~ By Tom Boggie

The Albany-Saratoga Speedway schedule that came out last spring doesn’t officially call Friday night’s card Champions’ Night, but it is the final points night for modifieds, sportsman and pro stocks, so I guess Champions’ Night is appropriate.

Champions’ Night is supposed to be full of drama, but not this season. Tim Hartman Jr. locked up his fourth career sportsman championship two weeks ago, and Matt DeLorenzo opened up an insurmountable lead over Peter Britten last Friday, and although his brother Mike was waiting for an official confirmation, Matt just has to show up this Friday to become the new modified champion at Malta.

More on those two later.

That leaves the pro stock division as the only title that will really be decided Friday, and this one, ladies and gentlemen, is indeed coming down to the wire. Jason Casey, who is making a bid for his first championship at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, has a two-point lead over defending champion Chad Jeseo.

Chucky Dumblewski, who shares the division lead with five wins (along with Jeseo), is still in the hunt, just 20 points behind Casey, but he would need a miracle to overtake both Casey and Jeseo.

Unless you’re a big Chad Jeseo fan, you’ve probably forgotten that he got off to a terrible start in 2022, finishing eighth, 11th, 13th and seventh in his first four races of the season. He’s been playing catch-up ever since, and has only held the pro stock points lead by himself for one week. After finishing second to Casey’s father Jay on July 29, Jeseo had a 746-742 lead.

Jeseo and Jason Casey were tied for the lead following the Aug. 5 card and it looked like Jeseo was done two weeks ago, when engine problems dropped him to a 15th-place finish in the pro stock feature.

But things changed again last Friday. On a restart on lap two, half-a-dozen cars stacked up in an incident between turns three and four, and one of those cars belonged to Casey. He was done for the night, and when Jeseo went on to finish third, he cut Casey’s lead to the present two points.
Jeseo is attempting to win his third title at Malta, as he also won the crown in 2012, the first year that Howard Commander began leasing the track.

Now, back to the two champions.

Hartman could have taken last week off and gone to dinner or a movie, that’s how big his point lead was. Instead, he was back at Malta and when the sportsman feature was over, he was standing in victory lane with his third win of the season. That was also the 75th win of his career.

“My grandfather is here tonight,” said Hartman Jr. “He’s not here often, so that makes this even more special.”

Going into this Friday’s card, Hartman Jr. now has a 131-point lead over Andrew Buff, who is also locked into the No. 2 position. The only suspense Friday will be seeing is Buff’s younger brother, Zach, can hold off Dylan Madsen in the battle for third place.

When I was talking to DeLorenzo after the races last week, trying to explain the points situation and asking why he hadn’t brought champagne, all he kept saying was, “Mike says it’s not official.”

OK, maybe it wasn’t. But DeLorenzo had gone into the night with a 47-point lead over Britten, then finished ninth in the modified feature, extending that lead over Britten, who finished 15th. No, it didn’t have the “official” stamp on it, but it’s only possible to make up 40 points in a feature if both drivers start the race. So I was sticking with DeLorenzo being the new champion.

But then he caught me off-guard with another question?
“Has anyone ever done it before?” he asked.

When I asked him to explain, he added, “Has anyone won the championship here and at Fonda in the same year?”

I told him I was pretty sure Jack Johnson had done it, and when I did some research this week, I found out I was right, sort of.

I discovered just how elite the list is that DeLorenzo joined last Friday. Only four other drivers have won championships in the top division at Albany-Saratoga and Fonda in the same season. That list is made up of Bill Wimble (1967), Jerry Cook (1968), Lou Lazzaro (1969) and Johnson (1981). Welcome to the club, Matt. That’s like being a baseball player and being named with Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.

‘TIS THE SEASON

No, not to be jolly. It’s the season for big-paying races.

