~ By Tom Boggie

As I walked up to Ken Tremont Jr. in victory lane at Albany-Saratoga Speedway last Friday night, he began to laugh, and for good reason. Earlier in the night, we had had a discussion about how miserable his first three weeks had been, and how, after turning 60, maybe he was losing his touch a little bit.

So he had a good laugh. Winning will do that to you.

If you weren’t there last Friday, Tremont had a good battle with Jack Speshock and Adam Pierson before taking control of the race and coming away with his 81st career win at Malta. The previous week, he lost a wheel on the third lap of the feature, and in the first three weeks, hadn’t recorded a top-10 finish. So he was starting to get a little frustrated.

“There was a reason for all the trouble we had,” said Tremont after his win. “I knew when I was riding home each night what had been wrong, and that we could fix the problems. Honestly, it’s all about the car. These things are so temperamental. Some days you hit it great. Other days, you just don’t know what to do.”

Tremont also pointed out the importance of getting into a handicapping position during a heat race.

“What made our night was finishing fifth in the heat and getting handicapped,” he said. “It’s that critical in qualifying. If I had started farther back, I don’t know if I could have won.”

He almost started a lot farther back. He started fourth in his heat race, but was shuffled back early and for a while, was running seventh. But he passed a couple of cars late and got the final handicapping position.

That put him seventh in the starting grid for the feature. Had he finished sixth in his heat, he would have started 16th.

That’s where Demetrios Drellos started, and even though he ran a great race and got up for third, behind Tremont and Pierson, he was almost two seconds behind when Tremont took the checkered flag.

Tremont was working well on the bottom, but lost his advantage on a restart on lap 18, after Mike Mahaney and Jessey Mueller made hard contact in the fourth turn to bring out the yellow flag.

“On that restart, I was second, on the outside, and Adam got under me,” said Tremont. “But I knew, on the next one, when I was third, it would be good for me because I would be on the inside again. I was a little loose on top, and I knew I wasn’t going to get it done up there. It was just a matter of who got to the bottom first on that last restart.

“Adam is tough. I raced against him a lot in Vermont, and he was always tough. He’s going to get some wins here.”

But last Friday, it was Tremont who got the win, and finally had the opportunity to laugh.

For the record, Tremont’s win last Friday was his 390th career victory.

MORE FROM MALTA

Speshock wasn’t laughing, however. What does that guy have to do to change his luck? He’s had one of the fastest cars at the track for the first four weeks, but he hasn’t finished a feature yet. He was running second to Tremont with five laps left last Friday when something broke in the suspension on his car, sending him to the pits again.

Derek Bornt is also having a run of bad luck. Bornt jumped the cushion in the third turn during his modified heat race, and when the front end dug in, he did a flip in the air, coming to rest on his roof. Bornt tagged onto the end of the modified feature in Jim Osgood’s sportsman car, and pulled in after one lap.

There were a number of no-shows in the modified division last Friday, including Ronnie Johnson, who was spending the night in Darlington, S.C. as a guest of Stewart Friesen at the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Also missing were Brian Gleason, who was at a graduation; Neil Stratton, who is still waiting to get his big block motor back; and defending modified champion Anthony Perrego.

Friday was a big night for Brock “Bam Bam” Pinkerous, who recorded the first sportsman victory of his career. The 12-year-old also won his heat race. Pinkerous was a bundle of energy during his victory lane interview with Mia Mangino, but was composed enough to dedicate the win to track promoter Lyle DeVore. “This is for Lyle,” said Bam Bam. “He’s been going through some tough times.”

How’s this for an age difference? The sportsman heat winners were Pinkerous and Ron Proctor, who will turn 69 years old next month. Pinkerous isn’t the youngest open-wheel feature winner at Albany-Saratoga. Derrick McGrew Jr. still holds that distinction. He won his first limited sportsman feature on July 27, 2018, at the age of 11.

Elmo Reckner was in the pits last Friday with his Devil’s Bowl car, but he was just a spectator. Robert Bublak took the car out to shake it down for Devil’s Bowl’s opener on Saturday.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Someone posted a YouTube video of the 2000 USNA Labor Day race on Dirt Track Digest this week, and because I have a lot of time on my hands, I watched the whole thing. I was at that race, and remember the end vividly, with apparent winner Brett Hearn coming up light on the scales, giving the victory to Jack Johnson, who was driving the Nice N Easy Shoppes-sponsored modified owned by Bryan Goewey.

But I had forgotten about the drama during the race. Hearn had been scheduled to start on the outside pole, but the car didn’t fire, and he had to be pushed out onto the track, which put him last. He then ran the entire race without making a pit stop, which explains why he was light, having consumed almost all of his fuel.

Seeing Jumpin’ Jack and Goewey hugging after the race, and then listening to Jack’s interview brought back a lot of memories. “Bryan was telling me over the radio to save the tires and save gas,” said Jumpin’ Jack. “One time when I was running behind Brett and Dave Blaney, I was running at half-throttle to save gas.”

AROUND THE TRACKS

Marc Johnson started on the pole and led all 30 laps to chalk up his first big block modified win at Lebanon Valley last Saturday. That was also Johnson’s first victory for car owner Kevin Starchak, who put Johnson behind the wheel of his S&S Asphalt Paving-sponsored big block during the offseason.

After finishing 16th at Albany-Saratoga Friday night, Mahaney went to Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh on Saturday and finished second to Chris Raabe in the 358 modified feature.

Defending track champion Tim Laduc won Saturday night’s opener at the Bowl, taking home the top prize of $3,000. David Boisclair, a regular in the Albany-Saratoga sportsman division, finished second.

The modifieds will be running for $3,000 to win Friday night at Albany-Saratoga. The racing card will include the second leg of the John Ray & Sons/Dean’s Electrical Services Sportsman Shootout Series, which will pay $1,500 to win.

Here’s an easy prediction. I’m picking Tim Hartman Jr. to win the sportsman feature at Albany-Saratoga. Why? Because he got his first win last season on May 14, which was also the fifth race of the season. Now, if he doesn’t win, he can say I jinxed him.

Peter Britten is the only driver who’s finished in the top five in the first four modified features at Albany-Saratoga, and has already opened up a 20-point lead (216-186) over Matt DeLorenzo. Drellos is third (180), followed by Marc Johnson (178) and Jack Lehner (175). Britten finished fifth last Friday, even though he started 21st.

Matt Williamson, who won a series race Tuesday night at Accord, and Larry Wight, who won last Saturday’s feature at Land of Legends and has also been in victory lane at Malta this year, are tied at the top of the Northeast modified win list with six victories each.