think we had a little better balance tonight. We got stronger tire grip, and that makes me happy.”

If you didn’t see the “Holy s..t” move that Peter Britten tried to pull on Drellos and Marc Johnson on the white-flag lap, do yourself a favor and buy the replay on Dirt Track Digest TV. It’s only $14.99, but to just watch those couple of seconds is worth it. Nothing I can write does it justice.

Although the Drellos-Britten-Johnson jaw-dropper fits into the category a definite thrill of racing, the thrill of victory came from Brandon Emigh in the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series race.

After taking the white flag, Emigh was fourth. But as the top three of Caden Dumblewski, Shane Henderson and Jason Casey went into the first turn, Dumblewski and Henderson made contact and began to spin. Casey had nowhere to go, and wound up in the middle of the mishap. Emigh took a hard right, skirted around the outside and went from fourth to first.

“I was content to finish fourth,” said Emigh in victory lane. “Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good. The car wasn’t perfect tonight, but it was good enough.”

MORE FROM MALTA

It’s good to see Todd Ryan back at Albany-Saratoga. Ryan was a mainstay in the modified division for years before unofficially retiring.

“This is my one-and-done year,” said Ryan, who had raced a handful of times in the last 14 or 15 years. “I never said I was retiring, but this is going to be it. One-and-done.”

Ryan has three modified wins to his credit at Albany-Saratoga, the last one coming on Aug, 18, 1995.

I also ran into Ron Proctor last Friday. Proctor, who will celebrate his 71^st birthday on Sunday, has been a regular in the sportsman division at Albany-Saratoga for several years, but it looks like his racing career is just about over.

“My crew is worn out. They don’t want to do it every week anymore,” he said. “I’ll probably race eight times or so this year.”

Anthony Perrego made a surprise visit to Albany-Saratoga last Friday. He was in the neighborhood, anyway, after winning Thursday night’s DIRTcar 358 Modified Series race at Airborne Park in Plattsburgh.

After drawing the outside pole for his heat race (hmmm, a draw for heats on a Friday night?) Perrego and David Schilling made contact going into the third turn on the first lap of the third heat, with Perrego spinning and then absorbing a hard hit from Jessey Mueller, who had nowhere to go. Perrego stayed out and finished sixth to get the final qualifying spot. He was scheduled to start 19^th in the feature, but never came out to join the field.

Derek Bornt and Sloan Cherko deserve some kudos for their performances last weekend. Bornt finished fourth in the modified feature, his best finish ever since moving up to modifieds, while Cherko, who raced slingshots last year, recorded her first career heat race win in the limited sportsman division.

The Xtreme DIRTcar DMA midgets will be on Friday night’s card at Albany-Saratoga. The sportsman will be chasing a top prize of $1,500 through sponsorship from Greenacres Landscaping.

CAMBER RIDGE

Remember that name.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Five Corners Development, based in Saratoga Springs, and its national partner, NPR Group, had submitted plans to the Malta Town Board to turn the 50-acre parcel that contains Albany-Saratoga Speedway into mixed-income housing and retail space, which will be called Camber Ridge.

The presentation that Five Corners Development gave included detailed plans of the future use of the property. I’ve got news for you. This didn’t happen overnight. Click on the Camber Ridge website to see what the plans look like.

According to published reports, Howie Commander, who bought the 50-acre parcel from the Richards family in 2015, listed it with a local brokerage company, and contracts for the sale were signed in March. Five Corners Development is also proposing that the track stay open for two years, so it can celebrate its 60^th year of operation in 2025.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Stewart Friesen won Tuesday night’s Super DIRTcar Series race at Big Diamond in Minersville, Pa., getting the top prize of $10,000, as well as a guaranteed starting spot in October’s Billy Whittaker 200 at Oswego. Perrego finished second, with Matt Sheppard third. The best Albany-Saratoga finisher was Britten, who was eighth.

If you’re keeping score, Friesen has competed in his dirt modified 18 times this year, with seven wins and 12 top-five finishes.

Last Saturday, Friesen finished eighth in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in St. Louis. He nearly missed his connecting flight on Saturday morning, and when he got to the track, his truck twice failed inspection, forcing him to lose some practice time as a penalty.

The Super DIRTcar Series race scheduled for Wednesday at Selinsgrove was rained out.

How about 67-year-old Hall of Famer Pat Ward winning the modified feature at Land of Legends last Saturday?

A freak power outage wiped out most of the features at Lebanon Valley Speedway last week. That’s one way to keep Tim Hartman Jr, out of victory lane.

Lance Willix won Sunday’s Mohawk Valley Showdown DIRTcar 358 Modified Series race at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park. Willix had wrecked his car on Saturday night at Fulton and was up until 4 in the morning making repairs. Friesen finished second in that race, with Jordan McCreadie third. Glen Ridge will be hosting the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series this Sunday.