Matt Sheppard won last Saturday night’s feature at Orange County Speedway to secure the big block modified championship and the $30,000 bonus that went with it. Sheppard, Anthony Perrego, Max McLaughlin and Billy Van Inwegen all entered the NASCAR-style playoff format with a shot at the big prize, and, no surprise, Sheppard walked off with it.

On Saturday night, Lebanon Valley Speedway will be holding its second Super DIRTcar Series race of the season, and the 100-lap Mr. Dirt Track race will pay $25,500 to win. Andy Bachetti is the defending champion. Since Mr. Dirt Track raised its winner’s payday to $25,500, Ken Tremont Jr. has won it twice, in 2018 and 2019. He’s only got one big block win at the Valley this season, but a victory in Mr. Dirt Track is like winning the Army-Navy football game. It makes your entire season.

Then, on Sunday, it’s up to Devil’s Bowl in Vermont for the Vermont 200 for 602 sportsman, which will pay $10,000 to win. Zach Sobotka got his first career win at the Bowl in last year’s 200 and took home a total of $12,942. Demetrios Drellos won the 200 in 2020 on his way to the track championship.

Racing will also be held on Saturday at the Bowl, for all weekly divisions, and the sportsman will have a non-winners’ race. All qualifying and the 200 will be held Sunday, with the Sprint Cars of New England also on the card. Promoter Mike Bruno is sure to get a huge car count, because he’s paying $100 in tow money to sportsman cars that don’t qualify for the 200.

AROUND THE TRACKS

There is a raffle going on at Albany-Saratoga Speedway Friday for a 75-inch television set. When the truck and tractor pulls benefit for speedway promoter Lyle DeVore was held a couple of weeks ago, Brian Rounds of Rounds Paving, one of the track’s sponsors, won a raffle for the television. But when he got it home, he found it was just too big for his living area, and donated it back to the speedway for a second raffle. Again, all proceeds will be going to help DeVore cover medical expenses for his cancer treatment.

When Albany-Saratoga puts together a highlight film of the 2022 season, it had better include Dan Madigan’s photo finish with Al Relyea in last Friday night’s street stock feature. If it hadn’t been for computer timing and scoring, this one would have been called a dead-heat. Madigan’s margin of victory was four-thousandths (.004) of a second, which is too close for the naked eye to call.

Not only did Hartman Jr. get a win on Friday night at Albany-Saratoga, he followed it up with his third victory of the season on Saturday at Lebanon Valley. The win put Hartman Jr. in the lead in the point standings, two points ahead of Whitey Slavin, with two more point races on the schedule.
Hartman Jr.’s win on Friday night spoiled a great run by Dave Barnowski Jr., who finished second after losing the lead to Hartman Jr. with two laps to go. That was Baranowski’s best finish since chalking up his only win at Albany-Saratoga on May 8, 2015, a span of over seven years.

Rich Crane has had an up-and-down season at Albany-Saratoga, and got a little emotional after recording his first win of the year in last Friday’s pro stock feature. “This is bittersweet,” he said. “My family is always with me, and they couldn’t be here tonight, and I told myself I was going to park it if I got the lead. But I had to get my nephew off my back because he’s been on me about being the only Crane in victory lane.” Rich’s nephew, Chris Crane Jr., picked up his third limited sportsman win of the season last Friday, and he’s also the points leader in that division.

Garrett Poland chalked up his first win of the season in the 40-lap 602 sportsman feature, which went all green, at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park last Sunday, ending the stranglehold the Buff brothers have had on victory lane at the Ridge. Poland became just the fourth driver, other than one of the Buff brothers, to win a 602 sportsman feature this season.

Sheppard picked up his 32nd win of the season Wednesday night in the “Blast at the Beach” race at Georgetown Speedway in Delaware. Former Albany-Saratoga champion Mike Mahaney finished third, and picked up a $500 bonus for making the longest haul. Stewart Friesen started on the front row and was running second when he blew a tire with six laps to go. After getting a new tire and going to the rear, he blasted back to a fifth-place finish.