~ By Tom Boggie

Some random thoughts on a rainy Thursday.

I WONDER what Matt DeLorenzo is thinking now? (Yeah, I know, I could call him or text him and get some facts, but where’s the fun in that? It’s more fun to speculate.)

All season long, DeLorenzo has been calling himself a weekly racer, which, in fact, he is. He stayed in the cold, wintry North in February to ride snowmobiles, which he loves to do, while many other dirt track competitors headed South to begin their 2022 seasons. He doesn’t compete in mid-week shows in the spring, opting instead to watch his two daughters play softball (which they are very good at, by the way) and help prepare his race cars. His racing is confined to Friday nights at Albany-Saratoga and Saturday nights at Fonda.

And since opening day, he said he wasn’t going to commit to a weekly schedule at either track because his daughters also play a busy schedule for the Electric City Bombers traveling age-group softball teams in the summer.

But is he now having second thoughts?

As of Thursday, DeLorenzo is leading the modified point races at both Albany-Saratoga and Fonda. After picking up his second win at Malta last Friday, DeLorenzo has a 333-324 point lead over Peter Britten, with Demetrios Drellos third with 320.

At Fonda, where he recorded his third win of the season last Saturday, he has a 40-point lead over Ronnie Johnson.

He’s won five modified races in 14 starts in 2022. That’s a 357 winning percentage. Not bad for a self-proclaimed, low-budget racer.

Compare that winning percentage to Matt Sheppard and Stewart Friesen, the Northeast’s two best-known professional racers. Sheppard is 13-for-37 (.351) and Friesen is 5-for-25 (.200). Like I said, not bad for a low-budget weekend warrior.

IT SEEMED strange to walk through the pits at Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Friday and not see a Johnson car parked in the first stall behind the pit bleachers. For as long as I can remember, either Jumpin’ Jack or his son Ronnie occupied that spot. But last Friday, Jim Nagle was parked there.

Ronnie skipped Albany-Saratoga to compete at Utica-Rome. He’s been battling handling problems all year, running different tire, motor and shock combinations on Friday and Saturday nights, and in six starts at Malta in 2022, had just one top-10 finish, a 10th on the second night of the season.

Is RJ’s Friday night move permanent? Who knows? But making a major change has worked for him in the past. Late in the 2017 season, when he was driving for Jake Spraker, he decided to go out on his own, returned all of Spraker’s equipment and won in his own car at Albany-Saratoga on Sept. 8.

ONE OF THE REASONS I keep so many notes and race results from years gone by is because, sometimes, hearing or reading a name will trigger something in one of the few brain cells I have left.

That’s what happened this week when I read that Billy Lussier had won his first sportsman/modified feature at Devil’s Bowl last Saturday.

Wait. Haven’t I heard that name before? Sure enough, I had. That may have been Lussier’s first modified victory ON DIRT at Devil’s Bowl, but it certainly wasn’t his first win. Lussier began running a modified on the asphalt at the Bowl in 2014, and was named the Rookie of the Year that season. He won his first modified feature on asphalt on June 26, 2016, and in 2017, won three more features, including the season-ending Leon Gonyo Memorial (with an 8-year-old motor under the hood, no less) and was named the Most Improved Driver in the modified division.

And if you want to dig back a little farther, he also won a couple of hobby stock features during the 2003 and 2004 seasons.

WATCH OUT for the Old Professor. In his last four starts at Albany-Saratoga, Ken Tremont Jr. has finished first, second, fourth and fourth. It looks like he may have finally hit on the perfect Friday night set-up.

MORE FROM MALTA

A lot of strange things occurred last Friday night.

Matt Depew came to a stop during modified hot laps when he completely lost the steering in his car. The crew had to physically wrestle the front wheels to the right so Depew’s car could be pushed back into his pit area.

Derrick McGrew had motor problems during warmups and was done for the night.

During the first pro stock heat, Rich Crane smacked the fourth turn wall, and then flipped the car when he tried to get through the second turn. The car ended up on its wheels, and Crane drove back to the pits. But he was done for the night.

Nagle suffered a mechanical failure on the last lap of his sportsman heat, after getting a qualified position, and also had to retire for the rest of the night.

Joey Scarborough recorded his first win of the year in the sportsman feature, but later was disqualified for having illegal fuel. That gave the win to Pat Jones, making him the first two-time winner in that division.

Taylor Wason’s fortunes changed in a heartbeat in the limited sportsman feature. At one point, it looked like he had taken the lead away from Chris Bisson, only to have a caution flag put Bisson back in front for a single-file restart. After the restart, Wason first hit the inside barrier in the first turn, then hit the inside barrier in the third turn, which forced him to take a hard left into the infield coming out of the fourth turn on lap 11, dropping him to a 21st place finish.

THEY SAID IT

Chad Jeseo, after coming away with his third pro stock victory of the season. “From the start of the season, it’s been tough going. Last year, I wrote the book on a Cinderella season. This year, it looks like we forgot how to read.”

DeLorenzo on searching for the right setup. “We’ve changed a lot from two weeks ago because I knew, with the sprint cars here, it was going to be slippery. What we put in a couple of weeks ago was good for a rough track, but the next week, the track was slick and we were horrible. Now, I think we’ve found what to do for both a rough track and a slippery track.”

Jason Barney, after recording his first career Empire Super Sprints victory at Malta. “We’ve been in the top five every night, but we’ve been just a touch off. Last year, we hit on something here and I finished fifth. I felt this place owed us something.”

Jack Speshock, who finished second in the modified feature for the second straight week, after losing a big lead because of a late-race caution. “Now, I hate finishing second, and I don’t like cautions.”

AROUND THE TRACKS

After getting off to a slow start this year, Anthony Perrego, the 2021 modified champion at Albany-Saratoga, has found his stride again. He finished first and second in the twin modified features last Saturday at Orange County Speedway, and then picked up $7,000 for his win in Wednesday night’s 50-lap race in Bloomsburg, Pa.

Brian Berger picked a perfect time to end his long winless streak at Lebanon Valley Speedway. He walked off with the top prize of $5,000 in last Saturday’s caution-free 10th annual JC Flach Memorial. That was Berger’s first win at the Valley since 2016. Keith Flach finished second, with Andy Bachetti third.

Friday night’s card at Albany-Saratoga will include the DMA USAC Bear Ridge Midgets.

The DIRTcar 358 Series will be running at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park on Sunday. Among the drivers who have made early commitments are 2020 Albany-Saratoga champion Mike Mahaney.

Lebanon Valley Speedway will be holding its 70th anniversary celebration on Saturday, June 25. One of the highlights of the festivities will be an autograph session with the top 25 all-time winningest modified drivers at the speedway. That will take place at 4 p.m.